Former MVP shares prediction about 18-game NFL season

One-time Most Priceless Participant and present CBS Sports activities NFL analyst Boomer Esiason defined throughout Tuesday’s version of the WFAN “Boomer and Gio” program how the NFL finally increasing to an 18-game common season may end in future Tremendous Bowl contests occurring on Presidents Day Sundays. 

“It’s extra probably they’ll transfer it to Presidents [Day] weekend,” Esiason mentioned in regards to the Tremendous Bowl, per Ryan Chichester of Audacy. “After they go to 18 video games they usually wish to get all these vacation video games in, and the scores maintain proving NFL is king. You might see them transferring the Tremendous Bowl to Presidents weekend.”

Esiason did not essentially break information, because it was thought way back to 2021 that the NFL going to a 17-game format may end in Tremendous Bowl matchups going down over three-day weekends every February. 

Whereas Cowboys proprietor and basic supervisor Jerry Jones made it identified in December 2022 that he’s “an enormous proponent” of an 18-game common season, the NFL Gamers Affiliation could solely settle for such a schedule if it includes two bye weeks for every crew. 

The NFL begins each season after Labor Day weekend passes. Thus, a schedule with 18 common season video games and two byes may push Tremendous Bowl contests into late February and even early March. 

“I do know the NFLPA is gonna have a number of pushback on that,” Esiason added about an 18-game marketing campaign. “I feel they’d develop the rosters, which is gonna be crucial, particularly for offensive and defensive linemen and operating backs…if I needed to predict it, that’s what I might suppose. Drop the preseason to 2 video games, and the primary six video games of the season are our ‘preseason.'”

Brad Adgate of Forbes talked about on Jan. 5 that NFL video games accounted for 93 of the nation’s 100 most-watched applications in 2023. Such knowledge signifies viewers aren’t experiencing so-called “soccer fatigue” and would probably welcome a minimum of one further week of significant NFL motion every season. 

As for potential three-day weekends linked with the NFL, it is doable Tremendous Bowl Monday may replace a certain holiday on the calendar by the point the league releases its first 18-game/two-bye schedule.