The NFL switched to 17 regular season games back in 2021. An 18th may soon be coming.
Expanding the regular season was a popular topic at the NFL annual league meetings held last week in Arizona. One that Patriots Owner Robert Kraft was in favor of.
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“I like it long term for the growth and development of the league, to keep our league healthy and grow revenue,” Kraft said.
“I think preseason games have not been what it used to be when we owned the team, and changing to 18 games and having that real content and being mindful of player safety — I personally would like to see us have a second bye week — but then it would allow us to also grow the game internationally. Every team in the league would play a game overseas. I think it would be a lot more exciting for the fans to have an extra game rather than the way our preseason games stack up.”
Patriots fans, however, slightly tend to disagree with the team owner. In the results of the latest SB Nation Reacts survey, just 44% of participants were in favor of the NFL adding an 18th regular season game
The comment section shows the split in opinion.
coolbeanz
I thought that 17 games was one too many.
PatsHowYouDoIt
Absolutely. Play 20 games. These guys are well compensated for whatever risks or work they have to put in. Add time, players, cap space, whatever it takes.
Luckufukikentucky
Cut a preseason game to make it 18. But that’s the last squeeze of the lemon. It’s too physically punishing a game that a human body cannot be realistically expected to go more than that. There’s a limit and that’s it players need to rest and recover.
Oelex
This is bottomless stupidity. 20 games, another round of playoffs, two more teams, four more international games … oh uh player safety is paramount yup yup yup
Ricky Hot Pants
Look, despite the lip service from NFL, this is going to be harder on the players. So it will happen because the owners really don’t care about that. When it happens, there should be bigger game day rosters and a second bye week.
Frankie S.
If the players are for it, I am for it. It is their bodies on the line, not the owners.
All in all, this week’s survey results look as follows:
As Kraft noted, changes would be needed to accommodate an added 18th game. That could be the removal of one preseason game or the addition of two bye weeks to give players an extra week of rest — especially with each team playing one international game in this scenario.
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Out of those two options, participants favor the extra bye week over one less preseason game. However, 53% of voters believe the league should make both changes to help accommodate an 18 week regular season.
Change will not happen this season and likely will be closer towards 2030 when the current CBA between the NFL and NFL Players Association expires. With 17 games on the schedule for 2026, the Patriots current win projection sits at 9.5 on the FanDuel Sportsbook after they won 14 regular season games last season.
Read the full article here