2022 NFL season
The 2022 NFL season is scheduled to be the 103rd season of the National Football League (NFL). The season is scheduled to begin on September 8, 2022, with the defending Super Bowl LVI champion Los Angeles Rams hosting the NFL Kickoff Game, and end on January 8, 2023. The playoffs are scheduled to start on January 14 and will conclude with Super Bowl LVII, the league's championship game, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on February 12. The Washington Football Team was renamed as the Washington Commanders prior to the start of the season. Player  movement. The 2022 NFL league year and trading period began on March 16. On March 14, teams were allowed to exercise options for 2022 on players with option clauses in their contracts, submit qualifying offers to their pending restricted free agents, and submit a Minimum Salary Tender to retain exclusive negotiating rights to their players with expiring 2021 contracts and fewer than three accrued seasons of free agent credit. 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 combined salary  cap). On March 16, clubs were allowed to contact and begin contract negotiations with players whose contracts had expired and thus became unrestricted free agents. Free agency. Free agency began on March 16, 2022. Notable players to change teams included: Trades. The following notable trades were made during the 2022 league year: Retirements. Notable retirements Other retirements Draft. The 2022 NFL Draft was held in Las Vegas, Nevada from April 28 to April 30. Jacksonville, by virtue of having the worst record in , held the first overall selection and selected DE Travon Walker out of Georgia. Rule changes. The NFL  Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee announced the following policy changes on March 28: The following rule changes were approved at the NFL Owner's Meeting on March 28, 2022: Preseason. Training camps are planned for late July through August. The preseason is scheduled to begin on August 4 with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game. Las Vegas, represented in the Hall of Fame Class of 2022 by Richard Seymour and Cliff Branch, will face Jacksonville, represented by Tony Boselli. Regular season. The NFL will release the 2022 regular season schedule on May 12, at 8:00 p.m. EDT. The league  plans to announce select games in advance of the full schedule release. The season is planned to be played over an 18-week schedule beginning on September 8. Each of the league's 32 teams plays 17 games, with one bye week for each team. The regular season is scheduled to end on January 8, 2023; all games during the final weekend will be intra-division games, as it has been since . Each team plays the other three teams in its own division twice, one game against each of the four teams from a division in its own conference, one  game against each of the four teams from a division in the other conference, one game against each of the remaining two teams in its conference that finished in the same position in their respective divisions the previous season (e.g., the team that finished fourth in its division would play all three other teams in its conference that also finished fourth in their divisions), and one game against a team in another division in the other conference that also finished in the same position in their respective division the previous season. The division pairings for 2022 are as follows: Highlights  of the 2022 season will include: Scheduling changes. Week 18: Like last season, two games with playoff implications will be moved to the last Saturday of the regular season, January 7. Those games are scheduled to be played at 4:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time that day, and will be airing on ESPN, ABC, and ESPN+. This move will be in the same manner that the final "NBC Sunday Night Football" game will be announced following the conclusion of Week 17. Postseason. The 2022 playoffs are scheduled to begin with the Wild Card Round, with three Wild Card games  played in each conference. Wild Card Weekend is planned for January 14–16, 2023. In the Divisional Round scheduled for January 21–22, the top seed in the conference will play the lowest remaining seed and the other two remaining teams will play each other. The winners of those games will advance to the Conference Championships scheduled for January 29. Super Bowl LVII is scheduled for February 12 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Notable events. Brian Flores' discrimination lawsuit. On February 1, former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores sued the NFL, the Dolphins, the New York Giants, and the  Denver Broncos, alleging racism, violations of federal employment law, and that his interviews were a sham meant solely to fulfill the Rooney Rule. The lawsuit also alleges that during Flores' tenure with the Dolphins, team owner Stephen M. Ross pressured him to deliberately lose games, offering him $100,000 for each game he lost in order for the Dolphins to get better draft picks for the following season and that Ross fired Flores after he refused to comply with this pressure. The lawsuit seeks damages and injunctive relief in the form of changes to hiring, retention, termination, and pay transparency  practices for coaching and executive positions in the NFL. On April 6, former Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks and former assistant coach Ray Horton joined the lawsuit with similar allegations against the league, the Arizona Cardinals, Houston Texans, and Tennessee Titans. Uniforms. Alternate helmets. In June 2021, the NFL approved a rule that would allow teams to wear alternate helmets for the 2022 season, repealing a one-helmet rule put in place in 2013. Media. This will be the ninth and final season under the current broadcast contracts with CBS, Fox, and NBC. ESPN and ABC will be operating  under a transitory deal this season before new 11-year contracts for all four broadcasters begin in 2023. 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 NFL Hall of Fame game, the Kickoff Game, 1 other Preseason game and the Thanksgiving night game. As was the case in 2021, ESPN's rights to "Monday Night Football" also allow ABC to simulcast a doubleheader on the final Saturday of the season. Under ESPN's 2022  transitory deal, there will also be one "Monday Night Football" doubleheader on ESPN and ABC and one International Series game streamed on ESPN+, along with select coverage of the NFL scouting combine and full coverage of the draft on ESPN/ABC. This will be the first year in which "Thursday Night Football" will exclusively stream on Amazon Prime Video and Twitch. Fox and the NFL Network opted out of their final season of the 2018–2022 "TNF" deal, allowing Amazon to take over one season before their original 2023–2033 "TNF" agreement was to go into effect. NFL Network will continue to  televise select regular season games and coverage of the NFL Scouting Combine and Draft. In March 2022, the NFL renewed its national radio contract with Westwood One, which maintains its package of radio rights to all primetime, marquee, and playoff games, while adding audio coverage of other events such as the NFL Draft and NFL Honors. It also greatly expands the ability for its broadcasts to be distributed for free via digital platforms, including via local affiliates' "primary digital platforms", and via the NFL app. This will be the final season under DirecTV's deal for exclusive rights to the  NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market sports package. DirecTV has held exclusive rights since the package's launch in 1994. DirecTV executives have questioned the current value of NFL Sunday Ticket after losing money for the past few years. In September 2021, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suggested that NFL Sunday Ticket could be more attractive on the digital platform. Personnel changes. With Brian Griese leaving ESPN for a coaching job with San Francisco, ESPN announced on March 16 that it had hired Joe Buck and Troy Aikman — who were Fox's lead commentary team for 20 seasons — to a multi -year deal to become the new lead commentators of "Monday Night Football". With Buck's departure, it was reported that Fox planned to promote their #2 play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt to replace him, his partner on the lead team has not yet been announced. On March 23, Amazon announced that longtime NBC play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit would serve as its lead broadcast team for "Thursday Night Football". NBC subsequently promoted Mike Tirico to replace Michaels as lead play-by-play role for "Sunday Night Football"; Tirico had been Michaels ’ designated fill-in and second NFL play-by-play announcer since joining NBC in 2016. Melissa Stark is replacing Michele Tafoya as the sideline reporter on "SNF".