2020 NFL season

This article is about the American football season in the United States. For the Gaelic football season in Ireland, see 2020 National Football League (Ireland).

2020 National Football League season

Regular season
Duration	September 10, 2020 (2020-09-10) – January 3, 2021 (2021-01-03)
Playoffs
Start date	January 9, 2021
Super Bowl LV
Date	February 7, 2021
Site	Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida
Pro Bowl
Date	January 31, 2021

The 2020 NFL season will be the 101st season of the National Football League (NFL). Pending developments in the ongoing 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, the season will begin on September 10, 2020, with the NFL Kickoff Game, expected to be hosted by the defending Super Bowl LIV champion Kansas City Chiefs. The season will conclude with Super Bowl LV, the league's championship game on February 7, 2021 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

The Oakland Raiders became the Las Vegas Raiders on January 22, 2020 and are scheduled to relocate to the Las Vegas metropolitan area prior to the season, becoming the first NFL team to be based in the state of Nevada.

New collective bargaining agreement

In March 2020, the league and the players association agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that will run through the 2030 season. The previous CBA that was signed after the 2011 NFL lockout would have expired after this 2020 season, and thus the league and the NFLPA wanted to conclude a new deal to avoid another labor dispute.

Among the major changes in the new CBA include:

• expanding the playoffs from 12 to 14 teams as early as this 2020 season.
• expanding from a 16-game to a 17-game regular season in 2021 at the earliest, along with a corresponding reduction of the preseason from four games to three.
• players receiving 48 percent of the league's overall revenue starting in 2021 (up from 47 percent under the previous 2011 CBA), which would increase to 48.8 percent when the regular season expands to 17 games.
• Team rosters increasing from 53 to 55 players, while also allowing two additional active players on game days.
• Shortening the drug testing window from four months to two weeks at the start of training camp, and eliminating automatic suspensions solely based on positive tests.
• "a neutral decision-maker" will now replace the NFL Commissioner on ruling most discipline cases.

Officiating changes

Referee Walt Anderson was promoted to an NFL senior vice president in charge of the officiating training and development program, a newly created position that will work independently from the league's head of officiating Alberto Riveron. The new position was created as part of the 2019 CBA between the league and the NFL Referees Association.

Player movement

The 2020 NFL League year and trading period will begin on March 18. On March 16, teams were allowed to exercise options for 2020 on players who have 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 2019 contracts and who have fewer than three accrued seasons of free agent credit. Teams are 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 the agent of players who were set to become unrestricted free agents.

Free agency

The league started free agency as originally scheduled on March 18, 2020, despite the ongoing 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic.

Trades

The following notable trades were made during the 2020 league year:

Notable retirements

• TE Antonio Gates – Eight-time Pro Bowler and Five-Time All-Pro (three first-team and two second-team). Played for the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers during his entire 16-year career.
• LB Luke Kuechly – Seven-time Pro Bowler, seven-time All-Pro (five first-team and two second-team), 2012 Defensive Rookie of the Year, 2013 Defensive Player of the Year, and 2017 Art Rooney Award winner. Played for the Carolina Panthers during his entire eight-year career.
• QB Eli Manning – Four-time Pro Bowler, two-time Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl MVP (XLII & XLVI), first overall selection in the 2004 NFL Draft, and 2016 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award co-winner. Played for the New York Giants during his entire 16-year career.
• RB Darren Sproles – Three-time Pro Bowler, two-time First-Team All-Pro and Super Bowl LII champion. Played for the San Diego Chargers, New Orleans Saints, and Philadelphia Eagles during his 15-year career.
• FS Eric Weddle – Six-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro (two first-team and three second-team). Played for the San Diego Chargers, Baltimore Ravens, and Los Angeles Rams during his 13-year career.
• G Marshal Yanda – Eight-time Pro Bowler, seven-time All-Pro (two first-team and five second-team), and Super Bowl XLVII champion. Played for the Baltimore Ravens during his entire 13-year career.

