A recent report indicated that the NFL would like to discuss expanding the regular season schedule to 18 games as part of the negotiations with the NFLPA on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and past talk about such a move has been tied to cutting the number of preseason games.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has questioned the necessity of having four preseason games in the past and put those thoughts out there again while speaking to reporters in Buffalo on Monday.
Goodell said, via Josh Reed of WIVB, that he’s spoken to coaches who don’t believe having four games in the summer is necessary to evaluate players ahead of the regular season. Goodell also said he doesn’t think that the games provide “great value” to the fans.
He did not make any comments about expanding the regular season schedule, but doing away with preseason games would mean doing away with revenue and it seems unlikely that teams would do that without something else making up for the drop. Any substantive discussions about expanding the schedule would have to come at the negotiating table and the two sides have started meeting with two years to go on the current CBA.