Robert Kraft expresses "hope" that next labor deal will expand season to 18 games

It may not be "inevitable" that the NFL will expand the regular season to 18 games. It is inevitable that the NFL will try.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft has spoken about an 18-game season, with 16 international games annually, on multiple occasions in recent months. He's quoted in a new Vanity Fair profile of Commissioner Roger Goodell as expressing a clear desire to expand the season, and the slate of non-U.S. games.

“In our new labor agreement, I hope we go to 18 games and two preseason games, and then if we do that, it would allow us to hopefully go to 16 international games, so we would have every team every year play an international game, which would be built mainly through a streaming audience,” Kraft told Lachlan Cartwright of Vanity Fair.

The question is when a new labor agreement will be finalized. If the current one expires in March 2031, the NFL will possibly (if not likely) lock out the players until they agree to the adjustment to the season.

That makes it arguably prudent for the players to agree to 18 games sooner than later, especially because each season that includes an 18th game will result in more revenue — especially if a second bye extends the regular season to 20 weeks and adds 10 more total broadcast windows.

Until the NFL selects a firm date for Super Bowl LXII in Atlanta, the door remains open for an 18th game by 2027. That may not be easy to accomplish, but the league has yet to throw in the towel. If it had, the Atlanta Super Bowl would have been locked in for February 13, 2028, the obvious date for the game under the current format of 17 games and one bye.