The NFL has a short break before combine time, free agency and the draft
Don’t blink because the NFL will be back in less than two weeks.
Now that the Seattle Seahawks have been crowned Super Bowl champions, we move on to the 2026 season. It will all begin with the annual scouting meeting in Indianapolis from February 23 to March 2.
Announcement
Free agency will follow on March 9 with the two-day negotiation period. The league’s annual meeting begins March 29 in Phoenix.
The 10 teams that have hired a new coach will be able to begin offseason training programs on April 6. The other teams will be able to start on April 20th.
The NFL draft will be held in Pittsburgh April 23-25.
Here are some of the major upcoming NFL storylines:
International games
The league will play a record nine international games, including the first regular season games in Melbourne, Australia, Paris and Rio de Janeiro.
The San Francisco 49ers will face division rival Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a venue that can hold about 100,000 spectators.
Announcement
The Dallas Cowboys will be one of the teams playing in Rio. The league played two more matches in Brazil in Sao Paulo. The teams that will face each other in Paris have not been determined.
The other sites include three matches in London, one in Madrid, one in Mexico City and one in Munich.
The league aims to play 16 international games per season, but it will need to negotiate with the NFL Players Association to make that happen.
“I think you have to consider some things,” NFL executive Jeff Miller told the AP last week. “One is obviously our operations team has to make sure that the markets that we could potentially play in are good for us. That’s everything from the medical infrastructure to the hotels, to the training facilities and of course the surface, which has been a point of conversation. The travel back and forth is important. How will they be able to acclimatise when they come back? … So we have to understand from a scheduling point of view, knowing that we only play one game a week for the clubs, how that works with the travel involved and the distances they have to travel.”
Announcement
David White, the union’s interim executive director, said players “appreciate a global stage,” but the experience hasn’t always been great.
“Here’s the problem: They’ve gotten a lot of feedback that they don’t have good experiences because it’s inconsistent,” White said.
Expansion to 18 games
The league likely won’t get to 16 games internationally until it expands to 18 regular season games, which is “not a given” according to commissioner Roger Goodell.
“We are only limited by supply, not demand,” Miller said of international games. “There’s a huge demand internationally for NFL football to play. If you expand the inventory, maybe you’re in a place where every team can play a game internationally. That would be great for the group.”
Announcement
Goodell highlighted concerns about player safety, competitive issues, the potential need to add another bye and roster size as areas that must be addressed through collective bargaining before the league can expand to 18 games. The current CBA between the NFL and its players’ union expires in 2030.
White said the players have “no appetite” to expand the program, so conversations aren’t even imminent.
Changes in the rules
The NFL’s competitive committee and teams are expected to propose several rule changes that would require owners’ approval.
Banning butt thrusting could be among them. While the Philadelphia Eagles haven’t had the same success running the show this season, the referees have had trouble officiating it. A proposal banning the pushing and pulling of ball carriers could gain some support.
Announcement
The league is exploring reviewing replays to potentially include crackback blocks, low/clipping blocks, blindside blocks, intentional grounding (determining the receiver’s position on the field), and illegal formation on kickoffs (determining feet on the ground when the ball is touched).
Throwing a sanctions flag after reviewing the video would be a significant change if that happened. Replay review currently only allows you to collect an erroneously thrown flag.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL