NFL Eyes 18 games, two preseason games, one international game per week

PHOENIX – Robert Kraft, the visionary who bought the faltering New England Patriots in the 1990s and turned them into an NFL dynasty, envisioned the NFL’s future when he spoke to reporters on Monday.

Kraft, who clearly gets it, would like to see a future NFL that plays 18 regular season games, only plays two preseason games, includes two bye weeks and, oh yeah, has every team play one of their games internationally.

So there it is…the NFL’s dream scenario for the 2030s.

Robert Kraft envisions NFL change

“I like it long term for the growth and development of the league, because to keep our league healthy and increase revenue, I think preseason games haven’t been what they used to be when we owned the team,” Kraft told New England-area reporters during a break in the NFL’s annual meeting. “And by switching to 18 games and having the right content and paying attention to player safety, I personally would like to see us have another bye week.

“But then it would allow us to grow the game internationally as well. Every team in the league would play a game overseas … I think it would be much more exciting for the fans to have an extra game instead of the way our preseason games are stacked.”

This is not a daydream. It’s a league hungry for growth and money to build a penthouse above its already lofty perch at the top of American sports.

And we know this because commissioner Roger Goodell has leaked a somewhat similar vision of Kraft’s sketches in doom and gloom for the past few years — usually before offering the necessary amount of restraint to lower expectations.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Photo: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

NFL Vision is for tomorrow, not today

“We’re not there yet,” Goodell said before Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara. “There is more work to be done.”

NFL owners apparently do some of that work at the current meetings. And then the subject leaks out into the media.

Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon wants an 18-game regular season and made that clear when he spoke with local reporters in the Indianapolis area as well as during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show.

She has complained in the past that 17 games does not give teams financial security from year to year because some years teams play eight home games and some years they play nine and some years one of those home games goes overseas to an international venue.

“I think as long as the players want it — which I think they would because it would mean more revenue and ultimately a better product — I think it’s fair and something we would work toward,” Irsay-Gordon told the Indianapolis Star.

Adding an 18th game would have to be jointly negotiated with the NFL Players’ Association. And the NFLPA has, over the past several years, strongly opposed the addition of an 18th game.

But the same NFLPA has never been violently opposed to more money and benefits for players. And no complaint has ever been voiced when the idea of ​​expanded rosters, meaning more jobs for more players, has been floated.

Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon of the Indianapolis Colts. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)

International games a work in progress

So do you smell a negotiation going on?

Hypothetically, an agent told OutKick that a negotiation might start with the idea that the NFL wants one more game. And then the players would get the extra bye week, extended rosters, a higher minimum wage, more back pay and more time off in the offseason.

In addition to the extra game, it sounds easier to place 18 of them overseas – twice as many as planned in 2026 than it actually is.

“We’re early in that process,” NFL vice president Peter O’Reilly said. “We’re expanding every year, we’re learning every year. We’re entering new markets and making sure that every move we make, every new market we enter, is going to be successful.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of work to be done to get to a stage like you described. I think the work we’re doing is making sure we have the foundation ready should that possibility exist.”