Other retirements

• Mike Adams
• Lorenzo Alexander
• Garrett Celek
• Vernon Davis
• Rhett Ellison
• Ramon Foster
• Wes Horton
• Davon House
• Lamarr Houston
• Zach Line
• Kyle Long
• Ron Parker
• Jeremiah Sirles

• Benjamin Watson

Draft

Main article: 2020 NFL Draft

The 2020 NFL Draft is scheduled for April 23–25, 2020 in Paradise, Nevada, coinciding with the Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas. The Cincinnati Bengals, by virtue of finishing last overall in 2019, will hold the first overall selection.

Rule changes

Rule changes for the 2020 season are scheduled to be voted on at the NFL owners' spring meeting in May 2020.

2020 deaths

Members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Chris Doleman

Doleman, a defensive end, spent ten years of his 15-year NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings, along with shorter stints near the end of his career with the Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2012. He died January 28, age 58.

Willie Wood

Wood, a safety who spent his entire career with the Green Bay Packers, was inducted into the Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 1989. He died February 3, age 83.

Others

• Larry Eisenhauer
• Del Shofner
• Sam Wyche

Preseason

Training Camps for the 2020 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 will be played on August 6 between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. The game will be broadcast on a network to be determined (while NBC holds the rights to this game, it coincides with the 2020 Summer Olympics, which NBC also holds the U.S. rights to). The Cowboys are represented in the Hall of Fame Class of 2020 by former coach Jimmy Johnson and safety Cliff Harris. The Steelers are represented by former coach Bill Cowher and strong safeties Troy Polamalu and Donnie Shell.

Regular season

The 2020 regular season's 256 games will be played over a 17-week schedule that will begin on Thursday, September 10, 2020. Each of the league's 32 teams will play a 16-game schedule, with one bye week for each team. The slate also includes games on Monday Nights. There will be games on Thursdays, including the National Football League Kickoff game in prime time on September 10 and games on Thanksgiving Day. The regular season will conclude with a full slate of 16 games on Sunday, January 3, 2021, all of which are expected to be intra-division matchups, as it had been since 2010.

The league will announce the regular season schedule in April 2020.

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 the previous season (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 2020 will be as follows:

Intra-conference AFC East vs AFC West AFC North vs AFC South NFC East vs NFC West NFC North vs NFC South

Inter-conference AFC East vs NFC West AFC North vs NFC East AFC South vs NFC North AFC West vs NFC South

Highlights of the 2020 season will include (with specific teams, dates and times to be determined at a later date):

• NFL Kickoff Game: The 2020 season will begin with the Kickoff Game on Thursday, September 10, 2020, broadcast by NBC. It is expected to be hosted by the defending Super Bowl LIV champion Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs' Major League Baseball counterpart, the Kansas City Royals, were originally scheduled for a home afternoon game on that day (the Chiefs' and Royals' respective stadiums share parking facilities). However, the Royals and Oakland Athletics agreed to move that game to September 8 (as part of a doubleheader) in order to avoid any potential scheduling conflict, such as the conflict that occurred with the Baltimore Ravens and Baltimore Orioles in 2013.
• NFL International Series: Five games will be held outside the United States in 2020:
  • NFL London Games: Four games will be played in London, two of them at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the other two at Wembley Stadium. The two games at Wembley Stadium will be hosted by the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are in the eighth and final year of their long-term agreement to play an annual game at the venue. The games at Tottenham will be hosted by the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins.
  • NFL Mexico Game: On January 29, 2020, Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that Estadio Azteca in Mexico City would continue hosting one game each in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. The 2020 game will be hosted by the Arizona Cardinals against an opponent to be determined.
• Thanksgiving Day: As has been the case since 2006, three games will be played on Thursday, November 26, including the traditional afternoon doubleheader hosted by the Detroit Lions (on CBS) and the Dallas Cowboys (on Fox), and the Thanksgiving night game (on NBC), which has traditionally featured a division rivalry.

