The NFL runs on a weekly rhythm: games, then injury reports, then lines moving toward the next kickoff. Knowing that rhythm tells you when news arrives and when prices settle.
The season
- The regular season runs 18 weeks, from September into early January. Each team plays 17 games and has one bye week.
- Most games are on Sunday: early afternoon and late afternoon Eastern time, then a Sunday night game.
- There is a Thursday night game most weeks and a Monday night game (sometimes two).
- Late in the season there are Saturday games, and there are games on Thanksgiving and around Christmas.
- A few games each season are played abroad, some kicking off on Sunday morning Eastern time.
Unitley works in dates and times, not week numbers, since games in the same NFL week can fall on four different days.
The injury report
- For a Sunday game, teams file practice reports on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Each player's participation is listed as did not practice, limited or full.
- On Friday, players get a game status: Out, Doubtful or Questionable. A player with no status is expected to play.
- For Monday and Thursday games the reports shift to match.
- Each team's inactives, the players who will not dress, are announced about 90 minutes before kickoff. That can be the last big news before a game.
The playoffs
- Fourteen teams make the playoffs, seven from each conference: the four division winners, seeded 1 to 4, and three wild cards, seeded 5 to 7.
- Only the No. 1 seed in each conference gets a bye through the first round.
- Wild-card round: 2 hosts 7, 3 hosts 6, 4 hosts 5.
- Divisional round: the No. 1 seed hosts the lowest seed left; the other two winners meet, the higher seed at home.
- Conference championships: the two winners in each conference meet, the higher seed at home.
- Super Bowl: the two conference champions, at a neutral site, usually two weeks after the conference championships.
A playoff loss ends a team's season. A team on a wild-card bye is still alive, so its injury list still matters.
When lines move
- Lines for the next week are usually up by Sunday night, and the first big moves come early in the week.
- Injury news on Wednesday to Friday moves lines, quarterbacks above all.
- Weather forecasts firm up later in the week and move totals.
- The last moves come on game day, after inactives and as late money arrives.
In Unitley
get_week_slate lists games between two dates. get_injury_report gives each team's current list, keeps a playoff team on its bye, and leaves out teams whose season is over. It does not include game-day inactives.
Names set like this are Unitley’s tools: what your AI agent, or the analyst in the web app, calls to get these numbers. See the docs