Trip to Jets will open slate for preseason

Falcons will also travel to Jaguars and host Chiefs, Dolphins in August.

The Falcons’ exhibition schedule was released by the NFL office Wednesday.

The team will open the exhibition season on the road against the New York Jets, then play Kan

sas City at home before going on the road for the third exhibition game against Jacksonville. The final exhibition game will be at home against the Miami Dolphins.

The dates and times of the games will be announced later.

The league is expected to release the full regular-season schedule next week (Wednesday or Thursday). The Falcons’ game at Philadelphia has attracted the attention of several of the league’s

TV partners and will likely be a prime-time or late-afternoon game.

The Falcons will face the third-place teams from the NFC West (Arizona) and NFC North (Green Bay). The Falcons also will face opponents from the NFC East (Philadelphia, Dallas, Washington and New York Giants) and AFC North (Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland and Cincinnati).

In addition to New Orleans, Carolina and Tampa Bay, the Falcons will play potentially cold-weather road games at Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Green Bay and Washington. In addition to New Orleans, Carolina and Tampa Bay, the home games will include Cincinnati, Arizona, Dallas, the Giants and Baltimore.

Ravens, Bears kick off preseason schedule: The Ravens and Bears will kick off the NFL’s preseason Aug. 2 in the Hall of Fame game as they honor 2018 inductees Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher. Baltimore linebacker Lewis and Chicago LB Urlacher will enter the Hall on Aug. 4.

The league’s preseason schedule was announced Wednesday and features eight nationally televised games. In Week 2 of the preseason, the Jets will visit the Redskins for a Thursday night game Aug. 16, and the Ravens will be at Indianapolis on Aug. 20. Week 3 will have five national telecasts, beginning Aug. 23 with Super Bowl champion Philadelphia at Cleveland. The next night will see Detroit at Tampa Bay. On Saturday, Aug. 25, New Orleans visits the Los Angeles Chargers, and the following day, Cincinnati is at Buffalo for an afternoon match, with Arizona at Dallas in a night game.

The preseason will end Aug. 30-31, and the regular season will begin Sept. 6 in Philadelphia.