It has long been viewed as an inevitability that the NFL will expand to an 18-game regular season. An adjustment to the CBA will be required for that to be possible, and as such an agreement involving the NFL and NFLPA will need to be negotiated. 
Informal talks on the subject of reducing the preseason to two games and adding an 18th regular season contest have taken place between the league and union already. In part due to those discussions, some have pointed to 2027 or 2028 as the point at which an expanded schedule could be implemented. The current CBA runs through 2030, but new media rights deals – and thus the main source of another pending surge in revenues – will be in place by then.
Commissioner Roger Goodell said this spring that no formal discussions are planned about CBA adjustments or extensions. To little surprise, then, Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports no serious talks related to the schedule are expected to commence until at least early 2026. Any concession on the part of the union would of course be tied to negotiations on other fronts. Topics such as travel, playing surfaces and the addition of a second bye week have been mentioned as key issues for the NFLPA.
Maske names the period after the 2026 league meeting as a point at which negotiations could pick up. In any case, the nature of talks on this front will make for a notable storyline as efforts on the league’s part continue to expand the regular season schedule. Per Maske, Goodell has not yet “pressed” the union to accelerate discussions, although the NFL’s goals regarding a broader international schedule in particular are of course well known.
Adding an 18th game would likely pave the way for a slate of 16 international contests each regular season. Other matters will no doubt be tied to movement on this front, so a number of key CBA-related issues will be affected if/when an agreement can be reached between the league and union. The timeline for such talks is currently uncertain, though.
Only the NFL could get exposed for hiding how dangerous football really is and continue to add games to make even more money.
The sport isn’t anywhere near as dangerous as it was back in the 60s when defenses were actually allow to touch opponents. The league keeps making the game softer and softer but I guess some fans are really looking forward to a transition to flag football.
No formal discussions. Just a group text to the owners asking if they want to make more money even if it’s bad for player health and game quality and all the owners responding with thumbs up emojis.
People like to watch football – even on weekends where their favorite team isn’t playing – thus if I were the NFL I would add more bye weeks and extend the season that way. It gives players more time to heal/recover, allows games to be scheduled on pretty much any day of the week, and of course allows the owners to negotiate higher value TV/streaming deals.
How are the Discussions on the 38 game schedule coming along??