The NFL moves to 17 games. What does it all mean? What about for the Chiefs?
For the first time in 43 years, the NFL is expanding its regular season.
League owners voted Tuesday to approve a 17-game regular season schedule starting with the 2021 season, in the process trimming the preseason to three games.
“This is a monumental moment in NFL history,” commissioner Roger Goodell said.
But how will it work? What does it mean for the Chiefs? Let’s tackle it item by item.
Did the expanded schedule require players’ approval?
Well, yes and no. The vote Tuesday came strictly from league ownership, but the players did approve the possibility last March when they negotiated the new collective bargaining agreement. The language permits a maximum of 20 total games, which is why the league must trim the preseason to three games.
The measure created division within the players during those negotiations last spring. Some, such as Saints star running back Alvin Kamara, have already voiced their displeasure with adding games.
As San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman told reporters at the Super Bowl last year: “It’s odd to me, and it’s always odd, when you hear player safety as their biggest concern. They’re really standing up for players safety, player safety, player safety. But it seems like player safety has a price tag. (It’s) player safety up to the point of, ‘hey, 17 games makes us money.’”
How will opponents be determined?
It’s a rotational basis, but the simplest explanation is that teams will play an extra game against the opposite conference. More specifically, each team will play an interconference opponent that it faced two years earlier.
Which one?
Well, you’ll match up against the team that occupied the same spot in the division standings. First-place teams play one another, second-place teams face one another, and so on.
This year, it’s the AFC West against the NFC North.
So, what’s that mean for the Chiefs?
A prime-time TV network’s dream.
The Chiefs will add the Packers to the schedule in 2021. Aaron Rodgers. Patrick Mahomes.
Both teams won their division in 2020.
In short: Yes, the Chiefs schedule just became more difficult and more unbalanced in comparison to its division rivals.
The Raiders will play the Bears; the Chargers see the Vikings; and the Broncos get the Lions.
Who receives the extra home game?
Another rotation.
The AFC teams will get the bonus of a ninth home game in 2021. The NFC will receive the returned favor in 2022. And on it goes.
That means the Packers will come to Kansas City in 2021.
“Adding the Green Bay Packers to an already strong schedule of opponents will make this one of the most exciting home-game slates in recent team history,” Chiefs president Mark Donovan said in a statement.
The Chiefs’ home schedule now includes the Broncos, Raiders, Chargers, Packers, Bills, Browns, Cowboys, Giants and Steelers.
The teams that receive one extra home game in the regular season will play one fewer home game in the preseason. So in 2021, the Chiefs’ preseason schedule will consist of one home date and two on the road.
So will the season start earlier?
No, the Super Bowl will instead be pushed back a week into mid-February every year.
The NFL will still kick off with Thursday Night Football on Sept. 9, 2021, moving back Week 18, now the conclusion of the regular season, to Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022.
Next year’s Super Bowl is scheduled for Feb. 13 in Los Angeles.
Will there be an extra bye week?
No. While that possibility arose during conversations about a 17-game schedule, the teams will still receive only one bye. The 17 games will be played over the course of 18 weeks.
But will they eventually move to 18 games?
Not in the lifetime of this CBA.
The players agreed last March to expand the regular season, but only by one game. The league cannot make the push for 18 games until the CBA expires after the 2030 season.
Will the players make more money now?
Most, but not all. A player who is earning more than the league minimum will receive an extra game check as long as he’s on the roster (injured reserve included) for the 17th game. The extra payment will be equal to the compensation for the first 16 games.
But this doesn’t apply to players who signed new contracts after last February, when it became clear the 17 games would be part of the league’s future. The idea here is that players who signed before the new CBA only signed up for 16 games, so they will receive extra checks for the extra work.
What does this mean for international games?
That’s part of the arrangement, but it’s delayed a year.
As the NFL’s news release stated, “(T)he enhanced season will ensure that beginning in 2022, all 32 clubs will play internationally at least once every eight years.”
The league plans to schedule up to four international games every season, with an emphasis on Canada, Europe, Mexico, South American and the United Kingdom.
The Chiefs played the Chargers in Mexico City in 2019.
This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 2:30 PM.