NFL insider Mike Florio made headlines this week when he suggested the NFL is considering an 18-game season as soon as 2027 with a major wrinkle: non-quarterbacks and non-special teams players would be limited to 17 games.
“There's an easy way to get through to any players who simply don't want to play 18 games - and who won't vote to accept another game until they experience the reality of a lockout and the imminent threat of losing game checks,” Florio wrote.
“Beyond the likelihood of two byes (which the league seems to be generally willing to consider if not accept), there's an idea rattling around of limiting player participation to 17 games per year.”
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If the league enforced the new limitation, a team could be without a star player during a potential playoff push – a notion not lost on the fantasy football community.
“The NFL has always fundamentally misunderstood why it is such a cash cow, but if their lust for more games leads to random deactivations of fantasy stars on Sunday mornings, they will seriously damage that hobby for casuals, which would be the biggest misstep yet,” NFL writer Ben Gretch wrote.
“So you could go into a must win game and if your best player has already hit their game limit. Gotta bench em. Just add 2 bye weeks or just don't add more games,” questioned another.
A third said, “Roger Goodell and the NFL have long had this weird fascination with ostracizing the core group of people that has led to the immense popularizing of the game. The Fantasy Football player. Trying to determine random off games for fantasy stars will become maddening to navigate.”
All of this is speculation as of right now, but from the initial reaction, football fans aren’t on board.
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