The NFL has spent much of the past year sailing through uncharted territory due to circumstances thrust upon them, but one new element to the 2021 season is entirely their own doing. During the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement, the league was empowered to activate a 17-game regular season as early as the 2021 season, and they opted to do so, meaning this season will mark the first of the 17-game schedule.
“That’s an unknown to all of us”, Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert commented in discussing the matter with Mike Florio in a recent interview. “We know what 16 is like.