49ers news: San Francisco gets 5 prime-time games in 2020

The San Francisco 49ers are expected to be good and very watchable in 2020, and the NFL rewarded the Niners with five prime-time games in the upcoming season.

Last year, the San Francisco 49ers received six prime-time games during their campaign to Super Bowl LIV, which certainly wasn’t bad for a four-win team the previous season.

Granted, one of those was the regularly scheduled Thursday Night Football game, and the Niners also had a Saturday night game flexed in against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 16. But based solely off the previous year’s win-loss record, the 2019 49ers had it pretty good in terms of playing in front of a national audience.

In 2020, however, fans across the globe are expecting the defending NFC champions to be good, and the NFL rewarded those expectations for San Francisco as such.

The Niners’ upcoming regular-season schedule has been released, and it’ll feature three home games in the first six contests of the year, separated by back-to-back games in Weeks 2 and 3 against the New York Jets and New York Giants, respectively, at MetLife Stadium.

When the 49ers return home from that road trip, however, they’ll face the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 4 on Sunday Night Football.

That marks the first of five prime-time games currently on San Francisco’s 2020 schedule:

• Week 4 vs. Philadelphia Eagles (Sunday Night Football)
• Week 6 vs. Los Angeles Rams (Sunday Night Football)
• Week 9 vs. Green Bay Packers (Thursday Night Football)
• Week 13 vs. Buffalo Bills (Monday Night Football)
• Week 15 @ Dallas Cowboys (Sunday Night Football)

The Niners visit the Seattle Seahawks in Week 8 before their Thursday night bout against the visiting Packers, so that latter game could pose a challenge, particularly if Green Bay is looking to avenge the two ugly losses it had at Levi’s Stadium last season, once in the regular season and another during the NFC Championship game.

And while it’ll be great to see the 49ers and Cowboys battle it out in prime time again, it was somewhat surprising not to see the Niners’ Week 10 road matchup against the New Orleans Saints in front of a national audience. Same with how San Francisco closes out the regular season: a Week 17 matchup against the Seahawks, which again could determine the NFC West.

Both the 49ers’ 2019 contests against the Saints and Seahawks were franchise classics.

There’s also the possibility San Francisco’s Week 17 road game against the Arizona Cardinals gets flexed to Saturday night, too, which would make another six prime-time contests.