The 2023 NFL regular season schedule was revealed in its entirety on Thursday, and for the most part, leaks of team calendars were kept at a minimum.
On 92.9 The Game in Atlanta, Dukes and Bell host Carl Dukes said that the lack of scoops on the schedule – particularly the Falcons – is a power move by the league to generate interest in the TV event planned around the schedule’s release.
“I think the league has come down on a lot of teams from over the last five, six, seven years because we’re not getting as much as we normally do,” Dukes told co-host Mike Bell. “Because the NFL knows they want to draw an audience. They want people to be tuned in to the schedule release.”
Dukes told his audience in the past he’s had a pretty solid knowledge of Atlanta’s schedule before the league officially unveils it.
“We normally are all over this, and this year that is not the case,” he said. “And I think a lot of teams are on lockdown.”
Bell said they typically rely on a source known as Deep Falcon, a person who does finance work with players, for tips on the Falcons’ schedule. But both he and Dukes came up empty when trying to reach out.
“I guess upon penalty of being excommunicated, nobody’s talking,” Bell said.
