The NFL’s foray into Mexico is still relatively new. Sunday’s Patriots-Raiders meeting is just the third regular-season game ever in Mexico, and the league’s contract with Mexico only runs through the 2018 season.

But the Mexican football market is robust, and Mark Waller, the NFL’s vice president of international, expects the series to be extended well beyond 2018, with one game per year at Estadio Azteca.

Let’s take a look at some of the angles surrounding the game and the NFL’s expansion internationally.

■ Mexico deserves a game.

The NFL isn’t thinking of putting a team in Mexico City any time soon. Or hosting a Super Bowl at Azteca. The economics just aren’t there in Mexico City.

But Mexico is a devoted market for the NFL, and the league believes the fans there deserve to host a real regular-season game, not just preseason matchups.

“I think we all recognize that the pinnacle of an NFL experience is going to a regular-season game. So I think it’s great for us to be able to do that,’’ Waller said. “I think there’s a secondary goal, which is building more of the connectivity between our Mexican fans and the US/Hispanic fan base. If you look at the game we played last year [Raiders-Texans], those are two great teams with very strong Hispanic communities.’’

■ Mexico is a lot easier than London.

For about a decade, all we’ve heard is “London, London, London’’ as far as the NFL trying to place a team internationally. I asked Waller if Mexico City was ever considered, and he said his office hasn’t done much work on it — but not because it isn’t intrigued about eventually going there.

The NFL knows it has a passionate fan base in Mexico, and the logistics aren’t a challenge because Mexico City is in the Central time zone and close to the United States.

“The focus is on London because, whether this is a smart move or not will be decided in time, but we picked the market that I think is the most challenging for us, from a team perspective,’’ Waller said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that within the geography that we’re looking at, if you put a team in the UK, that’s a big challenge. So I think we took the view, if we can solve that, markets like Mexico and Canada will be a lot easier.

“So that was kind of the thinking. But we’ve not spent as much time as we have in the UK thinking about it, partly because we’ve been thinking about the UK, but also there isn’t as much to solve.’’

■ Back to Canada, Germany seem to be the next frontiers.

The NFL International Series is going strong, with four games in the UK and one in Mexico this regular season. The next frontiers appear to be a return to Canada, where the NFL has hosted six regular-season games (the last in 2013), and a game in Germany.

Waller said the NFL has about 22 million fans in Mexico, 13 million in Canada and the UK, and about 10 million-12 million in Germany.

Waller didn’t mention Brazil, but that is another NFL possibility that could work with the time zones, though the travel is extensive. The NFL has tried to do Asia, but the travel and time difference have been too difficult to overcome.

■ What’s going to happen to the International Series once the Raiders, Rams, and Chargers move into their new stadiums?

One big reason the International Series exists is because the NFL adopted a rule a few years ago requiring teams that want to bid for a Super Bowl, and teams that want to switch markets, to give up a home game for an international game. This encouraged the Dolphins to give up a home game to London, and is why the Rams played in London and the Raiders in Mexico this year. Expect the Chargers to host next year’s Mexico game, especially since only 27,000 fans will miss out on a home game in Los Angeles.

But the Raiders, Rams, and Chargers are all supposed to move into their new stadiums in 2020, and then what? The NFL also is changing its Super Bowl granting process, where the league will now approach cities about hosting the game instead of cities approaching the league.

The NFL may have to go back to strong-arming teams into swapping a home game for an international game, or even adopting a rule requiring each team to give up one game over a certain period of time.

■ Mexico City could be the new leverage city.

I found this quote from Waller about the future of the Mexico City market to be interesting:

“I think our job in international is to grow markets and cities to have fan bases that are as deep and passionate as they are in the US. And so in my mind, if you were to project that 20 years from now — I’m just making up a number — I would like to think that people would sit and go, ‘Wow, we could have a team in Mexico City. The fan base is big enough, the stadium is good enough, the infrastructure is good enough, the logistics of it could work well enough, that if our ownership decided that that was something that they wanted to do, we could deliver.’ ’’

It sounds like the long-term plan is to develop Mexico City as a leverage market. Now that Los Angeles and Las Vegas have teams, and San Diego and St. Louis are seemingly out of business with the NFL for the foreseeable future, the NFL needs to develop cities it can use for leverage when asking for public money for stadiums.

Toronto is still an option, but London is more of a pipe dream, and Mexico City doesn’t have the economics to do it now. But it’s not inconceivable that one day Mexico City will be ready, and the NFL is growing its game down there just in case.

OFFICE HOURS

League matters involving Patriots

■ Jerry Jones continues down the warpath with commissioner Roger Goodell over his contract extension and the Ezekiel Elliott suspension, and the melodrama has ensnared Robert and Jonathan Kraft.

In an ESPN story published on Friday, Jones was quoted as telling Goodell, “I’m going to come after you with everything I have,’’ then mentioned Deflategate. “If you think Bob Kraft came after you hard, Bob Kraft is [an expletive] compared to what I’m going to do.’’

Kraft has politely reminded Jones that he could have sued the league over Deflategate but didn’t. Of course, any lawsuit by Kraft against the NFL faced long odds, and any lawsuit Jones could file over Goodell’s contract extension will be similarly difficult for Jones to win.

■ Jones got into a dust-up with Jonathan Kraft at an owners’ meeting over the league’s social media policy, which at the time allowed only the main NFL account, and not teams, to send game highlights on social media during games. Kraft staunchly defended the policy, Jones vehemently disagreed with it, and it got heated enough that Kraft left the room.

“I don’t know why it has to be that difficult, Brian,’’ Jones said to chief media executive Brian Rolapp.

■ Elliott stepped down from his legal fight and accepted his six-game suspension, which still has five games to go. Time and again throughout his legal battle, the Tom Brady case kept coming up, and working against Elliott.

Thanks to Brady, Goodell and the NFL now have legal precedent working in their favor any time there is a dispute about commissioner discipline. Jones may not like the way Goodell is wielding his power, but the NFL certainly likes the fact that it has legal precedent working in its favor.

Despite a fervent defense of his innocence, Elliott was forced to grit his teeth and accept his punishment, like Brady and Robert Kraft did before him.

■ Jones, though, isn’t backing down. If anything, he’s doubling down in his war with Goodell. The old saying, you don’t pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel? Goodell should be wary of engaging in a war with a man with billions of dollars and the determination of a pit bull.

ETC.

49ers taking time with Garoppolo

The 49ers have insisted since trading for Jimmy Garoppolo three weeks ago that they weren’t in a hurry to see him play, and they appear to be keeping their word.

Garoppolo was at the team facility working hard last week during the bye, and the 49ers’ home game next week against the Seahawks could be a good opportunity for Garoppolo get some snaps. You know Garoppolo is also dying to play the Dec. 3 game at Chicago in front of his hometown fans.

But general manager John Lynch said on NBC Bay Area that he wants to take it slow with Garoppolo, and the team is happy enough with C.J. Beathard for now after he helped the team earn its first win of the season.

“They’re going to work hard during this week to get him up to speed. But right now, we don’t need him,’’ Lynch said of Garoppolo. “We want to set Jimmy up for success, and also the way C.J. is playing is helping us sit back.’’

Lynch said the 49ers’ system under Kyle Shanahan is much different than what Garoppolo was running in New England, with “a lot of verbiage in every play call.’’

But Lynch is also making it pretty clear that the 49ers view Garoppolo as their franchise quarterback, and isn’t going to be messing around with trade offers and free agency hardball this spring. Lynch said he doesn’t even need to see Garoppolo play before signing him to a long-term contract extension. Garoppolo could be looking at $50 million-$60 million over the next three years.

“We know what we like about Jimmy Garoppolo. And that’s only been strengthened by the time that’s he’s been here,’’ Lynch said. “People have had all these ideas about why we got Jimmy. We got Jimmy because we think he has big-time ability at the quarterback position. And we believe so much — to get where we need to get — you have to have a franchise quarterback. We think he’s got that ability. Whether that happens, when that happens, we’ll see. But we certainly like his future with the 49ers.’’

Clock management

Think it’s all fun and games and parachute teams when the Patriots practice at the Air Force Academy for a week?

The Patriots’ schedule last week included mandatory 6 a.m. treatment for injuries, mandatory rookie film study at 6:15, a full team meeting and then offense and defense meetings starting at 6:45, the scout team meeting at 9, and special teams meetings and more offense/defense meetings at 9:45.

The players had plenty of free time to explore Colorado Springs and go out for dinner, but they had bed checks between 10:30 and 11 p.m.

Seahawks again under microscope

Another week, another investigation into the Seahawks by the NFL. This time, the league is investigating why the Seahawks didn’t appear to properly follow the concussion protocol when Russell Wilson took a big hit against the Cardinals on Nov. 9.

Teams can be fined or docked draft picks for not following the concussion protocol closely, and it will be interesting to see if the NFL comes down hard on coach Pete Carroll and the Seahawks.

The Seahawks were investigated (though ultimately cleared) last year for not including Richard Sherman’s knee injury on the injury report all season. And they have been investigated three times for violating the league’s offseason contact rules, which resulted in the Seahawks losing a fifth-round pick in last April’s draft.

Extra points

Martellus Bennett wanted out of Green Bay, but was he a bit hasty? Aaron Rodgers is eligible to come off injured reserve in Week 15, and he is making “really good progress’’ recovering from a broken collarbone, according to coach Mike McCarthy. Bennett is probably thrilled with the way he ended up back in New England, but don’t count out the Packers just yet. If they can tread water, Rodgers can pull a Superman act at the end of the season . . . At first we loved the idea of Panthers tight end Greg Olsen, currently on IR with a broken foot, joining the Fox broadcast booth for Sunday’s Vikings-Rams game. But the Vikings are upset that Olsen, who can come off IR this month, will have inside info for when the Panthers and Vikings meet on Dec. 10, and asked Fox to remove Olsen from the broadcast. Interestingly, Fox declined, though it did remove Olsen from any pregame production meetings. But Olsen can still talk to the people who were in those meetings, and he is certainly scouting the Vikings a lot harder now than he normally would have been . . . We can’t verify this information independently, but the NFL’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, said that the rate of injury on Thursday night games has been lower than the injury rate on Sunday or Monday for the last five years — and that includes all injuries, not just concussions. Sills also said that playing on four days of rest also had a lower rate of injury than playing on six, seven, or eight days of rest. Sills also reported that the league had conducted 379 concussion evaluations this season, and 37 percent of the tests were self-reported by the player, up from 20-22 percent last year. “We think that’s a very positive development,’’ Sills said . . . Interesting to hear Julian Edelman say on the “Pardon My Take’’ podcast that he is doing two rehabs on his surgically repaired ACL — one with the Patriots, and then one with Alex Guerrero at TB12, who reportedly is not getting along well with Bill Belichick these days. Edelman said rehab “sucks, because you don’t get to be with the fellas. You don’t get to go to the meetings as much. It’s kind of like class. We have different periods, so I’ll see them in the hallways and at lunch and recess and all that.’’

Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.