Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the face of the NFL. He's not the face of the NFL's push for an inevitable 18th regular-season game.

In an interview with CNBC Sport, Mahomes addressed the topic of another game that counts.

"I think that you'd have to find a way to have more bye weeks, more time spread out," Mahomes told Alex Sherman of CNBC. "Because, I mean, you've seen the amount of injuries that have kind of piled up there at the end of seasons, and you want to have the best players playing in the biggest games. And so if there were a way to get to 18 games, I'm not — I'm not a big fan of it. But if there were a way, I think you got to add some bye weeks in there to give more time for guys’ bodies."

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow previously has argued that, if there's another regular-season game, there should be a second bye.

A second bye makes a ton of sense. Yes, the network hated the two-bye season of 1993, because it diluted the number of week-in and week-out games. But there are six more franchises now than there were then.

The other problem is scheduling. The league justifies an 18th game in part by pointing to the reality of a Super Bowl on President's Day Weekend. Adding an extra bye will result in the Super Bowl overshooting President's Day — unless the NFL is willing to revert to the days of Week 1 on Labor Day Weekend. (And maybe it should.)

However it plays out, an 18th game is coming. The only question left is whether the NFL Players Association agrees to it before the 2030 season, or whether the NFL has to lock them out until they inevitably take the best deal on the table before missing game checks in 2031.