NFL owners voted to expand the regular season from 16 to 17 games this year. The 2021 regular season will be the first in NFL history with 17-regular games. The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was negotiated last year, and it allows the NFL to extend the regular season games to 17.
This season will be scheduled to start with the traditional Thursday night opener on September 9th, 2021 and it will extend the regular season until January 9th 2022 for the 22nd week.
