2017 NFL Season
From Iwe
| 2017 National Football League season | |||
| Regular season | |||
| Duration | September 7, 2017–December 31, 2017 | ||
| Playoffs | |||
| Start date | January 6, 2018 | ||
| Super Bowl LII | |||
| Date | February 4, 2018 | ||
| Site | U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota | ||
| Pro Brawl | |||
| Date | January 28, 2018 | ||
| Site | Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida | ||
| |||
The 2017 NFL season, the 98th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL), will begin on September 7, 2017, with the defending Super Bowl LI champion, New England Patriots hosting the Kansas City Chiefs. The season will conclude with Super Bowl LII, the league's championship game, on February 4, 2018, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
For the second consecutive year, a team relocated to the Los Angeles metropolitan area, as the former San Diego Chargers announced their intent to relocate to the city in January 2017.
Player movements and retirements
The 2017 NFL League year began on March 9 at 4:00 p.m. ET. On March 7, clubs were allowed to contact and enter into contract negotiations with the agents of players who became unrestricted free agents upon the expiration of their contracts two days later. On March 9, clubs exercised options for 2017 on players who have option clauses in their contracts, submitted qualifying offers to their restricted free agents with expiring contracts and to whom desire to retain a Right of Refusal/Compensation, submitted a Minimum Salary Tender to retain exclusive negotiating rights to their players with expiring 2016 contracts and who have fewer than three accrued seasons of free agent credit, and teams were required to be under the salary cap using the "Top-51" definition (in which the 51 highest paid-players on the team's payroll must have a collected salary cap hit below the actual cap). The 2017 trading period also began the same day.
Free agency
Trades
Notable retirements
- Tony Romo: On April 4, before his release from the Dallas Cowboys, Romo announced his retirement from professional football. Shortly after his release, it was announced by CBS that he would join the network as a lead NFL game analyst, joining a team also consisting of Jim Nantz and Tracy Wolfson.
- At one point, Jay Cutler had also announced retirement, but later rescinded and signed with the Miami Dolphins. Cutler previously played for the Chicago Bears.
Others
Draft
Template:Details The 2017 NFL Draft was held on April 27–29, 2017 in Philadelphia. The Cleveland Browns selected Myles Garrett with the first overall pick.
Preseason
Regular season
The 2017 regular season's 256 games will be played over a 17-week schedule which began on September 7. 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 7 and games on Thanksgiving Day. The regular season will conclude with a full slate of 16 games on Sunday, December 31, all of which will be intra–division matchups, as it has been since 2010.
- Scheduling formula
Under the NFL's current scheduling formula, each team 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 teams 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 pairings for 2017 will be as follows.
|
Intra-conference |
Inter-conference |
Highlights of the 2017 schedule include:
In-season scheduling changes
Regular season standings
Division
Clinched playoff berth.
Clinched division title.
Clinched first-round bye.
Eliminated from playoff contention.
Conference
Template:2017 AFC Standings Template:2017 NFC Standings
Postseason
- Main article 2017–18 NFL playoffs
The 2017 playoffs will begin on the weekend of January 6–7, 2018 with the Wild Card playoff round. The four winners of these playoff games will visit the top two seeded teams in each conference in the Divisional round games, which will be played on the weekend of January 13–14, 2018. The winners of those games will advance to the Conference championship games, which will be held on January 21, 2018. The two Conference champions will advance to Super Bowl LII which will be held on February 4, 2018 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The 2018 Pro Bowl will be held at Camping World Stadium in Orlando on January 28, 2018.
Playoff-clinching scenarios for Week 17
- Note: Scenarios involving ties are omitted for simplicity.
Clinched playoff berth
Clinched division title
Clinched first round bye
Clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs
Eliminated from postseason contention
Notable events
Anthem protests
- Main article: U.S. national anthem protests (2016–present)
Sale of the Carolina Panthers
2017 deaths
The following people associated with the NFL (or AFL) have died in 2017.
Dan Rooney
Members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
- See also: Pro Football Hall of Fame
Other notable deaths
Rule changes
Records, milestones, and notable statistics
Awards
Players of the week/month
The following were named the top performers during the 2017 season:
| Week/ Month | Offensive Player of the Week/Month | Defensive Player of the Week/Month | Special Teams Player of the Week/Month | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AFC | NFC | AFC | NFC | AFC | NFC | |
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Head coaching and front office personnel changes
Head coaches
Offseason
| Team | 2016 head coach | 2016 interim | 2017 replacement | Reason for leaving | Story/accomplishments |
|---|
In-season
| Team | 2017 head coach | Reason for leaving | Interim replacement | Story/accomplishments |
|---|
Front office personnel
Offseason
| Team | Position | 2016 office holder | Reason for leaving | 2017 office holder | Notes |
|---|
In-season
| Team | Position | 2017 office holder | Reason for leaving | Interim replacement | Notes |
|---|
Stadiums
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons will play their first season at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, after playing in the Georgia Dome for the previous 25 seasons.
Relocations
San Diego Chargers' relocation to Los Angeles
Oakland Raiders' relocation to Las Vegas
- Main article: Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas
Attendance
New uniforms and patches
Media
Broadcast rights
Television
Digital
Radio
Commercials
Personnel changes
Most watched regular season games
- DH = doubleheader; SNF = NBC Sunday Night Football
| Rank | Date | Matchup | Network | Viewers (millions) | TV rating | Window | Significance | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
*Note — Late DH matchups listed in table are the matchups that were shown to the largest percentage of the market. Template:Ordered list
