18 games?

Thats a really long season.

They are going to have to consider expanded rosters - but at some point you start diluting the game too.

I see 18 games with an expanded roster and extra bye week to accommodate every team playing 1 overseas game per season.

We have all seen how the first couple of regular season games have gone since they reduced the preseason games to 3.  Not playing starters in the preseason leads to penalty filled early regular season games and possible injury because starters haven't played any meaningful games against other teams.  Adding games to the schedule plus adding games to every city across the globe is just going to dilute the game all in the pursuit of more revenue.  Leave it alone the way it is!

When money is involved the NFL will get it done.

Greylock wrote:
We have all seen how the first couple of regular season games have gone since they reduced the preseason games to 3.  Not playing starters in the preseason leads to penalty filled early regular season games and possible injury because starters haven't played any meaningful games against other teams.  Adding games to the schedule plus adding games to every city across the globe is just going to dilute the game all in the pursuit of more revenue.  Leave it alone the way it is!

^^^

Will never happen...Too much growth still available.

20 weeks, 18 games, 2 preseason and 2 bye weeks sounds about right. Certainly more symmetrical than the clunky 17 game schedule. Start the season on Labor Day weekend. Everyone has Monday off. Opening day will be like a national holiday. Just bizarre to me the modern NFL hasn't taken advantage of that.

They have other things to get sorted out before spending a lot of time debating an 18 game schedule. They need to make changes to plays that are reviewable, maybe add an on field official that is focused solely on the quarterback so the excuse of well we couldn't see the quarterback because we weren't looking at him or couldn't see see him. Consider increasing the roster size if they add games to the regular season. If they continue adding games across the globe make game times reasonable for the US audience so we don't have kickoffs at 8am on a Sunday for our favorite team.

Keep watering down the game, NFL. $$$.

Greylock wrote:
They have other things to get sorted out before spending a lot of time debating an 18 game schedule.  They need to make changes to plays that are reviewable, maybe add an on field official that is focused solely on the quarterback so the excuse of well we couldn't see the quarterback because we weren't looking at him or couldn't see see him.  Consider increasing the roster size if they add games to the regular season.  If they continue adding games across the globe make game times reasonable for the US audience so we don't have kickoffs at 8am on a Sunday for our favorite team.

Yes, the officiating is horrible once again. In the PFF thread someone mentioned doing a PFF for the refs. I think they probably already have their own QC program, but make it public. There doesn't seem to be much accountability or transparency there. And I'm pretty sure these are still part time refs. At least make them full time. Does the NFL not have enough money to pay full time staff?

1 more change id like to see,  get rid of the week off between the championship games and the superbowl,  and either move it to saturday night,  or make the start time like 3 central sunday,

MaroonBells wrote:

Yes, the officiating is horrible once again. In the PFF thread someone mentioned doing a PFF for the refs. I think they probably already have their own QC program, but make it public. There doesn't seem to be much accountability or transparency there. And I'm pretty sure these are still part time refs. At least make them full time. Does the NFL not have enough money to pay full time staff?

There has to be accountability for biased judgements. If you rule incorrectly then you get fined. If you blow a short whistle while a fumble is happening then you get fined. They must know that incorrect calls will cost them.
If a play goes to review and then you rule incorrectly then you get fined and suspended.
Make the playoffs pay much higher but only those officials that grade high enough get assigned to them.

And eventually every team will play an overseas game in the season, too. Add in an extra bye week for recovery...

.500 QB’s are probably reinvigorated…!  :P

Too long go back to 14 games

If they are going to keep adding games and extending the season to later in the year then they need to start making it a requirement that east coast teams like Buffalo who are building new stadiums put a roof on it and that playoff games in certain weather conditions be moved. This game today with Rams and Eagles is not the way playoff games should be decided.

JR44 wrote:
If they are going to keep adding games and extending the season to later in the year then they need to start making it a requirement that east coast teams like Buffalo who are building new stadiums put a roof on it and that playoff games in certain weather conditions be moved.  This game today with Rams and Eagles is not the way playoff games should be decided.

That is exactly how the game was meant to be played.   Nothing life threatening there so im not sure what the problem is.  We see that kind of weather in October in the uppermidwest.

I do agree though that there should be a roof or risk of losing a home game for extreme cold.

18 games with two byes. Start the season Labor Day weekend.

Does the league not realize that it's essentially becoming a league of attrition? You keep adding games to the schedule you are going to see more teams in the postseason minus star players because in a bigger, stronger, faster league...injuries are inevitable. Hopefully the players association votes it down. At some point decisions are going to have to be made that are in the best interest of the game and league itself instead of the almighty dollar.

purplefaithful wrote:
Thats a really long season.

They are going to have to consider expanded rosters - but at some point you start diluting the game too.

This does absolutely nothing to extend the season.  
Get rid of one more meaningless exhibition game (for which they charge full price for what is basically a team scrimmage). 

There's a lot of talented football players out there who never get their shot.  I don't believe that the game will be diluted.
I've been a proponent of this for some time.  
It makes sense.  Turn that useless exhibition game into something of real value.  Hire more players (expanded rosters), pay the players their share.

It's not that the game is any safer (it is, particularly with a focus on reducing injuries), but the money will speak, the players will say "how much of it goes to us?" and it will happen.  

I completely agree that it is the next logical step. 
Just like taking the college football playoffs from a 4 arbitrarily ranked team playoff to 12 teams.  It was the next logical step.  Now going forward, the next logical step is a 16 team playoff, with no bye week for top seeds.  It is the next logical step.  The FCS has expanded to a 24 team playoff, and it has proven that it works pretty darn well.

I don’t think the number of preseason games really affects how ready the teams are for the regular season. I think that shift would have occurred no matter how many preseason games we have, as teams think they are better prepared by the practices that they have rather than the preseason games, and they don’t want to risk injuries to their starters by playing them in a sloppy game.

The thing I have biggest beef with is unbalanced home vs away games. It’s completely ridiculous in a 17 game season that one team can have 9 homes games - 8 away games, and another team can have 8 homes games and 9 away games. That’s a large advantage. This can be solved by having every team play one neutral site game.

You can also have this same problem in a 16 or 18 game season, where a team has only one neutral site game, and now we’re back to having unbalanced home/away games.

I think my most preferred setup would by 17 games with one mandatory neutral site game per team. I’d also be fine with an 18 game season with two mandatory neutral site games. Where neutral site could be in a foreign country or it could be in an existing NFL stadium, like the Vikings-Seahawks playing in Miami or something like that, but I think division games should be banned from neutral sites.

I don’t want the season to drag on any later into winter. I’m fine with cannibalizing the weekend before the SB for the last playoff games and I’m fine starting earlier.

I think they should eliminate the practice squad by making them all on the roster and force teams to roster 4 QBs to encourage QB development. They should eliminate the distinction between active and inactive roster. I don’t see the benefit of having a handful of people that are healthy but inactive.