If the NFL ever lengthens the regular season to 18 games, three players in the league this year will have some insight into what that feels like.
That’s because three NFL players — Ravens linebacker Dre’Mont Jones, Eagles linebacker Jaelan Phillips and Seahawks wide receiver Rashid Shaheed — have already played in 17 games this season and could play in their 18th games this weekend.
Those three players were traded during the season, from a team that hadn’t had its bye yet to a team that had. So they’ve been active and on the field every week, without getting a bye week.
Since the NFL extended the regular season to 17 games over 18 weeks, two players have so far played 18 games in a season: wide receiver Mike Williams last year, with the Jets and Steelers, and defensive tackle Leonard Williams in 2023, with the Giants and Seahawks.
In the modern era, playing 18 games in a season only became possible in 2021, when the NFL added a 17th regular season game and an 18th week to the season. But Williams and Williams are not the only players in NFL history to play 18 games in a season. In the early days of the NFL, schedules were not standardized and some teams played more games than others. From 1925 to 1930 the Frankford Yellow Jackets played more games than other NFL teams, and according to pro-football-reference.com, four Yellow Jackets players played in 19 games in a season, and another 11 Yellow Jackets played in 18 games in a season.
Before Williams did it, the last time an NFL player played in 18 games in a regular season was in 1930. If the NFL moves forward with the objective of extending the regular season to 18 games, it will become commonplace.