Postseason

The 2020–21 NFL Playoffs are scheduled to begin on the weekend of January 9–10, 2021 with the Wild Card Playoff Round. With the passage of a new CBA in March 2020, the playoffs will expand to 14 teams. Unlike in previous postseasons (when there were two Wild Card teams in each conference, and the conference's top two seeds receive byes), there will be three Wild Card teams in each conference and only the conference's top seed receives a bye. To be determined at a later date is how the six Wild Card games will be scheduled, and whether the league for the first time schedules one of them on Monday night, January 11.

The top seed in the conference will then play the lowest remaining seed, while the other two remaining teams play each other, in the Divisional Round games, scheduled for January 16–17. The winners of those games will advance to the Conference Championships scheduled for January 24. The 2021 Pro Bowl is scheduled for January 31 at a site to be announced. Super Bowl LV will be played on February 7 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

Head coaching and front office personnel changes

Head coaches

Off-season

Team	Departing coach	Interim coach	Incoming coach	Reason for leaving	Notes
Carolina Panthers	Ron Rivera	Perry Fewell	Matt Rhule	Fired	Rivera was fired on December 3, 2019, after going 5–7 (.417) in the first 12 games of the season. In 8+ seasons as the Panthers head coach, they were 79–67–1 (.541), with four playoff appearances including three NFC South division titles and one Super Bowl appearance. Fewell, the defensive backs coach, took over on an interim basis until the end of the season. Fewell went 0–4 as interim head coach. Rhule, who had spent the previous seven seasons as college football head coach of Temple and Baylor with a 47–43 (.522) record, was hired on January 7.
Cleveland Browns	Freddie Kitchens		Kevin Stefanski		Kitchens was fired on December 29, 2019, after going 6–10 (.375) in one season as head coach. Stefanski, who previously served as the offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, was hired on January 13. He was on the Vikings staff for 14 years. This is his first head coaching position at any level.
Dallas Cowboys	Jason Garrett		Mike McCarthy	Contract expired	On January 5, following several days of speculation, the Cowboys announced they would not renew Garrett's contract when it expires January 14. The Cowboys were 85–67 (.559) in 9​1⁄2 seasons under Garrett, making the playoffs 3 times but never advancing past the divisional round. McCarthy was hired as the Cowboys' new coach on January 6. He had spent the 2019 season out of football after 12+ seasons as the Green Bay Packers head coach with a record of 135–85–2 (.613) with nine playoff appearances and one Super Bowl championship.
New York Giants	Pat Shurmur		Joe Judge	Fired	Shurmur was fired on December 30, 2019, after going 9–23 (.281) in two seasons as the Giants' head coach, with no playoff appearances. Judge was hired on January 8, after serving most recently as the special teams coordinator for the New England Patriots from 2015–2019, as well as the wide receivers coach in 2019. This is his first head coaching position at any level.
Washington Redskins	Jay Gruden	Bill Callahan	Ron Rivera		After an 0–5 start, Gruden was fired on October 7, 2019. He had a 35–49–1 (.418) record for his 5+ season tenure with the Redskins, with one playoff appearance in 2015. Callahan, the team's assistant head coach/offensive line coach, was previously the head coach of the Oakland Raiders in 2002 and 2003, with a record of 15–17 (.469) and one Super Bowl appearance, finished out the 2019 season with a 3–8 (.273) record. Rivera, who had spent most of the previous nine seasons as head coach of the Carolina Panthers, was hired on January 1, 2020.

Front office personnel

Off-season

Team	Position	Departing office holder	Incoming office holder	Reason for leaving	Notes
Cleveland Browns	General manager	John Dorsey	Andrew Berry	Mutual decision	Dorsey and the Browns parted ways on December 31, 2019, after three seasons. Berry was hired on January 28, 2020 as the Browns' general manager and executive vice president of football operations. He served as the Philadelphia Eagles' vice president of football operations in 2019, and had worked for the Browns from 2016 to 2018 as vice president of player personnel. At age 32, he is the youngest general manager in NFL history.
Houston Texans	General manager	by committee	Bill O'Brien	N/A	O'Brien was named general manager in addition to his head coaching duties on January 28, 2020. O'Brien, along with executive vice president Jack Easterby, had served as a committee of de facto co-general managers in the 2019 season, with O'Brien having final say.
Jacksonville Jaguars	Executive vice president of football operations	Tom Coughlin	Position eliminated	Fired	Coughlin was fired on December 18, 2019, after three seasons with the Jaguars. The team announced after the season that Coughlin's position will not be filled and that head coach Doug Marrone and general manager Dave Caldwell will return in 2020.
Washington Redskins	President	Bruce Allen	TBD		Allen was fired December 30, 2019, after ten years with the Redskins.

