An 18-game schedule doesn’t work for everyone Pittsburgh Steelers T-Shirt , but 17 games might do the trick Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones suggested last week to expand the NFL regular-season to 18 games, while reducing the preseason to only two games.Although owners and fans would benefit from an increase of quality product, it would be difficult to get the players on board unless it came with the corresponding 12.5-percent salary increase commensurate with the number of regular-season games played. But even if that long shot same through, it’s still difficult to add more wear-and-tear on players’ bodies with the longer season. The trade-off of losing two preseason games and replacing them with regular-season games isn’t likely enough of an incentive for the players to get on board. The question is whether there would be any change in the schedule which could benefit the players, owners, and also the fans.If we’re going to look at changing the schedule, let’s see if there are any other problems which could be solved along the way. The players are not fans of Thursday night games because of the short recovery and preparation week. We can fix that. Some teams don’t like giving up a home game to play games abroad. We can fix that too. And the casual fan simply isn’t going to watch four preseason games when many stars are playing in less than a half of maybe two of those games. Let’s definitely take care of that one.How can the league answer all of these problems at once, while making players, owners, and fans happy? It’s simple. Make the following changes to the NFL season:Two Preseason Games17 Regular-season GamesTwo Bye-Weeks Now for the specifics that answer all the problems...Two Preseason GamesThis is self-explanatory and Pittsburgh Steelers Hats , frankly, long overdue. Each team would only have one home and one away preseason game. Although coaches would like to have more games in order to evaluate players, that’s more than enough games for the fans.17 Regular-season GamesA 17-game NFL season seems a little tricky at first glance. Does a team get an extra home game, or road game? That answer helps with another problem: Every team will play one game at a neutral site. Teams would no longer have to give up a home game every time a game is played in England or Mexico. Not only that, the number of international games would be expanded. There would now be 16-games which could be played at various neutral sites. Additional sites could include Canada, high-profile college venues such as South Bend or ‘The Big House’, cities which no longer have an NFL team, such as St. Louis, or other NFL cities that need to meet a stadium lease requirement such as Pittsburgh.The matchups for the extra regular-season game would be an issue needing addressed, but there’s a variety of ways to do that. An additional cross-conference game would be intriguing, especially if all of those games became the ones for a neutral site. Imagine what this year‘s Steelers game could have been. If the cross-conference game goes against the division from the team that’s two years removed from playing again Pittsburgh Steelers Hoodie , and it’s based on last year‘s division standings, the Steelers would be matched up this year against the Eagles. What would that game look like in Beaver Stadium in State College, PA with a capacity of 106,572? The word “awesome” comes to mind.Two Bye-WeeksThe important part of adding an extra bye to the season would be proper placement. The additional bye would be guaranteed to take place the week before any team plays their Thursday night game. If player safety is really as important as everyone makes it out to be, this needs to happen. No more short weeks for players. And NFL fans should get a much better product for Thursday night football. Players would have 10 days off before every Thursday night game, and 9 days off afterwards while still having a bye-week at another point in the season.It’s worth mentioning that if a team is scheduled to play on Thursday in Week 2 of the season, they’d be starting off with a Week-1 bye. Although it’s not ideal, this practice isn’t really so outdated. From 1999 through 2001, the NFL had an odd number of teams before the Houston Texans joined the league. During those three seasons, there had to be a bye during every week of the season, including Week 1 and Week 17. Not perfect Youth Customized Pittsburgh Steelers Jerseys , but manageable.With 17 games and two byes, that would extend the NFL season to 19 weeks. That’s two additional weeks of advertising that can be sold at a much higher regular-season rate. That money can help with anything lost by having two less preseason games.Everyone WinsWith the exception of NFL coaches that would now have to make roster decisions with less preseason game tape on players, there are many benefits to a 17-game season. Fans get less preseason games, more regular-season games, plus games played in different venues. Owners would get the added revenue of the split profits of the additional regular-season game, as well as the additional money from those coveted commercial slots. Players would have an overall reduction of one total game, and would get a badly-needed bye before playing in any Thursday Night Football clash. Checking The BoxesLess preseason games? Check.No more short weeks for Thursday games? Check.International games not costing a team a home game? Check.We have a winner.Steelers Week 3 injury report: David DeCastro, Marcus Gilbert and Morgan Burnett all doubtful vs. Buccaneers The final injury report of the week for the Pittsburgh Steelers has officially listed two key offensive lineman as doubtful for the game against the Tampa Buccaneers and it seems very likely that at least one of them is all but guaranteed to miss the contest. With David DeCastro sitting out the last three days of practice and all of the week before, there is almost no chance he will be cleared to play on Monday given how much time he has missed and the nature of his injury. Marcus Gilbert has also been listed as doubtful after being limited on Saturday and sitting out the rest of the week, and it would be safe to say the starting right tackle is a game time decision at best as well.The status of Moran Burnett remains up in the air following a second missed day of practice while he deals with a groin injury. Like Gilbert, he has been listed a doubtful for Week 3 and fans should prepare for both players to be on the sidelines in Tampa. When speaking to reporters www.steelersfootballauthentics.com , although Gilbert was hopeful he might still recover in time, he could not commit to playing quite yet. Despite taking some reps in what he described as a “casual practice”, it was clear he needed to wait until Monday to see how his hamstring felt during warm ups before he would know for sure.Gilbert would be covered by Matt Feiler on the day if he cannot go, while B.J. Finney would replace DeCastro at right guard and a combination of Nat Berhe and Terrell Edmunds should see snaps in place of Burnett.There was better news for four other names battling back from issues that had sidelined two of them in Week 2 after Joe Haden, Tyson Alualu, Ramon Foster and Stephon Tuitt were all full participants again for the team’s final practice. Haden and Alualu should both be available on Monday despite missing the game against the Kansas City Chiefs, while Foster seems to be coping well with a knee injury that has been causing him problems as of late. Thankfully, the illness that kept Tuitt out of practice on Friday does not seem like it will prevent him from paying against the Buccaneers.The Buccaneers Week 3 injury report: