​| Source: Lastwordonsports.com – Sue Levine, EditorThe NFL wanted another meaningful game. It got one.What it may not have fully accounted for was everything that comes with asking the same basic roster to survive a 17-game season.When the league expanded the schedule in 2021, it made the first change to the regular season since 1978. The move from 16 to 17 games came with one fewer preseason game, but the basic structure of an NFL roster remained largely familiar. Teams still build around a 53-man roster and, under current rules, generally dress 47 or 48 players on game day.Five years later, it is fair to wonder whether the 17-game season has outgrown the roster designed to survive it.The 17-Game Season Changed the MathOne additional game doesn’t sound dramatic.It is only 60 more minutes of football, after all. Except it isn’t.Another game means another week of practice, another week of players managing existing injuries, another round of collisions, and another opportunity for something that was merely sore in September to become something far more significant by December.The postseason makes the equation even more demanding. A team reaching the Super Bowl can play as many as 21 combined regular-season and playoff games. That is a long way from the NFL schedule players once navigated.The league partially compensated for the 17-game season by reducing the preseason from four games to three. That limits some unnecessary August exposure, particularly for established starters. But preseason snaps and regular-season snaps aren’t interchangeable.The 17th game is different from the preseason game that disappeared when the NFL expanded the schedule. Nobody is protecting starters in Week 18 because the result doesn’t count. For some teams, that game decides whether there will even be a Week 19.The 17-Game Season Has Put More Pressure on 53 PlayersThe NFL didn’t suddenly become an injury-plagued sport when the schedule expanded. That’s too easy an argument to make, and probably the wrong one.Look instead at what happens to the bottom half of a roster over four months.An offensive lineman who was signed to play guard may end up at center. The swing tackle gets thrown into the lineup. A defensive back gets promoted from the practice squad on Saturday and is covering kicks on Sunday. By late in the year, teams are signing players who weren’t part of the original plan at all.Some of that happened when there were 16 games, too. The difference with a 17-game season is that there is now another week to get through before the playoffs even begin.Teams still get 53 roster spots to figure it out.And 53 isn’t really 53 on Sunday. The game-day limit leaves coaches with 47 or 48 active players. Take out the specialists, backup quarterback, and players whose primary jobs are on special teams, and the available depth gets eaten up quickly.That’s one reason offensive line versatility has become so valuable. A reserve who can play center and both guard