NFL Week 6 coverage maps: How the four-team bye shrinks Sunday TV

Four NFL teams are off this weekend. That single scheduling quirk shrank the Sunday afternoon television slate to 10 games for Week 6, forcing Fox and CBS into a strict five-game split that leaves several major media markets without a regional doubleheader.

The Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions, Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings are on bye. With those franchises sidelined — and the Houston Texans playing the Jacksonville Jaguars in London — networks had fewer broadcast windows to fill. CBS secured both an early and late national window. Fox is restricted to one game per region across its entire Sunday lineup, according to USA TODAY.

That constraint hits hardest in the late afternoon. Viewers outside specific regional footprints will not have access to a secondary Fox broadcast. The network’s widest distributions go to the Atlanta Falcons hosting the Chicago Bears and the New Orleans Saints visiting the New York Giants.

CBS anchors its early window with the Carolina Panthers at the Philadelphia Eagles, a matchup pitting two NFC playoff hopefuls against each other. The Pittsburgh Steelers travel to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while the New York Jets visit the New England Patriots in the remaining early slots.

By 4 p.m. ET, CBS divides the country almost evenly. Roughly half of U.S. households will receive the Las Vegas Raiders hosting the Buffalo Bills. The rest get the Los Angeles Chargers at the Kansas City Chiefs.

A four-team bye in Week 6 is rare. The NFL typically staggers off-weeks starting in Week 5 or 7, usually limiting them to two teams at a time early in the season to protect broadcast inventory. Compressing four byes into a single week strips the schedule down to levels normally seen only during Thanksgiving or the final weeks of the regular season, when eliminated teams reduce viewer interest.

The coaching benches reflect how quickly the league has turned over. Seven head coaches are currently 40 or younger, including Joe Brady (36) of the Buffalo Bills, Kellen Moore (38) of the New Orleans Saints, Mike Macdonald (39) of the Seattle Seahawks, Mike LaFleur (39) of the Arizona Cardinals, Klint Kubiak (39) of the Las Vegas Raiders, Ben Johnson (40) of the Chicago Bears, Sean McVay (40) of the Los Angeles Rams and Liam Coen (40) of the Jacksonville Jaguars. At the opposite end, Andy Reid leads the Kansas City Chiefs at 68, followed by John Harbaugh, now coaching the New York Giants, at 63.

Coverage maps for the week, compiled by 506 Sports, detail exactly which counties receive which broadcasts.

Standalone prime-time games on Thursday, Sunday and Monday night operate under separate national contracts and are unaffected by the regional mapping restrictions hitting the Sunday afternoon blocks.