Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said recently that the NFL is looking at ways to make the preseason better for its fans and most would point to cutting the number of preseason games as the place to start.

It appears that point of view is taking hold. Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports that people familiar with the league’s thinking are “increasingly convinced” the preseason will be shortened in the near future.

Losing those games would cost teams revenue, which has led to a concurrent discussion about expanding the regular season. That notion has been met with strong resistance from the NFLPA and Maske reports that the league is shifting gears in response.

Maske reports that expanded playoffs will be the “likely focus” of future talks about cutting preseason games. He adds that the league believes they could act to cut the playoffs and increase the playoffs on its own, but that current consideration of a move is being done within “the context of bargaining between the owners and the NFLPA” on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The potential change would give each league seven playoff teams while eliminating one of the two byes currently handed out. It’s expected that one of the six first round games would be played on Monday night.

PFT

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

Don’t charge regular season prices for it. Expand it to 8 games and make it a farm league. Vets don’t have to play

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

Maybe 6 games lol

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

Get rid of the 2 preseason games
Add 3 weeks to the regular season (2 game weeks and 1 extra bye week).

Makes a 20 week season with 2 bye weeks for every team.

League gets more revenue, players should share that with increased cap and jumping game day rosters to 60 players.

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

Players like Brees won’t like the schedule expansion. All of his season records will be threatened. Yards, TD’s, completions and etc.

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

They tried an extended playoffs in 1982 and the results were not pretty.

We've had 16 game seasons now for over 40 years. It shouldn't be touched.

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

One proposal in that scenario is to require every player to sit out 2 games. It would be 18 game weeks but all the players would still play 16 games. Seems like a lot of roster shuffling to add just 2 games.

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

Changing rules that employees and customers like. I can hear the laughter in the NFL board room when one guy makes that proposal.

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

I believe that we need at least three preseason games to evaluate players. The NFL is all about the almighty dollar! They don't care about the players or their health obviously. :argue:

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

I agree that we need to get rid of the Thursday games. They are usually boring blow outs or games where both teams look sluggish. It's hell on the teams coming off a short week.

The NFL under Roger Goodell does not think about player safety and what makes it better for the teams. They are all about greed thinking of expansion and how much more money they can make. They already make millions upon millions yearly, but that's not enough for them.

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

The best way is to make an 18-game regular season, with two bye weeks for each team... thus retaining the 16-game regular season. I agree with cutting the number of preseason games to 2.

That could be done this way: Weeks 1-4... all teams play, with no intra-division games. Weeks 5-12 eight teams have a bye while the other 24 teams play (12 games). Those 8 teams are significant, since there are 4 teams in each division. In other words, all 4 teams in one division in the AFC and all 4 teams in one division in the NFC have byes in week 5. Week 6 another 8 teams (one AFC division and one NFC division) have byes. Week 7 another 8 teams, then Week 8 the remaining 8 teams have byes. Then Weeks 9-12 repeat, with the byes not necessarily in the same order. Then Weeks 13-18 all teams play, and they are all intra-division games. This would likely generate more interest for more teams, as all the division games would be at the end of the season.

I would retain the same playoff format, including seeding, as it is at present.

Re: Expanded playoffs “likely focus” over 18-game season
 

Keep 16 and eliminate 2 pre season games. More games means more injuries. The NFL is extremely punishing.