How to Watch the NFL Games Today Online for Free, Including Patriots vs. Steelers and Eagles vs. Rams

It's week 15 of the 2018 season, and key matchups with playoff implications on the NFL game schedule today include the Dolphins vs. Vikings, Cowboys vs. Colts, Patriots vs. Steelers — and the Eagles vs. Rams on "Sunday Night Football."

What NFL games are on TV today? The answer depends on where you live.

The Philadelphia Eagles vs. Los Angeles Rams "Sunday Night Football" game has a national broadcast on NBC stations around the country, so all NFL fans can watch that game. CBS and Fox have the rest of the NFL TV broadcasts on Sunday, December 16, though the schedule of what games are on TV today varies by region.

Local CBS and Fox channels broadcast the local team's games, as well as select other NFL games every Sunday. It appears as if most of the country will get to watch the New England Patriots vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game, scheduled for a 4:25 p.m. ET start on CBS.

Here's a guide for how to watch today's NFL games for free — online or on TV — no matter where you live.

NFL Game Schedule Today: Sunday, December 16

Here is the full NFL TV broadcast schedule for today:

• Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. ET on Fox
• Detroit Lions vs. Buffalo Bills, 1 p.m. ET on CBS
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. ET on Fox
• Arizona Cardinals vs. Atlanta Falcons, 1 p.m. ET on Fox
• Oakland Raiders vs. Cincinnati Bengals, 1 p.m. ET on CBS
• Tennessee Titans vs. New York Giants, 1 p.m. ET on CBS
• Miami Dolphins vs. Minnesota Vikings, 1 p.m. ET on CBS
• Washington Redskins vs. Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. ET on CBS
• Dallas Cowboys vs. Indianapolis Colts, 1 p.m. ET on Fox
• Seattle Seahawks vs. San Francisco 49ers, 4:05 p.m. ET on Fox
• New England Patriots vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, 4:25 p.m. ET on CBS
• Philadelphia Eagles vs. Los Angeles Rams, 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC

You don't need cable TV to watch the Eagles vs. Rams on "Sunday Night Football" or the NFL games airing on your local CBS and Fox stations. In most of the country, all you need to watch football today is a digital antenna. A basic HDTV antenna costs around $25 or less, and it works similarly to an old-fashioned "rabbit ears" antenna, allowing viewers to watch local broadcasts of major over-the-air networks like CBS, Fox, NBC, and ABC for free.

The lineup of free TV channels you get with a digital antenna varies based on location and the strength of the antenna. But in most of the country, viewers can watch all the major networks for free by hooking their TV up to a digital antenna.

How to Live Stream NFL Games Today Free on Your Phone

If you want to live stream NFL games for free on your phone, download the latest version of the Yahoo Sports app or NFL App. These mobile phone apps provide free live streams of many NFL games. Specifically, mobile phone viewers can stream the NFL games that are airing on their local CBS and Fox stations, in addition to NFL games that are being broadcast national — including "Sunday Night Football" on NBC, "Monday Night Football" (ESPN), and "Thursday Night Football" (Fox).

The Yahoo Sports and NFL apps are both free. Fans should take note, however, that the free NFL game live streams are available only on smartphones. In other words, you cannot use these apps to watch NFL games online on a larger screen, such as a laptop or smart TV.

How to Watch NFL Games Online for Free

To watch NFL games online today on a screen that's larger than your phone, consider signing up for a subscription with a streaming TV service such as Fubo TV, Hulu Live, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, or YouTube TV. In most of the country, these live streaming TV services include broadcasts of local networks in their bundles of dozens of other channels. And yes, streaming TV subscribers can watch TV online on any device they like, after logging in to their account.

The lineup of channels and monthly costs for streaming TV services vary based on the provider. Packages for the services above generally start at $40 per month, but new subscribers can check them out for free during free-trial periods that last about a week.

Fans could watch NFL games online for free today, then, by signing up for a new subscription with one of these streaming TV services. Afterwards, there would be several more days to continue to try out the service and decide if you want to become a paying subscriber. If you ultimately do not want to subscribe, remember to cancel before the free trial ends.

How to Watch All the NFL Games Today

For all of the options cited above, fans are limited to watching only the games being broadcast by their local CBS and Fox stations on Sunday afternoon. What if you want to watch NFL games that aren't being broadcast on TV in your area?

In that case, fans generally face the prospect of subscribing to a special package that includes broadcasts of out-of-market NFL games. The best-known package is DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket, which lets you watch out-of-market NFL games every Sunday. The price of NFL Sunday Ticket starts at $300 per season, on top of the cost of a pay TV subscription.

The cheaper way to watch out-of-market NFL games is by subscribing to NFL Game Pass package. It costs $99.99 for the season, and new subscribers can sign up for a seven-day free trial. NFL Game Pass subscribers can watch (or stream) out-of-market NFL games on Sunday, but they cannot watch games live. Instead, NFL games become available to subscribers after they have ended.

But if you can avoid spoilers on the news and social media, NFL Game Pass could be your best option for catching out-of-market games. It is not only cheaper than NFL Sunday Ticket, it allows fans to watch condensed, commercial-free versions of NFL games — which can save you a bunch of time.

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