Question: When does the NFL season end?

2019 NFL season


The 2019 NFL season will be the 100th season of the National Football League (NFL). The season will tentatively begin on September 5, 2019, in the home stadium of the Super Bowl LIII champion (either Los Angeles Rams or New England). The season will conclude with Super Bowl LIV, the league's championship game, tentatively scheduled for February 2, 2020, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida.
Player movement

Retirements

Ryan Kalil - The five-time Pro Bowl center and three-time All Pro (two first team, one second team) retired on December 30 after 12 seasons, all with the Carolina Panthers [1]
Brian Orakpo - The four-time Pro Bowl linebacker announced his retirement on December 31. Orakpo played for the Washington Redskins and Tennessee Titans during his 10-season career.[2]
Julius Peppers - A nine-time Pro Bowl defensive end and six-time All-Pro (three first team, three second team), Peppers played for the Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers during his 17-year career. Recognized as NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2002 and named to the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team, Peppers retired on February 1, 2019.[3]
Darren Sproles - The three-time Pro Bowl and two-time first team All-Pro running back announced his retirement on July 15, 2018, citing that 2018 would be his final season.  During his 14-year career, Sproles played for the San Diego Chargers, New Orleans Saints, and Philadelphia Eagles.[4]
Kyle Williams - A six-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle and two-time All-Pro (one first team, one second team), Williams played his entire 13-season career with the Buffalo Bills and announced his retirement December 28, 2018.[5]
Others
Benjamin Watson[6]
Draft

The 2019 NFL Draft will be held from April 25–27 in Nashville, Tennessee.[7]
Officiating changes
Offseason
Walt Coleman III: With 30 seasons as an NFL official, Coleman was the longest-tenured official in the NFL before retiring after the previous season's Pro Bowl.[8] Coleman's call in the Tuck Rule Game was considered a defining moment in the rise of the New England Patriots dynasty of the 21st century; he would call 21 regular season and postseason Patriots games in his career, many marred by allegations of pro-Patriots bias,[9] and during his last regular-season game, Coleman was honored by the Patriots organization with a game ball. Meanwhile, Coleman was never assigned a Raiders game ever again.[10]
Pete Morelli: Morelli had spent 22 seasons as an NFL official before retiring after the previous season's Pro Bowl.[8][10]
Combined with the 2018 offseason retirements of Ed Hochuli, Terry McAulay, Gene Steratore, and Jeff Triplette, the league has been forced to replace six of its 17 referee positions within a one-year period.[10]


2019 deaths


Rick Forzano
Bob Kuechenberg
Kwamie Lassiter
John Michels
Turk Schonert
Preseason
Training Camps for the 2019 season will be held in late July through August. Teams will start training camp no earlier than 15 days before the team's first scheduled preseason game.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, with teams to be announced, is tentatively scheduled for August 1, 2019, and will be televised nationally by NBC. The game will be held at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, the same city where the league was founded 99 years prior.
The Los Angeles Rams will play one of their 2019 preseason games at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii, the former home of the Pro Bowl.[11]
NFL centennial promotions
On October 18, 2018, the NFL announced that it would commemorate its 100th season throughout 2019, beginning at Super Bowl LIII. An NFL 100 emblem will be featured in promotions across all NFL properties during the season, worn on jerseys as a patch, placed on game balls, and painted on fields.[12][13]
The Chicago Bears (who, as the Decatur Staleys, were one of the 14 charter members of the league) will also celebrate their centennial season with commemorative events throughout 2019. On November 15, 2018, the team unveiled a customized version of the league-wide centennial emblem (which will be worn on jerseys in place of the NFL-branded version), and announced that the team would introduce a throwback jersey.[14]
Regular season
The 2019 regular season's 256 games will be played over a 17-week schedule that is expected to begin on September 5, 2019. Each of the league's 32 teams will play a 16 game schedule, with one bye week. There will be games on Monday nights and on Thursdays, Including the National Football League Kickoff game and games on Thanksgiving Day. The regular season will conclude with a full slate of 16 games, tentatively scheduled for December 29, all of which are expected to be intra-division matchups, as it had 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 remaining teams in the same conference that finished in the same position in their respective divisions (e.g., the team that finished fourth in its division will play all three other teams in the conference that also finished fourth). The division parings for 2019 will be as follows:





Intra-conference

AFC East vs AFC North

AFC West vs AFC South

NFC East vs NFC North

NFC West vs NFC South

Inter-conference

AFC East  vs NFC East

AFC North vs NFC West

AFC South vs NFC South

AFC West  vs NFC North

The entire schedule will be released in April 2019
Highlights of the 2019 season include:
NFL Kickoff Game: The Kickoff Game is scheduled for September 5. Following previous precedent, it will feature the Super Bowl LIII champion (either the New England Patriots or Los Angeles Rams) and, barring a scheduling conflict, will be hosted at that team's home stadium. it will be televised nationally by NBC.
NFL International Series: Five games will be held outside the United States in 2019. In addition to the Jacksonville Jaguars and the three teams hosting an annual game abroad as part of their relocation agreements (the Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, and Oakland Raiders), the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will also host a home game abroad in 2019 as part of their agreement to host Super Bowl LV in 2021. Opponents, dates and times will be released with the rest of the schedule in April 2019.[15][16]
NFL London Games: Four games will be played in London: Houston Texans vs. Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals vs. Los Angeles Rams, Carolina Panthers vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Chicago Bears vs. Oakland Raiders.  The Texans-Jaguars game and one other game will be staged at Wembley Stadium, the former as part of the Jaguars' long-term agreement to play an annual game at Wembley.  The remaining two games will be played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after construction delays prevented the stadium from opening in time for the 2018 game scheduled there.  Dates and times will be released at a later date.[17][18]
NFL Mexico Game: The NFL will play one game between the at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City in 2019. It will be between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers.
Thanksgiving Day: As has been the case since 2006, three games will be played on November 28, including the traditional afternoon doubleheader hosted by the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys respectively, as well as a primetime game.
Postseason

The 2019 Playoffs are tentatively scheduled to begin on the weekend of January 4–5, 2020, with the Wild Card Playoff round. The four winners of these games will visit the top two seeds in each conference in the Divisional round games, tentatively scheduled for  January 11–12. The winners of those games will advance to the Conference championships tentatively scheduled for January 19. Starting With The AFC Championship Game which will begin at 3:00 PM E.T on CBS. Followed By the NFC Championship Game which will begin at at 6:30 PM E.T on Fox. The 2020 Pro Bowl will be held at a site to be announced, tentatively scheduled for January 26 and will be broadcast on ESPN. Super Bowl LIV, tentatively scheduled for February 2, will be played at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Fox.
Head coaching and front office personnel changes
Head coaches
Off-season


Front office personnel
Off-season


Stadiums
This will be the third and final season for the Los Angeles Chargers at ROKiT Field at Dignity Health Sports Park,[42] and this will also be the fourth and final season for the Los Angeles Rams at United Airlines Memorial Coliseum (as each stadium will be known in 2019 under new naming rights deals). Both the Chargers and the Rams will move to Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, California in 2020.
A buyout window in the Buffalo Bills' lease on New Era Field opens after the 2019 season ends. The window allows the team to cancel its lease on the stadium for a $28 million fee and relocate. If the Bills choose not to exercise the buyout window, they will not be allowed to relocate until the lease expires after the 2022 season.[43]
Raiders relocation

The Oakland Raiders' lease on Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum expires after the 2018 season. The team is slated to move to Las Vegas, Nevada once Las Vegas Stadium is completed; it is currently scheduled to open in 2020. The Coliseum management has expressed a reluctance to allow the Raiders to continue using the Coliseum after the lease expires unless the team pays more to cover the losses the Coliseum incurs by hosting Raiders games. In December 2018, the city of Oakland filed a lawsuit against the Raiders and the NFL seeking financial damages and unpaid debt, claiming the proposed relocation is illegal but not asking for an injunction forcing the team to stay. The Raiders have stated that if any legal action were filed against them, that they would not renew with the Coliseum and find another, undetermined, temporary home for 2019 until Las Vegas Stadium is finished.[44] As of January 2019, the three sites being considered for the Raiders in 2019 are Oracle Park in San Francisco, SDCCU Stadium in San Diego, and Mackay Stadium in Reno, Nevada,[45] with lobbyists for Tucson, Arizona also claiming that their city and its Arizona Stadium are also being considered as a longshot.[46]
Media
This will be the sixth 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. Fox will continue to air Thursday Night Football alongside with NFL Network, with Amazon Video and Twitch.tv continuing to simulcast those games online in the second and final year of the two sites' current contract. Fox will also broadcast Super Bowl LIV.
In November 2018, ESPN announced that it would air coverage for all three days of the 2019 NFL Draft on ABC, replacing Fox's broadcast television simulcast of NFL Network in 2018. ABC's coverage will cater towards a mainstream audience and be hosted by the panel of ESPN's College GameDay, while ESPN and NFL Network will continue to carry more conventional coverage of the draft.[47]