This one is straightforward: Thursday Night Football games are by and large trash: lots of penalties, sloppy play, big margins. And this makes sense: if Thursday Night Football games were consistently better, it would refute the need for practice and recovery weeks in general.
So, with a hat tip to @rchatter29 on Twitter, this is the way to handle it:
1. Move to two bye weeks per team. That expands the season to 18 weeks, rather than 17. Bye weeks begin as early as Week 2, and run through Week 16 now.
2. The week 1 game does not "count" for the Thursday night slate; there's no rest issue there.
3. Every team gets a bye week prior to their Thursday night game, in addition to one other bye week somewhere else in the schedule. This ensures 10 days of rest on either side of the game.
4. Every team gets a Thursday night game. The week 1 teams get 2.
5. Start the Thursday night slate in Week 3.
The math works out fine, too, for a 32-team league.
Week 1 - doesn't count for the Thursday Night slate
Week 2 - no game
Week 3 - 1/2
Week 4 - 3/4
Week 5 - 5/6
Week 6 - 7/8
Week 7 - 9/10
Week 8 - 11/12
Week 9 - 13/14
Week 10 - 15/16
Week 11 - 17/18
Week 12 (Thanksgiving) - 19/20, 21/22, 23/24
Week 13 - 25/26
Week 14 - 27/28
Week 15 - 29/30
Week 16 - 31/32
Week 17 - probably Saturday games
Week 18 - everybody on Sunday
This lengthens the season and gives NFL players more rest in general. Who says no?
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