2021 NFL season


The 2021 NFL season was the 102nd season of the National Football League. The season was the first to feature a 17-game regular season schedule as the league expanded the season from 16 games. The regular season started on September 9, 2021, with defending Super Bowl LV champion Tampa Bay defeating Dallas in the NFL Kickoff Game. The regular season ended on January 9, 2022. The playoffs started on January 15 and concluded with Super Bowl LVI, the league's championship game, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on February 13, with the Los Angeles Rams defeating Cincinnati.

Player movement

The 2021 NFL league year and trading period began on March 17. On March 15, teams were allowed to exercise options for 2021 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 2020 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. On March 17, clubs were allowed to contact and begin contract negotiations with players whose contracts had expired and thus became unrestricted free agents.
This season's salary cap decreased to $182.5 million per team, down from $198.2 million in 2020 and lower than the $188.2 million in 2019. This was to compensate for the revenue lost in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced games to either be played with a greatly reduced audience or no fans at all.

Free agency

Free agency began on March 17. Notable players to change teams included:
The following notable trades were made during the 2021 league year:
  • March 17: Detroit traded QB Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for QB Jared Goff, a 2021 third-round selection, a 2022 first-round selection, and a 2023 first-round selection.
  • March 17: Philadelphia traded QB Carson Wentz to Indianapolis in exchange for a 2021 third-round selection and a conditional 2022 second-round selection.
  • March 17: Las Vegas traded C Rodney Hudson and 2021 seventh-round selection to Arizona in exchange for a 2021 third-round selection.
  • March 17: New England traded OT Marcus Cannon and 2021 fifth- and sixth-round selections to Houston in exchange for 2021 fourth- and sixth-round selections.
  • March 17: Houston traded LB Benardrick McKinney and a 2021 seventh-round selection to Miami in exchange for DE Shaq Lawson and a 2021 sixth-round selection.
  • March 17: Las Vegas traded OT Trent Brown and a 2021 fifth-round selection to New England in exchange for a 2021 seventh-round selection.
  • April 5: The New York Jets traded QB Sam Darnold to Carolina in exchange for a 2021 sixth-round selection and 2022 second- and fourth-round selections.
  • April 23: Baltimore traded OT Orlando Brown Jr., a 2021 second-round selection, and a 2022 sixth-round selection to Kansas City in exchange for 2021 first, third, and fourth-round selections and a 2022 fifth-round selection.
  • April 28: Carolina traded QB Teddy Bridgewater to Denver in exchange for a 2021 sixth-round selection.
  • May 18: Philadelphia traded CB Jameson Houston and a 2023 sixth-round selection to Jacksonville in exchange for CB Josiah Scott.
  • June 6: Atlanta traded WR Julio Jones and a 2023 sixth-round selection to Tennessee in exchange for a 2022 second-round selection and a 2023 fourth-round selection.
  • July 28: Houston traded WR Randall Cobb to Green Bay in exchange for a 2022 sixth-round selection.
  • August 12: Jacksonville traded LB Joe Schobert to Pittsburgh in exchange for a 2022 sixth-round selection.
  • August 17: Green Bay traded CB Josh Jackson to the New York Giants in exchange for CB Isaac Yiadom.
  • August 30: Cincinnati traded C Billy Price to the New York Giants in exchange for DT B. J. Hill.
  • August 31: Baltimore traded G Ben Bredeson and a 2022 fifth-round selection to the New York Giants in exchange for a 2022 fourth-round selection and a 2023 seventh-round selection.
  • August 31: The New York Jets traded TE Chris Herndon and a 2022 sixth-round selection to Minnesota in exchange for a 2022 fourth-round selection.
  • September 8: Houston traded CB Bradley Roby to New Orleans in exchange for a 2022 third-round selection and a conditional 2023 sixth-round selection.
  • September 27: Jacksonville traded CB C. J. Henderson and a 2022 fifth-round selection to Carolina in exchange for TE Dan Arnold and a 2022 third-round selection.
  • October 6: New England traded CB Stephon Gilmore to Carolina in exchange for a 2023 sixth-round selection.
  • October 15: Philadelphia traded TE Zach Ertz to Arizona in exchange for CB Tay Gowan and a 2022 fifth-round selection.
  • October 27: Houston traded RB Mark Ingram II to New Orleans in exchange for a 2024 seventh-round selection.
  • November 1: Denver traded LB Von Miller to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for 2022 second- and third-round selections.
  • November 2: Pittsburgh traded LB Melvin Ingram to Kansas City in exchange for a 2022 sixth-round selection.
  • November 2: Kansas City traded G Laurent Duvernay-Tardif to the New York Jets in exchange for TE Daniel Brown.

    Retirements

Notable retirements
'''Other retirements'''

Draft

The 2021 NFL draft was held in Cleveland from April 29 to May 1. Jacksonville, by virtue of having the worst record in, held the first overall selection and selected QB Trevor Lawrence out of Clemson.

Officiating changes

The NFL hired Maia Chaka as its second female official and first African-American female official.
NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating Alberto Riveron retired, leaving two other senior vice presidents, Walt Anderson and Perry Fewell, to co-head the NFL's officiating department. Without Riveron, multiple people in the officiating department will be making the final decisions over replay reviews instead of a single person.
Replay official Carl Madsen died on October 24. He was in his 12th season as a replay official, after an extended career as an on-field official.
The following officials were hired:
  • Chad Adams
  • Maia Chaka

    Rule changes

The following rule changes were approved at the NFL Owner's Meeting on April 21:
  • The jersey numbering system was modified as follows:
  • * Running backs, tight ends, and wide receivers can wear 1–49 and 80–89
  • * Defensive backs can wear 1–49
  • * Linebackers can wear 1–59 and 90–99
  • * The following remained unchanged: offensive linemen ; defensive linemen ; and quarterbacks, punters, and kickers.
  • * Per the league's existing rules, any player who changed his number this season was required to buy out the inventory of his existing jersey before the change was made. A player who intends to change his number for the 2022 season can do so without cost.
  • Overtime in preseason games was eliminated. This was the first season since in which overtime was not used in the preseason.
  • All accepted penalties by either team during consecutive extra point or two-point conversion attempts are to be enforced.
  • The penalty for a second forward pass from behind the line of scrimmage and for a pass thrown after the ball returns behind the line will now include a loss of down.
  • During kickoffs, the receiving team may have no more than nine players in the "set-up zone".
  • An expansion of the booth-to-official communication on replays, allowing replay officials to advise on "specific, objective aspects of a play when clear and obvious video evidence is present and/or to address game administration issues."