You're all absolutely right in that this is completely driven by the money possibly being made at an additional home game for each team in the regular season compared to a preseason home game (which most definitely doesn't get as many people to the games).

I think what's going to end up happening is you're going to get a 20 week season so that they can get another bye week in there (18 games with 2 bye weeks). I just don't see the players agreeing to anything less. We may very well have a strike coming as well. We may see another 1982 next season. We already have players willing to sit out seasons to get what they want (and well deserve to do so considering how long an NFL career is now).