2016 NFL season
| Regular season | |
|---|---|
| Duration | September 8, 2016–January 1, 2017 |
| Playoffs | |
| Start date | January 7, 2017 |
| AFC Champions | New England Patriots |
| NFC Champions | Atlanta Falcons |
| Super Bowl LI | |
| Date | February 5, 2017 |
| Site | NRG Stadium, Houston, Texas |
| Champions | New England Patriots |
| Pro Bowl | |
| Date | January 29, 2017 |
| Site | Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida |
The 2016 NFL season was the 97th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL), began on September 8, 2016, with the defending Super Bowl 50 champion Denver Broncos defeating the Carolina Panthers 21–20 in the NFL Kickoff Game. The season concluded with Super Bowl LI, the league's championship game on February 5, 2017, at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas with the New England Patriots defeating the Atlanta Falcons 34–28 in overtime.
For the first time since the Houston Oilers relocated to Tennessee in 1997, an NFL team relocated to another state, as the St. Louis Rams moved out of St. Louis, Missouri and returned to Los Angeles, its home from 1946 to 1994. For the first time since the 2003 NFL season, neither of the previous season's Super Bowl participants made the playoffs. The 2016 season was also the last season for the San Diego Chargers before their return to their original city of Los Angeles for 2017.
The 2016 NFL league year began on March 9, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. ET. On March 7 clubs started to contact and enter into contract negotiations with the certified agents of players who became unrestricted free agents upon the expiration of their 2015 contracts two days later. On March 9, clubs exercised options for 2016 on players who have option clauses in their 2015 contracts, submitted qualifying offers to their restricted free agents with expiring contracts and to whom desire to retain a Right of Refusal/Compensation, submitted a Minimum Salary Tender to retain exclusive negotiating rights to their players with expiring 2015 contracts and who have fewer than three accrued season of free agent credit, and teams were required to be under the salary cap, using the "Top-51" definition (in which the 51 highest-paid players on the team's payroll must have a collective salary cap hit below the actual cap). All 2015 players contracts expired and trading period for 2016 begin.
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