Eight years ago, Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones appeared on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas and acknowledged that he wanted an 18-game NFL season with only two preseason games. His reasoning was simple. According to Jones, players face a “ramped-up injury situation” more often during the preseason than during the regular season.
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One could argue that teams don’t often play their starters in exhibition games, yes. But one thing is clear: Jones has been interested in expanding the regular season to 18 games long before NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell floated the idea during the league meetings in 2024. Now, the Cowboys owner and general manager has once again made his stance on an 18th regular-season game clear.
During another appearance on 105.3 The Fan, and according to The Athletic’s Jon Machota, Jerry Jones believes that the league isn’t far away from an 18-game regular season and just a pair of preseason games per team. Machota reported that Jerry is anticipating the change in the regular season as soon as next year.
“It’s in everybody’s best interest…I would anticipate that coming,” said Jerry.
The debate over the NFL expanding the regular season by one additional game has certainly divided the league. While one side supports an 18-game regular season and 16 international games, the other remains concerned about player health and safety. Jerry Jones, meanwhile, has supported the idea of an 18th game for years.
For broader context, back in May 2024, when Roger Goodell was publicly discussing the possibility, Jones supported replacing one preseason game with an additional regular-season game. The Cowboys owner described moving from 17 regular-season games and three preseason games to 18 regular-season games and two preseason games as the “most effective allocation.”
Then, earlier this year, he joined New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft in supporting Goodell’s idea for expanding the NFL. In his argument, Jerry Jones pointed out that expanding the regular season will help both the NFL and its players.
“When the ducks quack, feed them. We have that demand for our games, and because of the hard work of the great players we have, we have a great demand,” he said. “We should address it, respond to it, and feed it…I think it’s a better application of their careers and talent. Less preseason, more playing in games that have the right balance of financial reward as well as exposure.”
But at the same time, Jerry doesn’t have the support of the players. Ever since Goodell floated the idea of an NFL expansion, the players have certainly been against it, considering their health and safety. Back in 2025, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes expressed his concerns about an 18th game, noting, “I’m not a big fan of it.”
The Cincinnati Bengals quarterback, Joe Burrow, meanwhile, floated the idea of a second bye week if the league is actually considering regular-season expansion.
But most importantly, even if Jerry Jones or the NFL wants an additional game, they still have to face a massive problem: the NFLPA. In February 2026, NFLPA interim executive director David White said players had “no appetite” for an 18-game regular season. He said players wouldn’t entertain changes that harmed player health, recovery, and their ability to compete at a high level.
At the same time, the current CBA doesn’t allow the NFL to simply add an 18th game. The NFL-NFLPA collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2030 season and specifically prevents the league from unilaterally increasing the regular season to 18 games. Meanwhile, after JC Tretter became the NFLPA executive director earlier this year, he admitted that the union will only begin discussions after determining what its players want.
“There are things that are not good for our players that we need to make sure we’re protecting them from. And as of right now, those are all subjects of bargaining,” he said. “The league can’t expand past 10 international games. The league’s at 17 games in the CBA, that is where we’re at, and we’re going to make sure we defend our players and their health and safety, because our guys feel they know what this feels like.”
That said, while Jerry Jones is optimistic that the NFL is getting closer to reducing the preseason games to two while expanding the regular season to 18 games, it still remains to be seen how this scenario will eventually unfold. So far, the league’s idea for an additional game hasn’t been received very well by the players.