1. dump thursday night games, except opening night and thanksgiving
I only like thanksgiving because it keeps me away from annoying relatives, so definitely keep those ones. I don't see how you can justify one Thursday when you don't have anything Friday or Saturday (for most of the year at least).
2. go to 18 games
I believe I saw all time the home team is around 60% straight up. It's a big disadvantage to have this unbalanced in such a short season.
3. add another bye week
You can start throwing in the saturday games for almost 2 months at the end of the year once college ends, which would diminish the need for thursday night. Maybe, you could even have a game Friday night in january once people are broke from christmas. Plus, you will get less games each week overall. This still gets the season over in February. Run the byes like week 3-18 so you have 2 full weeks to start and end the year.
I think most would agree with me except for the Thursday night games. Most people I know that don't bet hate them FWIW.