2018 NFL season

The 2018 NFL season will be the 99th season of the National Football League (NFL). The season is set begin on September 6, 2018 in the Super Bowl LII champions home team in the NFL Kickoff Game. The season will conclude with Super Bowl LIII the league's championship game, on February 3, 2019 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. ==Regular season==The 2018 regular season's 256 games will played over a 17-week schedule which will begin on September 6. Each of the league's 32 teams plays a 16-game schedule, with one bye week for each team. The slate also features games on Monday Nights. There are games played on Thursday, including the National Football League Kickoff game in prime time on September 6 and games on Thanksgiving Day. The regular season will conclude with a full slate games of 16 games on December 30, all of which will be intra-division matchups, as it has been since. ;Scheduling formula Under the NFL's current scheduling formula, each teams plays the other three teams in its own division twice. In addition a team plays against all four teams in one other division from each conference. The final two games on a team's schedule are against the two team's in the team's own conference in the divisions the team was not set to play which finished the previous season in the same rank in their division (e.g. the team which finished first in its division the previous season would play each other team in its conference that also finished first in its respective division). The preset division parings for 2018 will be as follows.{| border=0 style="margin: 0 0 0 1.5;"|- valign="top"|   Intra-conference AFC East vs AFC South AFC West vs AFC North NFC East vs NFC South NFC West vs NFC North | style="padding-left:40px;" |   Inter-conference AFC East vs NFC North AFC North vs NFC South AFC South vs NFC East AFC West vs NFC West |} The entire schedule will be released sometime in April 2018. ==Head coaching and front office personnel changes== ===Head Coaches=== ====Offseason===={| class="wikitable"|-! Team! 2017 Head Coach! 2017 interim! 2018 replacement! Reason for leaving! class="unsortbale" |Story/accomplishments|-| style="text-align:center;" |New York Giants| style="text-align:center;" |Ben McAdoo| style="text-align:center;" |Steve Spagnuolo| style="text-align:center;" |TBA| style="text-align:center;" |Fired|McAdoo became the team's head coach in 2016, leading the giants to a 2-10 record last season. But he was fired along with General Manager Jerry Reese on December 4, 2017. After nearly two seasons as head coach Steve Spagnuolo was named interim coach. The search is on for a new head coach. .|} ===Front office personnel=== ====Offseason===={| class="wikitable"|-!Team!Position!2017 office holder !Reason for leaving!2018 office holder!Notes|-| style="text-align:center;" |New York Giants| style="text-align:center;" |GM| style="text-align:center;" |Jerry Reese| rowspan=2 style="text-align:center;"|Fired | style="text-align:center;"|Kevin Abrams (Interim)|Being part of the organization since 1994 Jerry Reese was fired as the team's GM since 2007 leading them to two super bowls he was fired on December 4, 2017. Kevin Abrams was named interim GM until a premanent GM is hired. .|-| style="text-align:center;" |Cleveland Browns| style="text-align:center;" |VP/GM| style="text-align:center;" |Sashi Brown| style="text-align:center;" |John Dorsey|Sashi Brown was fired from the organization on December 7. He had been the team's attorney since 2013 and de facto GM since 2016. John Dorsey was named the new General manager of the team hours later. .|} ==Stadiums==Two teams, the Oakland Raiders and Carolina Panthers, are entering the final year of their lease agreements with their current stadium. ===Carolina Panthers===On December 17, 2017, Jerry Richardson, the Panthers' founding owner,  announced he was putting the team up for sale. Richardson had previously indicated the team would be put up for sale after his death (since his only living son left the team in 2009), but an exposé in Sports Illustrated accused Richardson of paying hush money to cover up questionable conduct, including racial slurs and sexually suggestive requests of employees, hastening Richardson's decision. The Panthers' lease on Bank of America Stadium expires after the 2018 season, which would allow any incoming owner to relocate the team out of the Carolinas to another market of their choice without penalty if they so desired. ===Oakland Raiders===The Raiders, prior to the 2017 season, had already committed to relocating to Las Vegas, Nevada as the Las Vegas Raiders once a new Las Vegas Stadium was constructed for them in 2020. In 2016, the Raiders signed a three-year extension with the Oakland Coliseum. The Raiders could choose to stay in the Oakland Coliseum for 2019 with another year-to-year extension (as they did in 2014 and 2015) or move to Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, which is undersized but (because of the Los Angeles Chargers' use of the even smaller StubHub Center) would not be the smallest stadium in the NFL. Raiders owner Mark Davis would like to begin playing games in Sam Boyd Stadium, at least for the preseason, as soon as 2018. ==Media=====Broadcast Rights=======Television====This will be the fifth year under the current broadcast contracts with ESPN, CBS, Fox, and NBC. This includes "cross-flexing" (switching) Sunday Afternoon games between CBS and Fox before or during the season (regardless of the conference of the visiting team). NBC will continue to air Sunday Night Football, the annual Kickoff game, and the primetime Thanksgiving game. ESPN will continue to air Monday Night Football and the Pro Bowl. CBS will also serve as the broadcaster of Super Bowl LIII. The Thursday Night Football contract will once again be placed up for bids after four years with CBS and two years with NBC. As in previous years, in accordance with NFL Network's retransmission consent agreements with cable providers, eight games (including Thursday night games and Saturday NFL Network Specials) will be exclusive to NFL Network. ====Digital==== After several years in which Verizon held exclusive rights to carry NFL Internet broadcasts on mobile devices 7 in or less in size (opting to only make them available to its own wireless subscribers), the 2018 season will be the first in which any device will be allowed to access those broadcasts. Verizon will still hold rights to stream all nationally televised games, as well as in-market Sunday a ternoon games; instead of only distributing them to its own subscribers, its numerous Internet brands (such as Yahoo!, which exclusively carried two International Series games in 2015 and 2017, along with AOL, go90, complex.com) will carry the games to all devices. ====Radio====Both of the NFL's national radio contracts, Westwood One for English language and Entravision for Spanish language, expired after the 2017 season. ==References==