Stadiums

• This is planned to be the first season that the Los Angeles Chargers and the Los Angeles Rams will share SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The Rams had played at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the past four seasons, and the Chargers had played at Dignity Health Sports Park for the past three seasons. SoFi Stadium will become the third stadium, and second to be in current use, since the 1970 AFL–NFL merger to be shared by two NFL teams (MetLife Stadium, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is home to the New York Giants and New York Jets, as was its predecessor, Giants Stadium).
• The Raiders are scheduled to relocate from Oakland to the Las Vegas area and play their home games at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada. NFL team owners had previously approved the move on March 27, 2017, but the Raiders remained at Oakland Coliseum until the completion of their new Las Vegas stadium. The Raiders made the move to Las Vegas official on January 22, 2020.
• Prior to the 2020 season, the Buffalo Bills have a buyout window in their lease with New Era Field, allowing them to cancel it for a $29 million fee. If the Bills choose not to opt out, the team cannot exit the lease until it expires at the end of the 2022 season and would be liable for a $400 million penalty if they overturned the clause in court. The Bills are not expected to opt out of the lease, since plans for a second New Era Field are still in the earliest preliminary discussions as of 2019 and conditions in the lease also prohibited founding owner Ralph Wilson and his estate from selling the franchise to anyone who would relocate the team out of Buffalo, which current owners Kim and Terry Pegula have no plans to do. Commissioner Goodell gave an ultimatum during the state of the league address giving the team "the next several months, if not sooner" before they "(have) to settle" the matter. On January 31, 2020, the team formally stated they would not exercise the buyout option.

Uniforms

Currently, the Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Rams, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, are confirmed to be getting uniform rebrands for the 2020 season.

Media

This will be the seventh 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 with the latter being simulcasted on ABC. This will be the third year that Fox will air Thursday Night Football alongside the NFL Network.

To be determined at a later date is which networks will broadcast the six Wild Card playoff games under the new 14-team postseason format. During the past six seasons under the 12-team format, ESPN, CBS, Fox and NBC were each given one of four Wild Card games.

CBS will televise Super Bowl LV. Under the current rotation, NBC was originally planned to broadcast the game. However, NBC traded the game to CBS in exchange for Super Bowl LVI, which will fall during the 2022 Winter Olympics as the first to be scheduled during an ongoing Olympic Games (NBC also holds the U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics).

For the second consecutive year, the NFL Draft will be televised on ABC, ESPN and the NFL Network.

NBC normally airs the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, but because of NBC's coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics (which NBC holds the U.S. rights to), the preseason game will air on FOX.

Although ESPN's current Monday Night Football deal expires in 2021, and the contracts with CBS, Fox and NBC end in 2022, the league may begin negotiations on new broadcast deals in 2020.

Prior to the 2020 season, the league has the option to cancel DirecTV's exclusive contract to air NFL Sunday Ticket, the league's out-of-market sports package. DirecTV has held exclusive rights since the package was introduced in 1994.

The digital co-streaming rights for Thursday Night Football also expire prior to the 2020 season. Amazon held the rights from 2017 through 2019. Amazon's gaming-streamer service Twitch also carried the games in 2018 and 2019 as a request from the league that the streams be made available for free.

Personnel notes

Tony Romo, CBS's lead color commentator, renewed his contract with CBS in a long-term, $17 million per year deal, the most lucrative contract for a sports commentator in NFL history. Romo's contract was set to expire during the preseason, but CBS included a right of first refusal clause in his previous contract allowing them to match other networks' offers.