At some point, substantive conversations have to begin about adding an 18th game to the NFL’s regular season. Commissioner Roger Goodell has openly stated that he wants to pursue it, team owners clearly want it for their financial bottom line, and there is an artificial 2029 deadline in place — that’s when the league can opt out of current domestic media rights contracts, which Goodell and the owners believe are underpriced. The only question is when the league dives in on an effort to expand the regular season.
That time appears to be here.
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Multiple league and player’s union sources have told Yahoo Sports they believe Goodell and the owners will begin to make more assertive efforts at adding an 18th game to the NFL’s regular season starting this summer. And according to two high-level team executives, they believe talks about that will intensify at next week’s spring meetings in Florida.
“Everyone understands consensus-building time is coming for both [the league and NFL Players Association],” one league executive said. “It’s going to take time to get to [negotiations] opening a CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement] and rolling up sleeves on whatever gets put onto the table. It might take a year or two, but you really can’t do that without a broader conversation [amongst owners]. I think that starts to get some momentum in Florida.”
The thorniest issue that is expected to be a tug-of-war amongst the owners is whether the league as a whole is willing to budge on the current revenue split, which pays out 48 percent of all football-related revenue to players, with a maximum split of 48.8 percent based on the performance of media rights contracts. The players have long sought to fight their way back to a 50-50 revenue split with the league’s owners. It’s believed that will once again be a union goal if they were to agree to reopen the CBA and add an 18th game to the regular season.
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At the moment, union leaders know the NFL owners are on a clock. If the league wants to opt out of its current rights deal in 2029, the profit-maximizing approach would be to do so with an 18-game regular season slate cemented. Which means that there’s a diminishing window to make that happen with each passing year. And thus far, the NFLPA’s willingness to embrace an 18th game appears to be going in the wrong direction. In the summer of 2024, the union’s executive director, Lloyd Howell suggested an open stance on negotiating an additional game, even going so far as to call the expansion “attractive.” But that stance appeared to take a noticeable shift in February, falling back into the union’s historical hard-line approach of saying “no” when it comes to more games.
“Right now when I have talked to players over the last two seasons, no one wants to play an 18th game,” Howell said at the union’s annual press conference during Super Bowl week. “No one. 17 games, for many of the guys, is too long.”
Whether that’s just Howell taking up a more firm stance to create leverage for trade talks remains to be seen. But there has clearly been an acceptance inside the union that the league will start putting more pressure on talks beginning this summer. And the next stride toward that will likely be talks amongst owners next week.
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Aside from that, there is a wide array of other topics and potential votes on the table, with at least 24 of the 32 teams (75 percent) needing to agree on a rule change or new rule for it to pass. Here’s my vantage on what I believe are the key discussions …
This would ban the play the Philadelphia Eagles have perfected, which is essentially a rugby-style scrum that pushes a player forward for yardage. Some teams hate it (like the Green Bay Packers, who proposed it), complaining there is no real strategy involved in the play, while others disagree.
Taking the temperature: It’s currently not clear whether there are votes to pass a ban. But I do believe it’s closer to a ban than ever before.
Making dynamic kickoff permanent, moving touchbacks and expanding onside kick parameters
These encompass several kickoff changes. First would be making the dynamic kickoff setup from 2024 a permanent design. The second would move the opposing touchback starting point from the 30 to the 35 -yard line. And the third would open up the ability for a team to declare an onside kick at any point in a game, so long as that team is trailing.
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The overarching goal of creating the dynamic kickoff was to cut down the significant rate of injury occurring on that play. That was successful, with 2024 data showcasing an injury rate on kickoffs that was essentially halved. The movement of the touchback spot would be intended to encourage kicking teams to lean into kicks resulting in returns rather than resulting in touchbacks. The onside kick alteration would simply allow for more strategic use of the play over the course of an entire game, rather than walling it off into the fourth quarter.
Taking the temperature: I believe there is enough support for all three of these measures to pass.
More changes could be coming to NFL kickoffs, where players like the Cowboys’ KaVontae Turpin could take advantage. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
(Jason Miller via Getty Images)
This would allow free agents and prospective teams to make one phone call or have video conference during the legal tampering period, and also to prepare travel with players once they arrive at a contract agreement. Effectively, this is aimed at improving the process of courting free agents and then transitioning them into the fold, as well as letting players talk directly to a team rather than having information or questions processed only through their agent.
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Taking the temperature: I believe there is enough support for this to pass.
This proposal from the Detroit Lions would remove the automatic first down that is currently awarded for defensive holding and illegal contact. The change would make such infractions only a standard 5-yard penalty with no first down awarded unless the penalty yardage advanced the ball into first-down territory.
Taking the temperature: I do not believe there is enough support for this to pass.
Altering playoff seeding to reward best overall records rather than division winners
Another Lions proposal, this would change the current playoff seeding format, removing automatic home games for division winners and instead awarding home games based on overall record. The No. 1 seed would still get a bye and home-field advantage throughout their conference playoff tiers, but the remaining home playoff games would be awarded based on overall record rather than division winners.
Taking the temperature: I do not believe there is enough support for this to pass.
The league’s meetings officially kick off on Sunday in Palm Beach, Florida.
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