With limits on how much primetime exposure a team can get in the NFL, it isn't easy for the league to put together a schedule that entirely avoids bad games in marquee windows. The NFL did work hard to alleviate on-air complaints about the quality of the Thursday Night Football slate a year ago and the results have paid dividends as Amazon has reported a significant ratings increase.
Thursday night has always been the trickiest package to program due to competitive balance rules limiting how often a team can play on short rest as well as a concerted effort to avoid having teams cross multiple time zones on a short week. The end result of those efforts will lead to the occasional stink bomb surfacing on Thursday, which is unfortunately the case in Week 10.
Who is playing on Thursday Night Football in Week 10?
Week 10 kicks off with a matchup between two of the worst teams in the NFL as the 2-7 Chicago Bears take on the 1-7 Carolina Panthers in Chicago. This will be the second Thursday night appearance of the year for the Bears, who were one of four teams to be scheduled twice on Amazon this year as a result of loosened guidelines permitting teams to play on Thursday more than once as long as they were not the road team in both games.
Chicago is coming off a 24-17 loss in New Orleans that saw rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent commit four turnovers in the game. Bagent has started the last three weeks for the Bears in place of Justin Fields, who has been out with a dislocated thumb, and Chicago is hopeful that Fields will be ready to return to action for this game.
Things have gone quite poorly for Carolina as well, which fell to 1-7 with a 27-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts where Bryce Young threw three more interceptions, including two pick-sixes to Kenny Moore II. Young has struggled mightily as a rookie, throwing just eight touchdowns and seven interceptions in eight games, and his issues have been glaring compared to the success that C.J. Stroud, who Carolina passed on to take Young at No. 1 overall, is having in Houston.
The Panthers also traded their first-round pick to Chicago this season for the right to take Young, so there is no benefit to them losing this season, adding more pain to that trade. Bears' wide receiver D.J. Moore, who was also shipped to Chicago in the trade to get the top pick for Carolina, will also be eager to prove to his former team that they made a mistake shipping him away.