Cowboys' Stephen Jones Says 18-Game NFL Season is 'Probably Inevitable' amid Rumors

Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones believes it is "probably inevitable" that the NFL schedule will eventually expand to 18 games.

"I'm on the competition committee. We've talked about this, knowing that it's probably inevitable," Jones said Friday on the Scoop City podcast with The Athletic's Dianna Russini and Chase Daniel.

Jones continued: "I do know, at the end of the day, the players enjoy the compensation that's coming their way, and they get—for the most part—half of every revenue dollar that comes through the door. So certainly getting paid well.

"We all know when we go to 18 games, our revenue's gonna jump, and certainly should only help in terms of the money available to pay players, and get players the compensation."

Jones also addressed a question by Daniel as to the increased wear and tear on players' bodies during a longer stretch of meaningful games.

"Whether you're a general manager, whether you're the head coach... there's going to be some strategy in terms of taking care of your players, in terms of how you manage through your full 53-man roster, how many guys can be up and available. All those are very great questions in terms of how you manage through a season if that ultimately goes to 18," Jones said.

Jones continued: "Certainly from a competition committee level, a league level, we're looking at all those things, in terms of the number of bye weeks that would be involved in something like that, and how we ultimately manage through and keep the players' health and safety always the number one priority."

The NFL schedule expanded from 16 to 17 regular season games in 2021. Unless the league and union renegotiate, the NFL is contractually capped at that number until the current CBA expires following the 2030 season.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has expressed support for the 18-game season, although team owners are currently split on the change, ESPN's Brooke Pryor reported in June.

The last schedule change accompanied a shortening of the NFL preseason from four to three games. Goodell has previously indicated that an 18-game regular season would result in the further reduction of the preseason to two games.