NFL owners back Roger Goodell’s vision of a remade 18-game schedule

NFL team owners largely support Commissioner Roger Goodell’s preference for an 18-game regular season, and the league and owners might make a renewed attempt to get the players’ union to agree to such a lengthening of the season well before the current collective bargaining agreement expires in 2031, according to five people familiar with the NFL’s inner workings and the owners’ views.

The league and owners have not initiated a new set of formal discussions with the NFL Players Association on the topic, two people with knowledge of the matter said. But some owners and league leaders have been contemplating such an effort for months, and Goodell expressed his support for an 18-game season during a broadcast interview last week.

An 18-game season, if implemented, would be accompanied by a reduction of the preseason from three to two games per team. It could lead to each team being given a second bye week during the regular season. It probably would result in the Super Bowl being played annually on Presidents’ Day weekend. That, in turn, perhaps could lead to a reworking of the offseason schedule in which the league might hold a major “tentpole” event in each month - the NFL scouting combine in March, free agency in April and the NFL draft in May.

The owners have sought an 18-game season since the negotiations with the NFLPA that led to the 2011 labor deal, and they increased the regular season from 16 to 17 games per team in 2021 after securing the right to do so in the CBA completed in 2020.

It’s not clear how the NFLPA would react to an attempt by the owners to negotiate an 18-game season. The current CBA allowed the owners to go to a 17-game season, provided that the total number of preseason and regular season games did not exceed 20 per team. But the CBA also says, “The League and/or Clubs shall not increase the number of regular season games per Club to eighteen (18) or more games.” So the NFL and owners would have to convince the NFLPA to agree to such a change, and it’s not known what the union might seek in return.

“I strongly believe they will bring something to (the NFLPA) in the next 12 to 18 months,” a person on the players’ side said.

There is considerable support among the owners for Goodell’s goal to implement an 18-game season, the five people with knowledge of the owners’ views said in recent months. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, with possible negotiations between the league and NFLPA pending.

“I think we are moving toward 18 games,” a high-ranking official for one NFL team said just before the scouting combine began in late February. “Not sure when, though.”

One person familiar with the NFL’s inner workings said as far back as December that the league was strongly in favor of an 18-game season and would like to see it implemented before the next CBA. That person said more recently that the league’s attempt to get the union to agree to an 18-game season probably would occur “a little down the line.”

People on the players’ side believe that powerful owners such as the Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones and the New England Patriots’ Robert Kraft are strong supporters, based in part on the attractiveness of such a change to broadcast partners. Jones previously has expressed his support for an 18-game season.

Cleveland Browns General Manager Andrew Berry told Pro Football Talk at the scouting combine that a proposal to push back the NFL trade deadline by two weeks, from the Tuesday after the Week 8 games to the Tuesday after the Week 10 games, was made in anticipation of an eventual move to an 18-game season. (The owners voted at the annual league meeting in March in Orlando to push back the trade deadline by only one week, to the Tuesday after the Week 9 games.) PFT reported in March that there is sentiment for an 18-game season, saying that possibility likely is tied to the next labor deal.

That was before Goodell publicly expressed his views on the issue during draft weekend.

“I think we’re good at 17 now,” Goodell said during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on ESPN. “But listen, we’re looking at how we continue. I’m not a fan of the preseason. I don’t think we need three preseason games. I don’t buy it. And I don’t think these guys (fans) like it either. … I’d rather replace a preseason game with a regular season (game) any day. That’s just picking quality, right? So if we got to 18 and two (preseason games), that’s not an unreasonable thing.”

The NFL declined further comment this week.

The owners’ previous negotiations with the NFLPA on an 18-game season came with a different set of union leaders. Player representatives voted in June to elect Lloyd Howell to succeed DeMaurice Smith as the union’s executive director. Players voted in March to elect Detroit Lions linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin to succeed JC Tretter, a former center for the Green Bay Packers and Browns, as the NFLPA president.

The NFLPA declined to comment this week. Howell has spoken about having had conversations with some owners about topics related to the business of the sport, including whether players could be permitted to hold equity stakes in franchises. It’s unclear whether an 18-game season was mentioned during those conversations.

Reeves-Maybin told the Detroit Free Press in March: “I think that people are kind of running with it right now (because) it slipped out there. But I think there’s a lot of other things to gain, and when that time comes, we’ll address that.”

The owners proposed an 18-game season, with a two-game preseason, during the negotiations with the NFLPA that led to the 2011 CBA. The union objected on player-safety grounds and called the proposal a nonstarter. The owners abandoned the measure for that labor deal, but they came back to it during the negotiations that led to the 2020 CBA.

The union remained firmly against an 18-game season, and the owners’ focus shifted to 17 games. The fundamental trade-off of that negotiation became the NFLPA agreeing to give the owners the option to implement a 17-game season in exchange for the players receiving an increased share of revenue under the salary cap system. The union also secured other concessions and the CBA was narrowly ratified by players in March 2020.

If a new set of negotiations over an 18-game season occurs, the league and owners could attempt to allay player-safety concerns by pointing to advancements in areas such as equipment, rules and offseason training and practice routines, according to several of the people familiar with the NFL’s inner workings. The owners also might argue that players, under the salary cap system, share in any increase in revenue related to the additional regular season game, those people said.

The details associated with an 18-game season would have to be negotiated. The NFLPA could press for a second bye week for each team during the season. It perhaps could seek further cutbacks in offseason practices and additional reductions in the amount of permissible practice-field hitting.

If a second in-season bye week is added along with an additional week of games, the league could opt to begin the regular season earlier - it currently prefers to wait until after Labor Day weekend - or eliminate the bye week before the Super Bowl. The league and owners long have contemplated the possibility of playing the Super Bowl on Presidents’ Day weekend, which Goodell also mentioned during last week’s TV interview.