Update on How to Make 18 Game NFL Season Work

I have been lucky to have many current and former NFL coaches on the podcast for me to learn from. Not only have I learned from them on the podcast, I have met many of them in person at the NSCA and CSCCa events where we spoke. The one voice who WE ALL should listen to the most is Coach Mike Woicik who has been on 6 Super Bowl winning teams. He joined me on the podcast and talked about what he saw in his decades of work in the NFL, what he sees how, and how to fix. My words are a combo of his, words from coaches on the podcast, and my own thoughts. 

Also, look at what Tony Dungy posted on X. There needs to be a change so the product on the field is better. If we do this EVERYONE wins: players, coaches, c-suite, owners, medical staff, fans, the local communities, etc....

One thing to note is that the Professional Football Performance Coaches Association (PFPCA) has a NFL Season Structure Committee. So as I said earlier, it is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when this happens. Here is my 2 cents on how it can happen. 

In last year article I shared how the season weeks would look in the new 18 game model. Here is that lay out for 2026-2027 season.

For simplicity sake the Sunday where games are played represents the week. In this 2026-2027 season the week 1 games technically would have started on Sept 9th with the Pats @ Seattle, but you get the point. Remember, there are 20 weeks for an 18 game schedule because each team gets TWO bye weeks. 1st round of byes happen between weeks 6-9 and 2nd round is 13-16. If you have a bye week in week 6, your next bye is in week 13, 7 and 14, etc...Now the playoffs:

For those of you thinking this is too long of a season, the current NFL season has Super Bowl LXI on Feb 14, 2027. We are talking about adding a game, so that puts us at Feb 21st minimum, I suggest the extra bye week for player health, fans getting a better product, etc...So yes my idea is 7 days longer, but it is worth it IMO.

Now, how did we get to this point? What does the off-season look like? Last article I said teams who did not make the playoffs would go back sooner. I did this because it was a chance for them to get back to work sooner, and shorten the time off they had (which shortens the time players are away and potentially detraining). But, I was told the league would not like that for lack of competitive advantage to teams, so, scrap that first idea. 

The combine would still start the 2nd week of March per my first article. In 2027 this is week of March 8th. All players and all teams are back the 1st Monday in April (April 5th) and train Monday - Thursday until May 21st. The last 2 weeks of May (bleeding into June) are off for all teams. This way they have a break to get away with family. They would not come back until first Monday in June which in 2027 would be June 7th. 

Players arrive back to their team June 7th and train Monday - Thursday. It does not matter rookie or vet, everyone at the same time. Everyone has the week of 4th of July off. In 2027 4th of July is Sunday the 4th, so players would have the week of July 5th off. 

When players come back from the 4th of July break (on July 12th) they train Monday-Friday for 4 weeks before they have any preseason games. Only 3 pre-season games. Starting these games on the Saturday 14th, with week 2 on 8/21/27, and ending week 3 on 8/28/27. With pre-season games ending on Aug 28th 2027 this allows for 2 weeks off before the 2027-2028 NFL season kicks off. 

Why Players like this? 

Time off spread out, and more time off in-season and in summer.