NFL owners have officially voted on Tuesday to approve a 17-game regular-season schedule and a three-game preseason beginning in the 2021 season.
Reports back in December signaled that a 17th regular-season game was coming in order to help offset revenue losses from a 2020 season impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Team owners met virtually to ratify the proposal and make it so for the 2021 season and beyond. That means there will officially be 272 regular-season games in 2021.
So who are the Chiefs set to play during the 17th game and where is it set to be played? Well, it’s set to be an interconference matchup between AFC and NFC teams. The AFC West will play the NFC North in 2021. Where the Chiefs finished in the standings in 2020 is what will determine the specific matchup. As the winner of the division, they’ll face the winner of the NFC North, The Green Bay Packers.
Check it out:
The 17th games for 2021 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/G1SvzUoSPd
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) March 30, 2021
As for who gets to host the game the AFC teams will play host to the 17th game in 2021. NFC teams will play host in 2022, and then they’ll continue to rotate. We predicted as much back when this news first arrived in December. This will probably be what they do until they add an 18th regular-season game, of course.
With a bit of luck, fans will finally get the matchup between Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers that they were deprived of in 2019. Mahomes, of course, was dealing with a kneecap injury at the time and Matt Moore started the game in his place. This should be one of the marquee matchups to come from the additional games and if it lives up to the early hype, it’ll signal a job well done by the NFL.
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