Cowboys' Jerry Jones Talks NFL Scheduling Games on New Days, 'When the Ducks Quack, Feed 'Em'

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says he's in support of the NFL potentially expanding which days of the week teams play on during the 2026 NFL season.

"When the ducks quack, feed 'em," Jones said Tuesday during the league's annual meetings in Phoenix. "And we have that demand for our games, because of the hard-working, great players that we have.

"We have great demand. We should address it, respond to it and feed it."

The NFL is set to open the 2026 season with a midweek matchup featuring the Seattle Seahawks that will mark the league's fifth Wednesday game since 2012, per The Athletic's Jayna Bardahl.

Prior to 2012, the NFL had not played on a Wednesday since 1948, per Bardahl.

Bardahl had reported back in February that the NFL was expected to start the season on a Wednesday because of a combination of broadcast restrictions and a preplanned international Week 1 game featuring the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia.

The NFL is restricted by law from broadcasting games on Friday and Saturday from mid-September to mid-December, and an unusually late Labor Day this year has put the season start in the middle of that restriction, per Bardahl.

Unless the 49ers and Rams played in Australia on a Sunday, leaving both teams with a shortened break before Week 2, the NFL had to move back the season start in order to continue the tradition of featuring a defending champion in the opening game.

That's not the only scheduling change the NFL is considering for 2026. NFL owners are expected to revisit a rule limiting how many "short weeks" teams can experience between games, per Sports Businesses Journal's Ben Fischer.

A proposed rule change on the agenda would exempt Friday games from the rule, meaning teams could be slated for two Thursday matchups while also playing on Black Friday or the upcoming Christmas Day, per Fischer.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has been floating the idea of expanding the regular season to 18 games ahead of upcoming CBA negotiations.

Expanding which weekdays are available for NFL action could provide scheduling flexibility should the league eventually reach agreement with the players' union regarding an additional regular-season game.