The 102nd season, which will see the return of pre-season games & fans, is slated to begin on Thursday, September 9, 2021 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. That’s five weeks from today, and as mentioned, the preseason gets going. That starts tonight with the Hall of Fame Game featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers & the Dallas Cowboys, who will also be apart of the opener for the regular season against the Buccaneers. The home team/champs winning percentage is at least 80%. Other games scheduled in Week one include 13 Sunday games on Fox & CBS including a CBS/Fox game of the week at 4:25 PM Eastern. Week One will wrap up with two primetime games: one on NBC with Sunday Night Football (16th season) and on Monday on ESPN with MNF (16th season and 52nd overall). Currently, it is scheduled to conclude on Sunday, February 13, 2022 in Los Angeles. For the 16th time since 2004, the season will begin with the defending champions hosting another opponent, and I believe it’s the first time the first game of the season is being played at the same venue the last game of the preceding schedule was played at (definitely in the past 17 years).
Unlike last year, the cause for concern is minimal, if it’s even there to begin with. Outside of the shuffling of several games, they still managed to play all 269 games, a major win. Right now I don’t expect any issues, and I think that they’ll get all 285 played this season, and on time.
On a related note to the game total, this season features the debut of a 17-game schedule, and fortunately it’s AFC vs NFC. It’s the first change of that type since 1978. As a result, everything will get pushed back, including the postseason, which remains at 14 teams (second season for that). They avoid a Superbowl / Valentines Day conflict this year. However, it’ll be a possibility in 2027, but they’ll likely get to 18 games by then