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Goodell, during an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show" on Friday, shared his long-term vision, one that involves numerous changes to the season's current format.
Specifically, Goodell said he would embrace a schedule featuring 18 regular-season games and two preseason contests, a significant shift from the current 17 regular-season and three preseason contests that was implemented in 2021.
"I think we're good at 17 now," Goodell said. "But, listen, we're looking at how we continue. I'm not a fan of the preseason." Then, gesturing toward a group of fans assembled nearby, Goodell said, "And I don't think these guys like it either." He continued: "The reality is, I'd rather replace a preseason game with a regular-season game any day. That's just picking quality. If we get to 18 and 2, that's not an unreasonable thing."
Adding an additional regular-season game could, theoretically, result in a second bye week being added, which would lengthen the regular season. But Goodell would welcome that, he said, as he envisions a Presidents Day weekend built around the Super Bowl on Sunday night.
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Goodell also spoke about a future increase to the number of games played internationally, saying he envisions as many as 16 regular-season games being played abroad, perhaps, within the next 10 years. The NFL is adding additional international markets, including Brazil this year and Spain next year.
As for whether a team or division will ever be based overseas, Goodell seemed less certain.
"Will a franchise ever happen or a division?" he said. "Maybe. I think that's beyond 10 years though."
Wait, they had a military coup in Gabon last year. I'm just now reading about it. Maybe it's not safe to go to the game that Roger will place there. I hope it's a couple of teams that are expendable, maybe a Raiders-broncos game or something. [Reply]
I heard this idea before that if you go to 18 games, You have to sit everyone 1 game along with the bye week. It would make some interesting strategy.. Sit Mahomes and the rest of the starters together for a game on offense or mix and match? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Kman34:
I heard this idea before that if you go to 18 games, You have to sit everyone 1 game along with the bye week. It would make some interesting strategy.. Sit Mahomes and the rest of the starters together for a game on offense or mix and match?
I like the concept, where the players play a 16-game season but the team plays an 18-game season.
The more I think about it, you could then get rid of bye weeks during the season. The team plays every week and you rest the players for a couple of weeks of their/coaches' choosing.
That would be fun for everyone but the fans who buy tickets to see Patrick Mahomes II and then sees him in street clothes at kickoff. But the fans are the least important part of the NFL, so the league won't care. [Reply]
If they go to 18 games, they need to go to at least two bye weeks. Bye weeks should be scheduled prior to a team’s Thursday night game or after an international game. Rosters should be expanded and IR should probably be updated. Similar to MLB’s IL. [Reply]