Joe Burrow recently repeated his grand idea for an eventual 18-game NFL season, provided the league officially seeks to expand the schedule. Now the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback has a fellow proponent, with San Francisco 49ers star George Kittle telling "The Rich Eisen Show" this week he's "totally OK" with an additional regular-season game, as long as owners also provide a second bye week.
"It's inevitable ... it's gonna get to 18 games at some point, right?" Kittle said. "Ever since we got to 17 games, I was like, 'Just give us two byes.' ... I'm totally fine with that. Just give us two byes."
Burrow's proposal first surfaced in May, when he advocated for not only a second bye, but an NBA-style all-star break, in which he suggested the NFL could hold its Pro Bowl Games while giving all 32 teams off. Kittle, who's been voted into five Pro Bowls during his career, isn't only supportive of that. He also indicated to Eisen he'd be "all in" on an overhaul of the spring offseason program.
"Start camp mid-July," he suggested. "Start training camp two weeks earlier, (with a) ramp-up period. I'm all in for that. I just think (attending workouts for) two months in the spring is pretty aggressive. ... Technically OTAs (are) not mandatory anyway. If you're past Year 5, you're in the league for a reason."
His remarks come months after the NFL Players Association reportedly began crafting a proposal to NFL owners to reshape the offseason structure "as soon as 2025," with NFL Media indicating the new format would eliminate voluntary spring practices "in favor of a longer training camp ramp-up, with players reporting in mid-June to early July."
