How the NFL can fix its schedule, make more money, and create a safer game

The NFL hasn't let player safety stand in the way of schedule expansion. However, there are ways to make a safer game while still growing the financial pie.

With the NFL hitting one of the quieter stretches of the offseason and the 2026 regular-season schedule recently released, the time seemed right to revisit a topic I first tackled a decade ago: how to fix the schedule to make games safer for players while still allowing the league to grow the financial pie.

Back then, teams only played 16 games over a 17-week schedule, but the NFL had already signaled its intention to expand the schedule. A 17th game finally arrived in 2021, and commissioner Roger Goodell has made no secret of his desire to add an 18th in the near future. This development comes on the heels of the schedule adding games on virtually every day of the week, including a stark increase in the international series. Just this week, the owners voted to up the total of international games to 10 with an eye on eventually reaching 18.

In 2016, I made the case for the NFL moving to a 16-game, 18-week schedule. Sadly, the outlet where I published that article -- Sports on Earth, may it rest in peace -- has since disappeared from the internet. Fortunately, I still have a copy of that story in my personal archives.

Today’s edition of The Leap will republish that piece. While the NFL has moved past 16 games, the strategies discussed in that story would still apply to the 18-game schedule that Goodell and the owners want.

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Around this time every year, the NFL releases the full regular-season schedule, ensuring endless debate about which team received the hardest or easiest path to the playoffs. While the matchups became official following the conclusion of Week 17’s slate of games, the order and timing of the games can make a significant difference. Certainly, facing a tougher opponent after a bye week makes for easier preparation than coming off a short week. In a related matter, most teams prefer their byes during the middle of the year, yet the earliest ones occur in Week 4. And perhaps above all, every club wants to know when and who it has to play for the dreaded Thursday night game.

These concerns underscore a larger problem with the NFL schedule. For a league in constant pursuit of increased revenue and creating a safer product to quell the concerns of players and fans, the scheduling model it uses does a poor job of accomplishing either goal. Too many contests have overlapping time slots, and though the league debates the increased injury risk, the Thursday tilts too often result in a substandard on-field product. With fantasy football and sports gambling increasing interest in matchups beyond the fans of the teams involved, the NFL could squeeze far more out of the games it already has with a better schedule.

The NFL and NFLPA have discussed altering the schedule, but those talks have mostly revolved around adding games to the regular season, a concept that flies in the face of the player safety both sides claim to value. Instead, the league and the union could build a new scheduling model that involves no additional games but increases revenue by making more matchups available to the fans who want them.