NFL owners approved the expansion of the regular season to 17 games per team at a virtual league meeting on Tuesday.
This change, which begins with the 2021 season, marks the first expansion of the NFL’s schedule since it moved from 14 games to 16 in 1978. Also on Tuesday, the NFL reduced the preseason slate from four games per team to three.
The changes had been expected since the NFL and the National Football League Players Association approved the latest collective bargaining agreement in March 2020.
“This is a monumental moment in NFL history,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. “The CBA with the players and the recently completed media agreements provide the foundation for us to enhance the quality of the NFL experience for our fans. And one of the benefits of each team playing 17 regular-season games is the ability for us to continue to grow our game around the world.”
The additional regular-season game will feature an intra-conference matchup between teams that finished in the same position in their division. The AFC teams will host this year’s games before the conferences trade off annually.
This season, the matchups will be NFC East vs. AFC East, NFC West vs. AFC North, NFC South vs. AFC South, and NFC West vs. AFC North
Below is the breakdown of each team’s 17th matchup this season:
The official 2021 schedule, with playing dates and times, will be announced later this spring.
The 2021 NFL season is scheduled to begin on Thursday, Sept. 9, and end on Sunday, Jan. 9. Super Bowl LVI is set to take place Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
–Field Level Media (@FieldLevelMedia)
The San Francisco Giants will look to further close the gap in their all-time rivalry with the visiting Oakland Athletics when they seek a second straight win Wednesday night in…
The Cleveland Guardians and Los Angeles Angels will play the third game of their four-game series Wednesday night in Anaheim, Calif., as the Guardians try to rediscover their offense. Cleveland’s…
The Los Angeles Kings are playoff-bound for the first time since the 2017-18 season. The Kings (43-27-10, 96 points) punched their postseason ticket Tuesday night when Dallas defeated Vegas in…
Guardians, slumping Franmil Reyes take on Shohei Ohtani’s Angels
Playoff-bound Kings seek to keep Kraken reeling
Six-man rotation kicks in as Astros, Cristian Javier face Rangers
Jason Robertson, Stars can lock up playoff berth vs. Coyotes