As you know, every January when each NFL team's opponent list becomes known, I try to find an easy way to devise a plausible full schedule (Weeks 1-17) for the next season, where plausibility includes which games are on national TV.
(Among other things this involves avoiding any TV-rule impossibilities or stadium impossibilities with the Giants/Jets or Raiders/49ers. Also, I say no team should play three straight road games or three straight home games, even though the NFL itself has been very lax about that of late.)
The one that I posted just over a week ago assumed that New England would win the Super Bowl. In principle the fix is easy: in Week 1 move PIT@NE from Thursday (season opener) to Sunday night, IND@CLE from Sunday night to Monday night, SEA@NYG from Monday night to Thursday. Then again maybe that creates some cascade effect of things being not quite as good as they could be.
Anyway, I'd assumed all this time that New England would need a Week 1 home game against a TV-worthy opponent. If that's not the case, then the schedule can easily be improved. (And even factor in that we already know that San Diego vs. New Orleans will be in England, whichever week it was announced to be.) New and improved weeks 1 and 2 after the jump, as worked out in my head in the car on the way to work.
(Don't expect anything further. The next steps would be some very easy Sudoku-style work, but then annoying futzing with bye weeks (since I still haven't found an elegant way to work that out), and even more annoying futzing with which of a given week's games belong on national TV.)
(CBS/Fox games in roughly descending order of what % of the U.S. see them)
Week 1 (Fox doubleheader)
NBC Thursday
Dallas at NY Giants
CBS early games
Cleveland at Buffalo
Houston at Pittsburgh
Jacksonville at Cincinnati
Tennessee at Kansas City
Oakland at Baltimore
Miami at St. Louis
Fox early games
Detroit at Green Bay
Arizona at NY Jets
Atlanta at Minnesota
(no CBS late games because of U.S. Open tennis, as every NFL Week 1)
Fox late games
Philadelphia at Washington
Chicago at Carolina
New Orleans at Denver
NBC Sunday
New England at Indianapolis
ESPN Monday
San Diego at Tampa Bay
Seattle at San Francisco
Week 2 (CBS doubleheader)
Fox early games
NY Giants at Philadelphia
Washington at Dallas
Tampa Bay at Detroit
Minnesota at Chicago
San Francisco at Miami
CBS early games
Indianapolis at Tennessee
Baltimore at Cleveland
Denver at Atlanta
Cincinnati at Houston
Fox late games
Carolina at San Diego
St. Louis at Arizona
CBS late games
Buffalo at New England
NY Jets at Seattle
Kansas City at Oakland
NBC Sunday
Pittsburgh at Jacksonville
ESPN Monday
Green Bay at New Orleans