NFL Network's Ian Rapoport said on Tuesday that he would be “surprised” if any Thursday Night Football games were flexed in 2023.

Rapoport explained as a guest on the Pat McAfee Show the fact that the NFL has a lot of good games scheduled for Thursday nights this season, and that the league is not likely to want to change those matchups.

“I would still be surprised if any [Thursday Night] game was flexed this season. I would be surprised if any game was flexed because they don’t want to use this.

“It’s not going to be like, ‘Well, we have a little bit better game, so maybe we’ll do that.’ It’s going to be like, ‘Okay, we have Mason Rudolph starting versus Bailey Zappe. Like, no one will watch this. We have to move.’ That’s to me, that’s under the circumstances that you’d see a flex. I think basically, it’s the kind of thing where they want it available, but it’s only going to be used if they have literally no other choice.”

Rapoport also said that the NFL is likely to be more cautious about flexing Thursday Night Football games than it is about flexing Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football games.

“There's a high bar for flexing Sunday,” Rapoport said. “There's a higher bar for flexing Monday. And there's an even higher bar for flexing Thursday.”

To those who don't know, “Flexed” in the context of the NFL means that a game is moved from its originally scheduled time slot to a different time slot. In the case of Thursday Night Football, games can be flexed between Weeks 13 and 17. The NFL can flex games in order to ensure that the best matchups are being played on the most visible stages.

Rapoport's comments could be a disappointment to some fans who were hoping to see some of the more exciting Thursday Night Football games flexed to more visible time slots. However, it is important to remember that the NFL has the final say on which games are flexed. Ultimately, it will depend on a number of factors, including the competitive landscape of the NFL, the availability of other games that could be flexed, and the decisions made by the NFL's scheduling committee.