The Big Lead

Nick Wright actually has a good idea to fix the NFL's scheduling issues

The league wants to go more global in future years, and they should fully embrace it.

By Matt Reed

Oct 20, 2024; London, United Kingdom; The Jacksonville Jaguars cheer team after the game against the New England Patriots during an NFL International Series game at Wembley Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter van den Berg-Imagn Images
Oct 20, 2024; London, United Kingdom; The Jacksonville Jaguars cheer team after the game against the New England Patriots during an NFL International Series game at Wembley Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter van den Berg-Imagn Images / Peter van den Berg-Imagn Images
facebooktwitter

The NFL has put a major emphasis on globalizing the league in recent years, but as the season continues to expand and teams have to travel further distances for games there's no question that players, coaches and the rest of the staffs have to deal with plenty of wear and tear.

RELATED: Travis Hunter might just be the NFL's version of Shohei Ohtani

With a looming 18-game schedule likely coming in the next few seasons, NFL players continue to be subjected to longer seasons despite still have the same number of bye weeks as when there were only 14 and 16 regular season games per season.

Fox Sports personality Nick Wright has an intriguing take though on how the league can solve this problem and provide NFL players with an extra bye over the course of the long season.

Next season, there will be seven regular season games abroad, including stops in Brazil, England, Germany, Ireland and Spain. As that number of games continues to increase each year, it's highly like that at some point soon every NFL team will be playing internationally at least once a season.

Wright's proposal is pretty simple; the league creates an International Week that allows for every team to play abroad and not only spread the league's exposure out over the course of a full slate of games but also give every team either a bye before or after their game.

Signage with mages of Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love and Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham
Sep 5, 2024; Sao Paolo, Brazil; Signage with mages of Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) and Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham (55) at the Neo Química Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

This would not only follow the timeline that suggests that NFL eventually pushes its season back one week so that it'll align with the Super Bowl occurring on Presidents' Day weekend, but then teams will finally have that second bye that they've been asking for in previous years.

MORE TOP STORIES from The Big Lead
NBA: LeBron is locked in on defense
NFL: Pre-Combine mock draft 
NFL: Where will Matthew Stafford land?
CFB: New Playoff proposals likely to make things worse

Home/NFL