At the NFL owners meetings on Tuesday, the league decided to make several rule changes for next season…uh, if there is a season.
For your reading pleasure, here’s the cliff note version of the changes:
– Kickoffs will now start from the 35 and not the 30. (Touchbacks will still come out to the 20-yard line.)
– After gathering input of coaches throughout the league, the committee decided to allow return teams to have a two-man wedge. The committee had suggested the elimination of the two-man wedge, but coaches argued that would make it harder to have quality returns.
– Players on kickoff coverage units must line up within five yards of the 35. They can no longer get a 15-yard running start.
– Replay will now become automatic for all scoring plays, regardless of whether or not coaches have challenges remaining. What constitutes a “scoring play?” A play that was ruled on the field to have scored points.
There was also a vote involving the “defenseless player rule,” but that has been tabled until the May meetings because the Competition Committee wanted to expand on some of the language in the rule.
I like that replays will now be automatic for all scoring plays and thus, coaches don’t have to decide whether or not to burn a challenge on a play that could cost them points. Was it a touchdown or not? Let’s get those calls right. Don’t penalize a coach or his team for using challenges on questionable calls (which essentially are what challenges are) earlier in the game when it could cost him a touchdown later on.
As far as the kickoffs rule change, I could go either way. It zaps some of the excitement out of the game by moving the ball up to the 35, but I understand that the committee is trying to prevent injuries. We’ll have way more touchbacks but if it means we’ll see less players leaving the field on stretchers, then I’m all for it.
