How many teams are in the NFL 2021 season?

After the pandemic caused game cancellations and postponements as well as crowdless matches in 2020, this year’s teams are looking forward to a more normal NFL season.

The 32 teams of the NFL will play this season, 16 from the American Football Conference (AFC) and 16 from the National Football Conference (NFC).

According to the regular season schedule that the NFL released in May, each team will play 17 games this year, with one bye week for each squad. The games will be held over a period of 18 weeks beginning on September 9.

This is an expansion of the 16-game schedule played over a 17-week span. This schedule was followed in 2020 for the last time.

Other NFL stories

Buccaneers and Chiefs top power rankings

Many sports organizations have come out with their own version of the NFL power rankings as the teams reported for training camp. The teams that most consistently came out on top of the list as the favorites to (once more) collide in the Super Bowl were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Buccaneers are heavily favored to win the NFC again. The key elements of the team are still in place, and the lineup has been further strengthened to support Tom Brady.

The Chiefs are a solid front-runner to win the AFC with tweaks made in defense, to mesh excellently with Patrick Mahomes.

Other teams that that were highly rated in many lists were the Buffalo Bills, the Green Bay Packers, the Baltimore Ravens, and the Cleveland Browns.

2021 NFL season kicks off

The 2021 NFL season will kick off on September 9 at 8:20 ET, with the Buccaneers playing the Dallas Cowboys.

Super Bowl LV champion Tampa Bay will host the kickoff game. It has generally been a tradition for the league to schedule the defending champion to play the opener.

Here is a list of the NFL teams.

AFC East

Buffalo Bills


Miami Dolphins


New England Patriots


New York Jets

AFC North

Baltimore Ravens


Cincinnati Bengals


Cleveland Browns


Pittsburgh Steelers

AFC South

Houston Texans


Indianapolis Colts


Jacksonville Jaguars


Tennessee Titans

AFC West

Denver Broncos


Kansas City Chiefs


Las Vegas Raiders


Los Angeles Chargers

NFC East

Dallas Cowboys


New York Giants


Philadelphia Eagles


Washington Football Team

NFC North

Chicago Bears


Detroit Lions


Green Bay Packers


Minnesota Vikings

NFC South

Atlanta Falcons


Carolina Panthers


New Orleans Saints


Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFC West

Arizona Cardinals


Los Angeles Rams


San Francisco 49ers


Seattle Seahawks