Roger

Goodell

NFLPA Executive Director Lloyd Howell said that while the union has “not yet progressed to formal negotiations” with the league, discussions are underway to once again expand the regular season. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in May that any lengthening of the regular season would come at the expense of the preseason. “We would do it in the context of reducing the number of preseason games. We think that’s a good trade,” Goodell said. Though some players have expressed concern about an even longer regular season, it appears the union and the league are moving toward an 18-game season.

The supplemental draft was first enacted in 1977 and became an alternative way for players to be drafted due to circumstances at their college that kept them from participating that season. While the supplemental draft has yielded some NFL-caliber talent, we haven’t seen a player taken in it since 2019, when the Cardinals selected Washington State safety Jalen Thompson.

The NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell have been discussing an expansion to an 18-game schedule, an idea the NFL players will likely try to resist. There was already some resistance on the expansion to 17 games a few seasons ago and now Kelly explains fans “shouldn’t know all the injuries that we go through. But they don’t know what it takes to play on Sunday. I just think it’s too many games.” Kelly is hesitant on agreeing to an increased injury risk with more games taking a further toll on players’ bodies. He also explained that ideas like cutting preseason games and changing offseason workouts would give fringe roster players less of a shot to prove themselves. Kelly’s statements show a microcosm of the NFLPA’s sentiments and there is a long road for the NFL and NFLPA to discuss such changes.

Teams will now be able to make trades until Tuesday following Week 9 games. The deadline had previously been the Tuesday after Week 8. The one-week change could make a big difference for teams whose seasons are circling the drain and leave the front office looking to deal valuable players as part of a rebuild. It could also benefit teams coming on around mid-season and looking for ways to shore up weaknesses headed into the season’s second half.

Twenty-nine of the league’s 32 teams approved of the change, with the Niners, Packers, and Raiders voting against the rule adoption. Under the new rules, any kickoff that ends up in the “landing zone” — between the goal line and the 20 yard line — must be returned. The changes will essentially stop touchbacks, which would award the ball at the 35 yard line. Once implemented, the hybrid kickoff will make kickoffs a far more important part of the game. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero said NFL officials hope the rule change can “will yield what it wants: fewer injuries and more returns” in 2024 and beyond.

According to Pelissero, the use must be “purely objective” and can be used in manners such as to determine whether or not a quarterback was hit in the head, in or out of the pocket on an intentional grounding, etc. This should help with correcting calls that can result in a significant gain/loss of yards for both the offense and defense. The review of these calls will be done by the replay assistant and should not require a challenge flag from a coach to be reviewed.

Shortly after Pelissero posted that the league voted to ban the now infamous tackle, Ian Rapoport chimed in to report the ban received a unanimous vote from the competition committee. The movement to ban the tackle picked up steam in recent years after several players suffered devastating injuries as a result of the hip drop. Pelissero said we can “expect more fines than flags as the league and coaches work to remove the technique.”

The league made the leap to a 17-game season in 2021 but could soon be pushing to add an 18th game. As Florio points out in his article, an 18th game “likely won’t come until the next labor deal,” but his “first hint” of the possibility came when Browns GM Andrew Berry mentioned the Browns and other teams are proposing delaying the trade deadline by two weeks in anticipation of an 18th game being added. The current CBA isn’t set to expire until March 2030, so this isn’t expected to happen anytime soon, but it sounds like the league adding an extra game is all but a done deal — even if years away.

According to Battista, the Competition Committee “discussed at length the XFL kickoff” and added that the NFL wants to keep kick returns in the game, but there were “too few returns this season.” While some of this may be due to returners being concerned for their own health, the lack of returns can probably be more connected to the number of kickoffs being pinned deep into/out of the end zone by kickers. Regardless, the XFL’s kickoff rule has been proven to reduce high-impact collisions in recent years and could help further the NFL’s initiative to enhance player safety. The idea of the league adopting the XFL’s version of the kickoff has been floated around since the XFL returned in 2020 and appears to be gaining steam. It wouldn’t be surprising to see it (or something similar) adopted in the near future.

That’s a shocking uptick from what most NFL analysts believed the cap would be for the upcoming year. Even the teams themselves were reportedly expecting the cap to be in the neighborhood of $242 million and $243 million. The cap figure does not include the additional $74M per club for player benefits either. Player benefits include Performance Based Pay and benefits for retired players. This surprise should afford some of the teams that were likely to struggle to get under the cap some extra wiggle room this offseason.