18-GAME SCHEDULE AND OTHER PROBLEMS

personally i like 18 game schedule as 17 has many problems. one problem with 17 is you get an imbalance of more road than homes games in a season. with 18 games you still have a 20 game season, with 2 preseason games. i would love one extra week with scott hanson and one fewer week of preseason. now if you want to get really into safety, an idea i had is you cap players at 16 games played. naturally a lot of our team would reach this with no intervention necessary based on random injuries here and there. but healthy guys eventually you would have to make them game day inactive as you roll through the season. this preserves players and gives other guys a chance to shine. yet they were able to go from 14, to 16 to 17, without doing this. 17 rubs me wrong

Injuries are a problem every year. Mahomes got hurt week 15 they were trash before he got hurt and the extra game wasn't the game that hurt him. I do think the NFL is diluting the product but that's cause of the extra playoff team. 18 games with 2 bye weeks is going to mean the season is longer and the painfully long offseason is a little shorter. There will be problems with soft tissue injuries and I don't want to act like adding the game won't add to it. But overall benefit of adding another game will be to alluring to pass up.

Originally posted by Hysterikal:
Injuries are a problem every year. Mahomes got hurt week 15 they were trash before he got hurt and the extra game wasn't the game that hurt him. I do think the NFL is diluting the product but that's cause of the extra playoff team. 18 games with 2 bye weeks is going to mean the season is longer and the painfully long offseason is a little shorter. There will be problems with soft tissue injuries and I don't want to act like adding the game won't add to it. But overall benefit of adding another game will be to alluring to pass up.

i don't understand the season longer argument. it's 20 games, same as it has been. i don't like 2 byes. maybe that has been proposed, i'm not a fan of that

iirc they used to have 2 byes at one point and it was not popular and they did away with it

The two byes were unpopular because fans didn't like their teams being put on hold while the rest of the league moved on. They basically wanted to 'get on with it' as there's playoffs to shoot for-the sooner the better.
Then there are other issues the NFL is dumping on their fans. Running the ball used to be 55% of the plays in the 60's. Now it seems they'd like to eliminate it altogether. It's happening in the 4th quarters and it's only happening to run out the clock. With drives starting on the 40 yard line mediocre QB's only need to advance their team 30 yards to get into field goal range at the end of a half. The rules evolved to favor the offense just like the DH in baseball. The competition committee meets every year to change the game 'for the better'. The DH is not baseball and the new kickoff rules aren't football. The networks would like for every game to come down to the final second field goal by a kicker who's not a football player.
That's the bad news. The good news? Football is our fix.

Originally posted by 49erFaithful6:
personally i like 18 game schedule as 17 has many problems. one problem with 17 is you get an imbalance of more road than homes games in a season. with 18 games you still have a 20 game season, with 2 preseason games. i would love one extra week with scott hanson and one fewer week of preseason. now if you want to get really into safety, an idea i had is you cap players at 16 games played. naturally a lot of our team would reach this with no intervention necessary based on random injuries here and there. but healthy guys eventually you would have to make them game day inactive as you roll through the season. this preserves players and gives other guys a chance to shine. yet they were able to go from 14, to 16 to 17, without doing this. 17 rubs me wrong

I would be ok with a 20 game season, the game is more like two hand touch nowadays anyway. I think these guys should be able to play way more games than they did back in the day.

If need be, increase the roster size.

I don't think another game or two would hurt anything.

Its overdone now and less physical. 16 game season was perfect. If they actually banned roids from the sport we would see a lot less injuries, but I guess it would also be more "boring"?

Originally posted by Cisco0623:
Its overdone now and less physical. 16 game season was perfect. If they actually banned roids from the sport we would see a lot less injuries, but I guess it would also be more "boring"?

HGH and roids should be allowed IMO.

These are grown men, do you remember how great baseball was during the steroid era?

Football would be even better if Balco Labs were approved for medical treatment LOL.

Originally posted by Cisco0623:
Its overdone now and less physical. 16 game season was perfect. If they actually banned roids from the sport we would see a lot less injuries, but I guess it would also be more "boring"?

This. They had a perfect product that did not need to be fixed in terms of exposure. The fixes the game did need would only cost the owners money so there isn't going to be any interest in that.

If they expand to an 18 game season they need to xpand the roster too. At least allow all practice squad players to be activated on game day.

An 18 game season definitely means two bye weeks, right?

Originally posted by Fanaticofnfl:
An 18 game season definitely means two bye weeks, right?

I guess this would all but eliminate pre season games. Starters rarely play in them anyway. I'm old enough to remember when there were 6 pre season games and 12 regular season games. Still 18 games. I'm not sure what owners would gain since seaon ticket holders already pay for pre season games. TV revenue would probably be the same too.

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:

Originally posted by Fanaticofnfl:
An 18 game season definitely means two bye weeks, right?

I guess this would all but eliminate pre season games. Starters rarely play in them anyway. I'm old enough to remember when there were 6 pre season games and 12 regular season games. Still 18 games. I'm not sure what owners would gain since seaon ticket holders already pay for pre season games. TV revenue would probably be the same too.

Means little to most fans but I always enjoy seeing the bottom of the roster guys play in preseason. Whether its guys on our team or players from college that I liked. Plus they are cheaper games that I get to take my mentees to (some of whom may never see an NFL game live).

Originally posted by Fanaticofnfl:
An 18 game season definitely means two bye weeks, right?

I think a 20 week, 18 game/2 bye-week season was the plan all along going back to 2021.

The season always starts after Labor day. With 18 games and 2 bye's do you really want to see the season end in late February? Expanding the roster means more players that couldn't make it on a regular roster. The product gets thinned out, quality goes down and the owners don't care. I can remember when rosters were confined to 40 players. That's when the 6 preseason games were in effect. Perhaps all season opener games should be played in the southern hemisphere where spring-like weather makes it easier on the players and allows for a mini bye going into the 2nd week. We've got too much football and the rest of the world can't get enough. Hawaii could be included in the international schedule as Americans could plan their vacations around the team that plays in Aloha Stadium just like they do in Vegas. All good ideas but what do I know?