How Does the NFL Work? Season, Playoffs & Scoring (2026)

Empower Field at Mile High stadium in Denver
Photo: Pdubs.94 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).

How does the NFL work? The National Football League has 32 teams split into two conferences — the AFC and the NFC — with four divisions of four teams each. Every team plays 17 regular-season games over 18 weeks (one bye week). Then 14 teams (seven per conference) make the playoffs, which end in the Super Bowl.

BuyTickets.com is an independent ticket resale marketplace since 1999 (Denver-based) — not the official box office. Checkout is all-in before you pay, with a 100% ticket guarantee. Prices show the all-in total, including fees, before you pay. Delivery timing is listed on each offer.

The NFL season, step by step

  1. Preseason (August): exhibition games; results don’t count.
  2. Regular season (September–early January): 17 games per team across 18 weeks. Six games are against division rivals (home and away), and the rest rotate by a formula so teams play different divisions each year.
  3. Playoffs (January): in each conference, the four division winners plus three wild cards qualify. The No. 1 seed gets a first-round bye.
  4. Super Bowl (February): the AFC champion plays the NFC champion.

How scoring works

  • Touchdown: 6 points.
  • Extra point: 1 point (kick) or 2 points (two-point conversion) after a touchdown.
  • Field goal: 3 points.
  • Safety: 2 points for the defense.

How a game works

A game has four 15-minute quarters. The offense gets four downs to gain 10 yards; make it and the count resets, miss it and the ball usually goes to the other team (most teams punt or try a field goal on fourth down). If the score is tied after regulation, the game goes to overtime under the league’s current rules.

Watching the Denver Broncos in 2026

Dates below were checked against the live BuyTickets.com event board on October 16, 2026. Each night is its own listing — open the exact date and venue before you buy.

Remaining Broncos home games at Empower Field at Mile High:

  • Sun Nov 1, 2026 · 2:25 PM — Denver Broncos vs. Kansas City Chiefs, Empower Field at Mile High · tickets
  • Sun Nov 22, 2026 · 2:25 PM — Denver Broncos vs. Las Vegas Raiders, Empower Field at Mile High · tickets
  • Sun Dec 6, 2026 · 2:05 PM — Denver Broncos vs. Miami Dolphins, Empower Field at Mile High · tickets
  • Fri Dec 25, 2026 · 2:30 PM — Denver Broncos vs. Buffalo Bills, Empower Field at Mile High · tickets
  • Sat Jan 9, 2027 — Denver Broncos vs Los Angeles Chargers, Empower Field at Mile High · tickets

All games, home and away, are on the Denver Broncos tickets page. Some late-season kickoff times are set by the league closer to the date.

FAQ

How many games does each NFL team play?
17 regular-season games over 18 weeks, with one bye week.

How many teams make the NFL playoffs?
14 — seven from the AFC and seven from the NFC (four division winners and three wild cards each).

When are the next Broncos home games?
Kansas City Chiefs on November 1, 2026, then the Las Vegas Raiders (Nov 22), Miami Dolphins (Dec 6), Buffalo Bills (Dec 25) and Los Angeles Chargers (Jan 9, 2027).

Is BuyTickets.com the official box office?
No. Independent resale since 1999, all-in checkout and a 100% ticket guarantee.

Browse Denver Broncos tickets · Sports tickets

Did StubHub just leak Skrillex’s next major festival booking?

Did StubHub just leak Skrillex’s next major festival booking?Skrille Do Lab

Skrillex will headline Minneapolis’ Snowta Festival, hit Vancouver, as well as both variants of Decadence until 2018 is out. Momentum moving into 2019 will likely be high, and according to StubHub, it seems the OWSLA spearhead are also among those artists recorded on Lollapalooza Argentina’s lineup, set for March 29 — 31, 2019. A Reddit user noted that the worldwide addition to Skrillex’s roster of forthcoming appearances while surfing the manufacturer ’s present tour dates StubHub. Even though the festival date may be only an error, the show date could be an accurate expansion of Skrillex’s tour schedule that surfaced StubHub before an lineup statement from Lollapalooza Argentina organizers.

The LA-based celebrity ’s Snowta and Decadence bookings, audio engineer Randy Urbanski’s perhaps not so subtle hint that fresh Skrillex songs is Published in October, and also recent speculation that Skrillex has been at work on a flip of Travis Scott‘s “Sicko Mode” jointly point to large moves in the works in Skrillex, making the possibility of a Lollapalooza Argentina headline charging even more likely. For the time being, the Recess manufacturer ’s looming return proceeds to generate anticipation, but while the year inches to a close, we’re gambling things in Skrillex’s camp are all only beginning to heat up.

Buy Tickets for every event – Sports, Concerts, Festivals and more buytickets.com