The Negatives of Adding One More Game to the NFL Season

The NFL is considering expanding its regular season once again, this time, with an 18-game season.

Dec 10, 2023; Paradise, Nevada, USA; The Las Vegas Raiders shield logo at midfield at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports | Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

It seems like just yesterday the NFL expanded the season. In 2021, the NFL decided to expand its regular season from 16 games to 17 games. It was the first time the league added more games to the season since it went from a 14-game season to a 16-game season in 1978.

Talks about the NFL expanding the season again have gotten louder this offseason. This time, it would be an 18-game season, and that means also changing the NFL offseason.

In a recent episode of the "Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast" our Hondo S. Carpenter Sr. talked about the new NFL season proposal with editor and publisher of the Spun, Matt Hladik.

"There's talks about the OTAs being eliminated for a longer training camp, which would kind of get rid of all the stuff that is done in the spring," Hladick said. "Teams have been doing OTAs late May into early June. And instead, teams would go into training camp in mid June. So, you are talking about starting training camp a little after this time in the year and would run through mid-July, as opposed to mid-August, end of August. The benefit could be vet players get more of a break in the offseason by not having to worry about having OTAs and then training camp. ... This is where Albert Breer actually was responding to the report from NFL Network, that there is a couple of reasons why I think players and coaches and anybody would be against it. First and foremost, the month of July or the month of maybe mid-June, late June into mid-July, is a calendar month where a lot of people take vacation, and it is kind of built into the calendar. And if you are in the NFL, you do not get a lot of time off."

Even if the NFL wants to change the schedule, it is going to be hard to get players behind it. Veteran players, especially, want to take extra care of their bodies and spend time with their families. Time will only tell if the NFL will move to an 18-game season.

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