Patriots and Chiefs Will Host NFC Opponents in November of 2023 in Germany

In November, the New England Patriots will play the New Orleans Saints as part of the NFL’s International Series. The Patriots, who were selected alongside the Kansas City Chiefs back in mid-January as the designated teams to play in Frankfurt, found out their opponent would be the Saints from the German news publication Bild.

The news broke late last week in an unofficial report from Max Schrader. The game will either be on November 12th or the 19th, which will fall in line for either week ten or eleven on the NFL’s season calendar. This will be the first time the Patriots have played in an international game since 2012, while the Saints lost 28-25 to the Minnesota Vikings in early October of 2022.

News broke as well that the Chiefs will be hosting the Chicago Bears as their requested opponent, but the report of these opponents is in limbo, according to NBC Sports’ Peter King.

“First: When a team gives up one of its home games to play overseas, it has the option of requesting to the league one home game on its schedule the team does not want to be moved. I’m told Kansas City requested that the Chicago game not be played overseas. As for 2024, it’s hard to imagine Carolina would not try to keep Patrick Mahomes’ only currently scheduled game in Charlotte for the next eight years at Bank of America Stadium.”

The Chiefs also host the Buffalo Bills, who will play in London this year, Cincinnati Bengals, and Philadelphia Eagles this year. If the NFL wants to maximize those games’ ratings, the only other opponent that would make sense would be the Detroit Lions. 

The April report from Bild in April stated that the Chiefs’ opponent would likely be an NFC North team. 

Regardless of who either team’s opponents will be, the games will undoubtedly draw a fan base that was just tapped into last season in Germany when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers faced off against the Seattle Seahawks in Munich last year.

Regardless of the speculation, NFL fans will find out on Thursday who will be playing in Frankfurt as the NFL is set to release their season schedule. 

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