Before Thursday night or even Sunday night was saved for NFL football each fall, Monday Night Football was bringing fans primetime football for more than 50 years. With the NFL 2023 season officially underway, we've got everything you need to know about how to watch Monday Night Football each week.
What to Watch has you covered with how to watch all of the primetime NFL offerings, including Thursday Night Football and Sunday Night Football, as well as the Sunday NFL on Fox and NFL on CBS games.
But, this post is for Monday Night Football, so let's get into it.
How to watch Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is going to air on multiple channels throughout the season, including ESPN and ABC. For select weeks it'll also be available to live stream on ESPN Plus. Here's what you need to know about each.
ESPN is a cable channel, requiring viewers to be subscribers to a traditional pay-TV or live TV streaming service (Fubo, Hulu with live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV), though it may not be available on all packages. With a subscription to one of these services, in addition to being able to watch ESPN on your TV or connected device, viewers can watch Monday Night Football through the ESPN app or ESPN.com.
ABC, meanwhile, is also available through pay-TV and live TV streaming services, but as one of the four major networks also has local stations in each US TV market that can be received via a TV antenna.
To stream the Monday Night Football games on ESPN Plus, you must be a subscriber to the sports-centric streaming platform.
NFL Plus is also an option to stream Monday Night Football live. You must be a subscriber and the live stream is only available through a mobile device.
Sky Sports is the home for NFL football in the UK, offering live game broadcasts to Sky TV subscribers. The games also are available free-to-air on My5.
If the standard 1 am UK start time is too late (or early) for you, NFL Game Pass is an option. The international version of this subscription service offers live broadcasts of games as well as the opportunity to watch the full broadcast on-demand or a condensed version of the broadcast that only features the plays.
ESPN2 is also going to feature multiple special Manningcast broadcasts of Monday Night Football throughout the season. ESPN2 is available on just about all of the same cable and live TV streaming services as ESPN.
What time is Monday Night Football?
There are a doubleheader of Monday Night Football games this week. The first starts at 7:15 pm ET/4:15 pm PT, while the other starts MNF's normal time, 8:15 pm ET/5:15 pm PT.
ESPN's pregame show, Monday Night Countdown, begins at 6 pm ET/3 pm PT.
What channel is Monday Night Football on?
Monday Night Football primarily airs on ESPN, though ABC, ESPN2 and ESPN Plus are also going to carry games, live streams or alternate broadcasts (ie the Manningcast) of the games occasionally throughout the season.
Monday Night Football: Eagles vs Buccaneers
The first of two Monday Night Football games features a matchup of two undefeated teams when the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa.
The Eagles are 2-0 but have not looked their best in doing so. Particularly, quarterback Jalen Hurts and the passing game has struggled, averaging 181.5 yards per game. The defensive passing game has also been poor, as the unit has allowed 326 yards per game and just four sacks in two games. The Eagles running game, however, was been good on both sides of the ball: D'Andre Swift is coming a 175 yard performance, while the rushing defense is tied for the best in the league at 52 yards allowed on the ground per game. The question that everyone is waiting for with the defending NFC Champions, can they get back to looking like the team that nearly won the Super Bowl last year?
The Bucs, on the other hand, have been looking better than most people expected as they got off to their own 2-0 start. Baker Mayfield is looking like a quarterback that was taken first overall in the draft (which he was), with just under 500 yards in two games, three touchdowns and no interceptions, while Mike Evans is off to a great start catching the ball from him. The Bucs will hope their passing offense can continue to give the Eagles fits, while their run defense will aim to slow Swift and company down, as their unit ranks fourth in the league, allowing just two yards more on average to opposing teams than the Eagles.
Which team will go into week 3 still undefeated?
Monday Night Football: Rams vs Bengals
Few people would have expected that the 0-2 team coming into this week 3 matchup between the Rams and Bengals would be Cincinnati, but here we are.
The Rams surprised many with an opening win against divisional rival Seattle Seahawks and then playing the San Francisco 49ers tight, and this without star receiver Cooper Kupp. But they appear to have found a dynamic new weapon in Puka Nacua, who is set receiving records in his first two NFL games. With Nacua and receiver Tutu Atwell, quarterback Matthew Stafford has thrown for a lot of yards, though has also thrown two picks in two games, while the running game has capitalized on scoring touchdowns but in terms of yardage is among the league's lower half. But a thus far top 10 defense has helped solve those problems, though oddly one that has generated no turnovers and only three sacks.
What is wrong with the Bengals? After back-to-back AFC championship appearances (with one Super Bowl appearance, losing to the Rams), the Bengals have struggled mightily this season. Part of that may be because quarterback Joe Burrow is dealing with an injury that kept him out nearly the entire preseason and was tweaked in their week 2 loss as well. However, Burrow looks like he'll play on Monday night. Still, he has average 152 passing yards in his first two games, while the running game is averaging 70 yards per game. While the Bengals defense hasn't been much better overall, their pass defense has performed well, only allowing 190.5 yards per game so far.
Can the Bengals get some revenge after losing Super Bowl LVI and get their season back on track?
2023 Monday Night Football schedule
Check out the complete schedule for Monday Night Football during the 2023 NFL season. There is one thing to note, flex scheduling is being applied to Monday Night Football for the first time this year, so any games currently between week 12 and week 17 could be swapped out. A couple quirks: the week 17 MNF game is going to take place on Saturday, December 30, and a week 18 doubleheader will be announced later in the season.
Without further ado, here is the 2023 Monday Night Football schedule:
- Week 1: Buffalo Bills 16, New York Jets 22
- Week 2: New Orleans Saints vs Carolina Panthers & Cleveland Browns vs Pittsburgh Steelers (ABC)
- Week 3: Philadelphia Eagles vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers (ABC) & Los Angeles Rams vs Cincinnati Bengals
- Week 4: Seattle Seahawks vs New York Giants
- Week 5: Green Bay Packers vs Las Vegas Raiders
- Week 6: Dallas Cowboys vs Los Angeles Chargers
- Week 7: San Francisco 49ers vs Minnesota Vikings
- Week 8: Las Vegas Raiders vs Detroit Lions
- Week 9: Los Angeles Chargers vs New York Jets
- Week 10: Denver Broncos vs Buffalo Bills
- Week 11: Philadelphia Eagles vs Kansas City Chiefs
- Week 12: Chicago Bears vs Minnesota Vikings
- Week 13: Cincinnati Bengals vs Jacksonville Jaguars
- Week 14: Tennessee Titans vs Miami Dolphins & Green Bay Packers vs New York Giants (ABC)
- Week 15: Kansas City Chiefs vs New England Patriots
- Week 16: Baltimore Ravens vs San Francisco 49ers
- Week 17: Detroit Lions vs Dallas Cowboys
- Week 18: TBD
Monday Night Football commentators
There's a completely new team to call Monday Night Football games this year, as Joe Buck and Troy Aikman call the games from the Monday Night Football booth, while Lisa Salters is on board as the sideline reporter.
Before the Monday Night Football game kicks off, ESPN airs a pregame show, Monday Night Countdown. The last couple of years Monday Night Countdown has been hosted by Suzy Kolber and featured Randy Moss, Steve Young, Booger McFarland, Adam Schefter, Chris Mortensen, Lisa Salters and more.
Sky Sports is the home for NFL football in the UK, offering live game broadcasts to Sky TV subscribers.
If the standard 1 am UK start time is too late (or early) for you, NFL Game Pass is an option. The international version of this subscription service offers live broadcasts of games as well as the opportunity to watch the full broadcast on-demand or a condensed version of the broadcast that only features the plays.
