The NFL and the NFL Players Union have started talks about a potential 18-game regular season. Lloyd Howell, executive director of the NFLPA, confirmed as much in a meeting with reporters in Washington D.C. recently.
While those conversations have “not yet progressed to formal negotiations,” according to Mark Maske of the Washington Post, the step is another one toward the league expanding its regular season schedule for a second time within the last few years.
The NFL used a 16-game regular season schedule between 1978 and 2020 before switching to a 17-game format as a result of its 2021 CBA negotiations.