2015 NFL schedule: CBS praying Thursday nights aren’t truly awful again

Thursday’s such a crazy, lazy day
Thursday has its own peculiar way of saying: ‘Hey’
Sometimes Thursday almost makes you want to run away
Thursday’s such a crazy, lazy day.

— “(Thursday) Here’s Why I Did Not Go To Work Today,” Harry Nilsson

CBS won a bidding war for the highly prized “Thursday Night Football” broadcasting rights a year ago, and in its eight games (all of which were shared on NFL Network simultaneously) the network was rewarded with margins of victory of 20, 42, 31, 32, five, two, 14 and 18 points. All for the pauper’s sum of a reported $275 million to $300 million.

Such a crazy, lazy day indeed. Think the NFL has a marketable product on its hands?

CBS opted to renew its 2015 season Thursday nights, much like — one might argue — the way that a poker player who gets beat on an inside straight on the river opts to double down his bet on the ensuing hand purely out of seething, law-of-averages spite. The price the network paid this year is said to be slightly higher than the 2014 package (inflation, you know), but you have to wonder how excited or nervous CBS really was about how the slate would roll out.

At first blush? It’s not awful. (But then again, neither was last year’s prior to the games being played.)

Not counting the NBC-owned season-opening game, or the Thanksgiving contests on three different networks, the Thursday schedule is as follows:

Sept. 17: Broncos at Chiefs (CBS and NFL Network)
Sept. 24: Redskins at Giants (CBS and NFL Network)
Oct. 1: Ravens at Steelers (CBS and NFL Network)
Oct. 8: Colts at Texans (CBS and NFL Network)
Oct. 15: Falcons at Saints (CBS and NFL Network)
Oct. 22: Seahawks at 49ers (CBS and NFL Network)
Oct. 29: Dolphins at Patriots (CBS and NFL Network)
Nov. 5: Browns at Bengals (NFL Network only)
Nov. 12: Bills at Jets (NFL Network only)
Nov. 19: Titans at Jaguars (NFL Network only)
Dec. 3: Packers at Lions (CBS and NFL Network)
Dec. 10: Vikings at Cardinals (NFL Network only)
Dec. 17: Buccaneers at Rams (NFL Network only)
Dec. 24: Chargers at Raiders (NFL Network only)

As was the case in 2014, the CBS games are all division games. Their portion starts off strong with Peyton Manning facing off against the only team that beat the Super Bowl teams a year ago in rowdy Arrowhead Stadium, followed by Odell Beckham Jr. (who clearly is a commodity now, based on his four Sunday and Monday prime-time appearances) and the Giants hosting the Fighting Daniel Snyders. Follow that with four good rivalries and plenty of star power, and there’s potential.

We’re still leery of the Browns to kick off November, facing a blah Bengals team no less, and yet the Bills and Rex Ryan returning to Gotham to face the Jets should be great off-Broadway entertainment. We’ll swallow hard on Titans-Jags (hey, every team gets at least one night game) and the hit-or-miss December games, although the one that CBS is broadcasting (Packers at Lions) could be respectable.

The hope is that, rejecting Nilsson’s lyrics, Thursday doesn’t make us want to run away. That’s what last season did for most of us, and if it happens again, CBS might chalk it up to bad karma and walk away in 2016.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm