Do NFL teams play everyone each season?
The NFL regular season feels huge, but it’s not a full round-robin where every team meets every other team each year. Instead, the league uses a scheduling formula that rotates opponents in a structured way while keeping traditional rivalries intact.
The short answer
No. Each NFL team does not play all other teams every season. With 32 teams in the league and a 17-game regular season schedule, there simply aren’t enough games for everyone to face everyone else in one year.
That said, the NFL schedule is designed so teams will meet most opponents on a rotating basis over multiple seasons.
Why it can’t happen in one season
If a team were to play every other team once, it would need 31 games (since there are 31 other teams). The current regular season is 17 games, so a complete league-wide round-robin is impossible without drastically expanding the schedule.
The NFL prioritizes:
- Division rivalries (games fans expect every year)
- Balanced rotation across conferences and divisions
- Competitive fairness by pairing teams with similar finishes
How the NFL schedule is actually built
Each team plays 17 regular-season games. Those opponents come from a few specific buckets.
1) Division opponents (6 games)
Every team plays its three division rivals twice (home and away).
Example: A team in the NFC North plays the other three NFC North teams two times each, totaling 6 games.
This is the most consistent part of the schedule and the main reason teams do not rotate through the entire league quickly—division games take a big chunk every year.
2) One full division from the same conference (4 games)
Teams play all four teams from one other division in their own conference on a rotating cycle.
If an AFC team is matched with an AFC division, it plays each team in that division once, for 4 games.
3) One full division from the other conference (4 games)
Teams also play all four teams from one division in the opposite conference.
That adds another 4 games, and it’s why you’ll see a team face an entire NFC division one year and a different one the next time the rotation comes around.
4) Two same-conference games based on last year’s finish (2 games)
A team plays two additional opponents from its own conference, matched by where each team finished in its division the previous season.
For instance, if a team finished 2nd in its division, it will face two other teams from the same conference that also finished 2nd in their divisions (from divisions not already on the schedule).
These games help keep competition balanced from year to year.
5) The 17th game: an extra interconference matchup (1 game)
The final regular-season game is an extra matchup against a team from the other conference, also based on prior-season standings.
This “17th game” is part of the newer format and increases cross-conference variety, though it still doesn’t make a full league-wide schedule possible in one season.
How often do teams play each other?
Even though teams don’t play everyone every year, the rotation creates regular meetings over time.
Same-conference, different-division opponents
Teams see these opponents more frequently due to the rotation and the standings-based games, but not annually.
Opposite-conference opponents
Teams usually face specific interconference opponents less often, since only one full opposite-conference division is played each season, plus the extra 17th game.
What fans should take away
The NFL schedule is built to balance tradition and variety. Teams always play their division rivals twice, rotate full divisions to spread matchups across the league, and add a few standings-based games to keep the competition fair. As a result, teams won’t play all 31 opponents in a single season—but over a span of seasons, most matchups do happen with predictable regularity.
