NFL Confidential: Why 18-Game Regular Season Remains a Hard Sell for Players and Coaches

PHOENIX — An 18-game,regular-season schedule seems like an inevitability after listening to NFL owners discuss the topic during the league’s owners meeting at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix this past week. In fact, owners of multiple teams flat-out said they want to add another regular-season game to the ever-growing NFL slate. “Growing the number of international games, that’s something we’re very supportive of,” Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told reporters. “From a schedule dynamic, having 18 games would facilitate that.” Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said expanding to 18 games is just a matter of giving fans what they want – more football. “When the ducks quack, feed them,” Jones told reporters in Arizona this week. “And we have that demand for our game because of the hard work of our great players that we have. We have that demand. We should address it, respond to it and feed it.” The NFL transitioned to 17 games and three preseason games in 2021. But with the league engaging in talks to renegotiate the NFL’s TV package with networks and streaming services, having more games to add to that inventory creates more revenue and opportunities to make more money. More football is great for everybody, right? Well, not so fast. Here’s what I’ve learned after hearing other people speak in Arizona and talking to other people around the league about the possibility of adding an 18th regular-season game. NFL coaches say 18 games ‘will water down the product’ If the NFL added another game to the regular season, it would be just its latest move to expand the product over the last decade. Since 2020, the league has expanded its postseason from 12 to 14 teams, added annual games on Christmas Day and continues to increase the number of games played internationally. Of course, that’s also on top of adding a 17th regular-season game. [4 Takeaways From the NFL Owners Meeting in Phoenix] With all the expansion, particularly the two teams added to the postseason field, NFL players are already being pushed to the brink of what their bodies can handle physically, according to two former players-turned-coaches I spoke with. As a result, more games could lead to more load management and tanking, like we’ve seen in the NBA and other professional sports. “Eighteen games will water down the product,” a longtime NFL coach and former player told me. “What made the NFL different from the rest of the competition is every game matters. You had 16 intense weeks, and there’s nothing like it. “Now we have 17 games, and with one extra game some players are looking to take a game off. Eighteen games will definitely get players thinking about taking games off. It will only work if the players get rewarded handsomely. They will sell their souls for money.” As the NFL ponders adding an 18th regular-season game, the league is slated to play a record nine games internationally, including for the first time in Australia and France in 2026. The NFL might also have two games on Wednesday for the first time in league history this upcoming season. The defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks are opening the season at home on Wednesday, Sept. 9, in order to help accommodate the game being played in Australia, and the league could schedule a Thanksgiving Day eve game in November. There will also be a handful of games played on a Friday this year. The annual Black Friday game will continue, while the league is expected to play a three-game slate on Christmas Day, which will be on a Friday in 2026. That means the only day of the week there won’t be an NFL regular-season game in 2026 is Tuesday, but it will also mean many more games will be played with shorter rest than usual. With the NFL stretching out the schedule further and further, another coach nostalgically reminisced about the efficiency of a 16-game schedule, which included the top two playoff seeds receiving a bye week. “The writing has been on the wall for years now [for expanding to 18 games],” the position coach told me. “It’s inevitable. Don’t make it two bye weeks, though. The season already is long enough.” NFLPA still not on board with 18-game season Former NFL Players Association interim executive director David White stated during Super Bowl week back in February that his members had “no appetite” for an 18th regular season game. “The 18th game is not casual for us,” White said. “It’s a very serious issue. It is something that comes out of negotiations.” The current collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players runs through 2030, but could be reopened to negotiate an 18th game. For now, the players aren’t interested in expanding the regular season. It’s one of the reasons the NFL has not announced a date for Super Bowl LXII in Atlanta in two years, leaving open the possibility of expanding to an 18-game schedule before the 2027 season if negotiations take place in the next year to expand the league’s schedule. The NFLPA has been in flux as it changes leadership, with disgraced former NFL Players Association executive director Lloyd Howell permanently replaced by former NFL player JC Tretter. Tretter recently echoed White’s comments in an interview with The Athletic. “There are things that are not good for our players that we need to make sure we’re protecting them from,” Tretter said. “And as of right now, those are all subjects of bargaining. The league can’t expand past 10 international games. The league is at 17 games in the CBA. That is where we’re at, and we’re going to make sure we defend our players and their health and safety, because our guys feel they know what this feels like.” NFL Scout says expanded rosters needed for 18-game slate A longtime NFL scout told me the NFL would need to expand rosters by at least five more active players on game day and consider the possibility of bringing 100 players to training camp with the expansion to an 18-game season. Currently, NFL teams are allowed to go to camp with 90 players, and 48 players are active on game day. “The game product at some point suffers if the league and owners’ greed outweigh the development of players, along with paying the officials, staff, coaches and scouts their fair share, too,” the scout told me. The scout noted that the USFL had a grueling 18-game season that included fully padded, two-a-day practices for six weeks and the postseason. The scout wondered if today’s players would be up to the physical toll on the body of an 18-game season. “Today’s players are bigger and stronger — but not as mentally and physically as tough or instinctive collectively [as they were in earlier years],” the scout said. “So, the owners may want to be careful what they wish for.” NFL agent says staying at 17 games is ‘definitely possible’ The push by NFL owners for 18 games makes sense financially, generating more revenue for the league and its players. However, the current players will have to weigh the risk to their careers and the injuries they could sustain in the chase for more of a financial reward that will be with them for life after football. “I think there are enough regular-season games,” an NFL agent told me. “The league will need to pay a massive price to get the players to do it. Most players who actually play would not be in favor of it. Most can’t make it through 17 games. The league has zero ability to do it unilaterally.” Asked if the NFL is at risk of oversaturating the product, the NFL agent had this to say: “I think it is there now, just about,” the NFL agent said. “Staying at 17/3 (17 regular-season games, three preseason games) is definitely possible.”