NFL Rumors: Owners 'Largely Support' Roger Goodell's 18-Game Schedule Plan

Team owners "largely support" a push by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to expand the regular season to 18 games, according to Mark Maske of the Washington Post.

The NFL has played 17 regular-season games since 2021.

The league and owners may now attempt to add the extra regular-season game "well before" 2031 when the league's collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association is currently set to expire, Maske reported.

The change will need majority approval from players in order to pass. The union last approved a regular-season schedule expansion with a 51.5 percent vote in 2020.

Goodell discussed his plans for an expansion last week on the Pat McAfee Show.

The change would involve removing one contest from what is currently a three-game preseason, the commissioner told McAfee.

"I think we're good at 17 now," Goodell. "But, listen, we're looking at how we continue. I'm not a fan of the preseason. I don't think we need preseason.

"The reality is, I think I'd rather replace a preseason game with a regular-season game any day. That's just picking quality, right? If we got to 18 and 2, that's not an unreasonable thing."

This isn't the first time the league has mentioned the potential of another regular-season expansion.

NFL owners voted in March to push the trade deadline from Oct. 31 to Nov. 5, starting next season, in part because of the possibility of a longer regular season in the future.

Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry, who proposed the change in February, said the change would be helpful "if at some point in the future the regular season expands to 18 games," per Sean Leahy of Yahoo Sports.

The current CBA, which is set to expire after the final day of the 2030 season, could hold NFL owners back from making that schedule change.

The current version of the agreement contains a clause explicitly stating that the NFL cannot increase the number of regular-season games to 18, per Over the Cap. To add an 18th game before March 2030 would therefore require the NFL to reopen negotiations on the contract.

David Rumsey of Front Office Sports described it as "much more likely" that the NFL will negotiate the schedule change as part of the next CBA. In that case, Goodell might not get his extra regular-season game until 2031.