Raiders from Oakland (also a viable market) has filed for relocation to Vegas. That gives another city that could host an expansion team effectively immediately.

San Antonio, also a huge potential market, was not allowed having any team due to Cowboys and Texans owners objection. (The owners understandably protecting their markets.) On the other hand i think they could not possibly object, if there would be a significant expansion run.

Plus the NFL was experimenting with Toronto (failed), now experimenting with Mexico city.
I think they already proved that there are enough fans in London for 1 team. The reason they are slowplaying it makes me think they may want 2 teams over there.

I think an expansion of 8 teams is a huge task, but there are plenty of candidate markets.

Generating 500 new roster spots at once would be a huge challange. But having additional 8*8=64 players per year through draft sounds to be feasible to me. But maybe 64 is not needed at all...

...if the league would eliminate or suspend the compensation pick institution upon expansion, which i think is likely for the simple fact that expansion teams would not be eligible, that would already cover 50% of that, and 32 additional draft picks would be needed.

So i think the annual talent stream is big enough for 8 more teams with a little tweak.

Math is not 100% correct above, so clarification.

current:
7 rounds of drafting 32 per round, plus maximum 32 comp pick. Total of 8*32=256 picks

hypothetical future:
7 rounds with 40 teams, without comp picks. Total 7*40=280 picks.

Delta: 280-256=24

So expansion of 8 teams would potentially need 24 more draft picks per year. This sounds very easy.

Draft picks are nothing. Finding 400 players for 8 teams is difficult. Which is why you'd see the introduction of new team spread over a decade.

I dont see teams outside the usa being the next 3-4.

MonsterT95 wrote: Kagemusha wrote: bghandras wrote: I think an expansion of 8 teams is a huge task, but there are plenty of candidate markets. There might be the markets but the talent pool would suffer. The mid 90's Jaguars don't agree For every expansion team, the early period is very tough, but any team can be competitive within 5-8 years.

I was talking about the general talent pool, not just that of the new teams.

We have right now 32*53 players on regular season rosters, 1696 total. with 8 new teams we go to 2120. We are talking about an increase of 25% of the players, that means that a good part of the "camp bodies" will make final rosters and camp bodies will be guys who didnt have a chance to get in the nfl. 90 men training camp rosters are now 2880 players and would baloon to 3600.

I see as highly unlikely that in our lifetime we would see so many expansions, unless the market and popularity of the sport increases worldwide in a major way, meaning we have players from all over the world who start playing on a high enough level to be NFL material.