The NFL’s plans of having an 18-game regular season may still be years away from becoming a reality, but Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has already taken a stance on those plans. As the league continues pushing to globalize the sport, NFL teams are set to play a record nine international games in 2026. Alongside that expansion, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has also been advocating for an 18-game schedule. But while the NFL’s push for more reach has often been seen to be motivated by greed, Jones recently gave a different opinion.

“When the ducks quack, feed ’em,” Jerry Jones said recently at the NFL’s annual meetings. “And we have that demand for our games, because of the hard-working, great players that we have. We have a great demand. We should address it, respond to it, and feed it.”

It goes without saying that an 18-game regular season would also create more opportunities for international games, which the NFL has been steadily trying to achieve. Nearly two decades ago, what began as a novelty game in London has now evolved into a major part of the NFL’s global expansion strategy. Last year, the NFL scheduled games in Brazil, Ireland, and Spain, expanding its international slate beyond its established markets in Germany and the UK.

So, while viewership for the International Series also increased by 32% last season, Jerry Jones just suggested that if fans want more football, why not give it to them? From Jerry Jones’ perspective, the NFL would simply be responding to demand rather than manufacturing it. But more than a decade ago, former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban took a very different stance when discussing the NFL’s expansion.

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“Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered,” Cuban told reporters in an interview back in 2014. “And they’re getting hoggy.”

Cuban’s criticism came at a time when the NBA was gaining popularity, while the NFL looked dated with declining youth participation. So, when the NFL still kept expanding its offseason coverage and television footprint, Cuban suggested that the league risked oversaturating the market. But twelve years on, the market looks very different for the NFL.

At present, the NFL has colonized the calendar, controlling Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays during the season. The NFL even continues to reach for additional days in the week with the 2026 season opening with a midweek matchup, which will be the fifth Wednesday game the league has staged since 2012. While Jerry Jones talks about satisfying fan demand, the NFL itself has a broader vision that goes beyond the United States.

“We are serious about being a global sport,” Goodell said in an interview last year.

The NFL could also adopt a proposal from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, which requires every NFL team to play at least one overseas game each season. At the same time, if the NFL gets approval for an 18-game regular season, it could certainly lead to an increase in the revenue that the league earns each year. 

Flag football is also set to debut as a sport at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, which can provide another pathway for the NFL to reach international audiences. At the same time, Roger Goodell has even floated the idea of a permanent European franchise, or perhaps an entire division based overseas.

“You can think of expansion as the number of teams, or you can think of expansion as us playing in international markets and reaching in different areas,” Goodell stated in an interview last month.

As per Goodell, the NFL’s current expansion plans are less about adding new franchises and more about extending the sport’s reach across the world. But that still does not guarantee that an 18-game season is within the NFL’s reach.

What are the possibilities of the NFL having an 18-game season?

With Roger Goodell determined to increase the NFL’s overseas games each season, the momentum is on the league’s side to get approval for an additional regular-season game. But at the same time, the NFLPA has pulled the brakes on the NFL’s expansion plans by opposing an 18-game regular season.

“Our members have no appetite for a regular-season 18th game,” NFLPA interim executive director David White stated in a presser in February.

As per White, player safety remains the biggest concern with the NFL’s expansion plans. As it became evident with Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes last season, players cannot even finish 17 regular-season games without getting injured. So, adding another game to that schedule would increase injury risks, especially for NFL players on teams that make deep playoff runs.

But the NFLPA took a similar stance in 2021, when it resisted the move to a 17-game season. Despite that opposition, NFL players had approved the current collective bargaining agreement, mainly because it included increased revenue sharing. Implementing a similar change in the NFL schedule now means reopening the CBA before it expires after the 2030 season. 

Meanwhile, the NFL has also seen a rise in support for its expansion plans among league executives and team owners. Recently, Robert Kraft even acknowledged the potential benefits of having an additional regular-season game while also recognizing the challenges involved.

“I like it for the long-term growth and development of the league to keep our league healthy and grow revenue,” Kraft said at the NFL’s recent annual meetings. “I think preseason games have not been what they used to be. Changing to 18 games, and having that real content, and being mindful of player safety, I personally would like to see us have a second bye week.”

Moreover, Kraft’s suggestion to add a second bye week could become a major compromise between the NFL and the players. It could ultimately allow the NFL to expand its schedule while giving players more time to recover.