The NFL's Secret Plan to Add One More Game: Here's Why Owners Are Divided

The NFL is seriously considering bumping the regular season to 18 games, and the conversation is heating up at league meetings this week. There's no guarantee it happens, but momentum is building, and it could reshape everything about how we watch football from September through January.

Owners See Money and Better Football

Indianapolis Colts owner and CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon is all in on the idea. "If we can make it work, I do think that it would be good," she said Sunday. Here's her reasoning: preseason games are, frankly, not great viewing. The commissioner has admitted it himself. But you can't totally ditch preseason because teams need those reps to develop players. So why not scale back to two preseason games and add one regular season game instead? More meaningful football, same number of total games, everybody wins.

The money angle matters too. Irsay-Gordon is banking on the fact that players would want this deal because "it would mean more revenue." That's the carrot: more regular season games equals more TV money, and players get their cut. "I think it's reasonable. It's something we should work toward," she said.

The Players Union Is the Wild Card

Here's where it gets tricky. The NFLPA has already gone on record saying they're not into expanding the regular season. But here's the thing: they said the exact same thing before the league moved to 17 games in 2021. And guess what? Players voted to approve that new collective bargaining agreement anyway. It was close, but it passed. The deal came with more revenue, so players weighed the pros and cons and said yes.

Any 18-game season would need to be negotiated with the union. And if owners want to make this happen in the near future, they're looking at reopening CBA talks before the current agreement expires. That's no small task, but the wheels are already turning with JC Tretter now leading the NFLPA. Combined with the league's push to expand international games, the pieces are falling into place for a serious conversation about the future of the NFL calendar.

Don't expect this to happen overnight. But don't be shocked when it does.

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.