Jerry Jones wants an 18-game NFL season, and he wants it soon. According to EssentiallySports, the Cowboys owner and general manager anticipates the change coming as soon as next year, telling The Athletic's Jon Machota, "It's in everybody's best interest…I would anticipate that coming."
Here's the catch, and it's the same catch it has always been: the players don't want it. NFLPA interim executive director David White said in February 2026 that players had "no appetite" for an 18th game in its current form. So this is not really a scheduling debate. It is a bargaining standoff, and Jones is doing what owners do before a negotiation — raising the price of saying no. This connects to our earlier piece, Why the 2026 World Cup Format Rewards Squad Depth.
The scheduling fight sits inside a bigger question about how leagues stretch their calendars, something we track across competitions coverage. But the NFL version has a specific shape, and it's worth unpacking.
What exactly is Jerry Jones proposing?
When Jones first made the case in 2018 on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, the NFL played 16 regular-season games and four preseason games. His preferred format: 18 regular-season games, two preseason games, 20 total. Same workload. More of it counts.
The league has since moved to 17 regular-season games and three preseason games. So the same adjustment today means swapping one exhibition for one game that actually matters. That's the whole pitch in one sentence.
Jones has layered two arguments on top. First, money: back in 2018, he claimed the proposal could provide more than $1 billion to players. Second, safety: he argued players face a greater injury risk in the preseason, calling it a "ramped-up injury situation" and pointing to what he described as an increase in concussions during preseason football.
Why does the Cowboys owner keep making this argument?
Because the demand argument keeps getting stronger. Earlier this year, Jones used a phrase that belongs in a bargaining textbook: "When the ducks quack, feed them." His fuller version: "We have that demand for our games, and because of the hard work of the great players we have, we have a great demand. We should address it, respond to it, and feed it."
He's not alone in the owners' box. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft publicly backed an 18-game regular season in January 2026 and tied it to the league's international ambitions. Commissioner Roger Goodell floated the possibility publicly in 2024.
But look at what Goodell said when asked directly in February 2026. No formal discussions with the NFLPA. "Very little" informal conversation. Expansion is "not a given." That is not a commissioner riding shotgun with Jones. That is a commissioner keeping his options open while the union reorganizes.
Why do the players hate the 18th game so much?
Because an extra regular-season game means another round of competitive snaps and full-speed contact, even if one preseason game disappears. Preseason contact is lighter and rotations are deeper. A game that counts is not.
The resistance runs from the top of the union down through the biggest names. White, in February 2026: "The 18th game is not casual for us. It's a very serious issue." He stressed the union would not entertain changes that harmed player health, recovery, or the ability to compete, and that any deal must give players a fair share of the added value.
Patrick Mahomes said in 2025, "I'm not a big fan of it," and added, "I think that you'd have to find a way to have more bye weeks, more time spread out." Joe Burrow has floated spreading existing bye weeks through the season and adding another break around Week 13, potentially alongside a Pro Bowl-style event.
That's the counter-proposal taking shape: take the 18th game if you must, but pay for it in recovery. Load management, NFL style.
Who is David White's replacement, and why does his résumé matter?
JC Tretter was elected to replace White on March 17 and took over the role on April 1. He is a former NFL center who played nine seasons and served as NFLPA president from 2020 to 2024 — which means he sat across the table for the negotiation of the current collective bargaining agreement.
That detail is the quiet headline of this whole story. The man now leading the players' side has already bargained with these owners once, over this exact subject. His early position: "There are things that are not good for our players that we need to make sure we're protecting them from. And as of right now, those are all subjects of bargaining." Health and safety stay central as schedule and international-game discussions develop.
Translation: nothing moves without a price. Jones knows it. That's why he's talking publicly.
What does the international schedule have to do with any of this?
More than it first appears. Goodell has spoken about a long-term goal of 16 international games each season. Owners have already approved an increase to as many as 10 league-operated international games from 2027, and the league has nine international games scheduled for 2026.
Every added game — domestic or abroad — is another demand on the players' bodies and another chip in the bargaining pile. Kraft linked the 18-game push directly to the international ambitions. The two fights are one fight, and the schedule math has to add up somewhere. How leagues stretch calendars without breaking their athletes is a live question well beyond football — it's the same tension behind compressed camps and expanded formats we've examined in professional playoff races and in squad depth at the 2026 World Cup. Readers following this should also see What Make-or-Break Weeks Decide Professional Playoff Races.
So does the 18th game actually happen next year?
Jones anticipates it. The evidence says not without a deal. Goodell says there have been no formal talks with the union. White said players have no appetite for the current form. Tretter says health and safety are subjects of bargaining.
What the record establishes is the shape of the endgame: an 18-game season is achievable only as a package — more bye weeks, per Mahomes and Burrow, and a bigger share of the new money, per White and Tretter. What remains unknown is the price tag and the timeline. Jones says next year. The union says: negotiate first. One of them is bluffing, and the bargaining table will tell us which.
