Mathematically, assuming that at least one of the teams doesn’t go to the playoffs, and knowing that 6 out of 16 games are against division opponents, that leaves 28 teams competing for the last 10 games open on a team’s schedule. That means that if a team were to cycle through all the teams in the league, it could be over 2 seasons before 2 teams face each other again.
Out of curiosity, what is the record number of games two teams have gone without facing each other, and what teams were they?
I don’t know how many games it would be, but the Chiefs and the Eagles hold the record for the longest span of time two didn’t play each other. It was a few days shy of twenty years. (October 22 1972 – October 11 1992)
Now a days, the NFL has a rotating schedule, so every team will play every other team at least once every four years.
An NFL schedule now has 6 division games, 4 games against all 4 teams of one division in the same conference, 4 games against all 4 teams of one division from the other conference, and 2 other games, one team from each of the other two divisions in the same conference.