Owners approve rules adjustments for Replay, OT, and Kickoff

[Virgil]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/44490561/sources-nfl-owners-ok-kickoff-ot-replay-rule-changes

 

"Owners also approved proposals to expand the league's replay-assist system, sources told Schefter. The on-site replay official will be permitted to reverse flags that are thrown for hits to defenseless players, along with fouls for face mask, horse collar, tripping and running into/roughing the kicker. The replay official will not be permitted to call a penalty for a play in which no flag was thrown, however."

 

This is going to be huge IMO.

Edited yesterday at 03:14 PM by Virgil

[Jauronimo]

Fully expected Peter Pan guy.  What a letdown.

[Virgil]

Just now, Jauronimo said:

Fully expected Peter Pan guy.  What a letdown.

 

You're right.  I failed you.

 

I actually saw this was approved on Twitter about an hour ago, but didn't see any links and thought it was an April Fools day prank.

[DapperCam]

All touchbacks putting the ball at the 35 is insane. It’s almost the same as the penalty for kicking out of bounds now! You only need 25 yards to be in FG range for a good kicker.

[Goin Breakdown]

So we'll have questionable calls reversed by questionable decisions, resulting in still questionable outcomes. 

[BillsSbSoon]

35 yard line is ridiculous. It felt like like last year everybody was hitting the 50 yard line after one play and now it’ll be even worse

[Goin Breakdown]

1 minute ago, DapperCam said:

All touchbacks putting the ball at the 35 is insane. It’s almost the same as the penalty for kicking out of bounds now! You only need 25 yards to be in FG range for a good kicker.

35 is nuts. It's almost arena league territory. 

[Brand J]

I would have liked for them to move the kickoff back 5 yards rather than move the touchback up by 5. We all want more returns, but that’s a more than generous start. 

[Matt_In_NH]

I like the reverse flag thing....a lot of those are bang bang and the replay clearly shows not a foul, so lets clean that up.  You cannot throw flags on reviews...that is a pandoras box.

[Cash]

10 minutes ago, BillsSbSoon said:

35 yard line is ridiculous. It felt like like last year everybody was hitting the 50 yard line after one play and now it’ll be even worse

 

That's at least supposed to be the point - they want teams to choose to kick the ball short of the endzone so that we fans get to see actual kick returns.  TBD if it'll happen or not.  I suspect most coaches will do the CYA move and kick into the endzone anyway.

[RiotAct]

14 minutes ago, Goin Breakdown said:

35 is nuts. It's almost arena league territory. 

they should just put the ball at the opponent’s 10 yard line at this point. You know they want to.

[sven233]

15 minutes ago, DapperCam said:

All touchbacks putting the ball at the 35 is insane. It’s almost the same as the penalty for kicking out of bounds now! You only need 25 yards to be in FG range for a good kicker.

 

That's the point of doing it though.  They want returns.  They are trying to force teams to kick the ball in play rather than blasting it into the endzone every time.  The league doesn't want teams to put the ball at the 35 at all.  They want them to kick it inside the 5 and have the returns.  This should help get them that result.

[BillsSbSoon]

3 minutes ago, Cash said:

 

That's at least supposed to be the point - they want teams to choose to kick the ball short of the endzone so that we fans get to see actual kick returns.  TBD if it'll happen or not.  I suspect most coaches will do the CYA move and kick into the endzone anyway.

I understand that but it doesn’t mean it’s a good decision. At the end of the day it says to me they want even more scoring 

[Mikie2times]

On returns the average drive start was the 30.1 yard line. Very few reasons exist to give a team 5 yards because you're scared. The math says don't kick into a touchback and usually the math wins (eventually). 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

Just now, sven233 said:

 

That's the point of doing it though.  They want returns.  They are trying to force teams to kick the ball in play rather than blasting it into the endzone every time.  The league doesn't want teams to put the ball at the 35 at all.  They want them to kick it inside the 5 and have the returns.  This should help get them that result.

 

And this season it felt like if you did kick short, more often than not it was starting right around the 30 so teams felt like touchbacks limited risk. Now you have more of an incentive to kick short and work on your coverage, as well as expectations that you will have more return opportunities.  The penalty for kicking short or out of bounds is still worse than a direct kick touchback, but not so much that it doesn't make sense to kick closer to the sidelines to try and limit returns or have them bounce into the end zone for the 20 yard TB.  

[Matt_In_NH]

20 minutes ago, BillsSbSoon said:

35 yard line is ridiculous. It felt like like last year everybody was hitting the 50 yard line after one play and now it’ll be even worse

 

22 minutes ago, DapperCam said:

All touchbacks putting the ball at the 35 is insane. It’s almost the same as the penalty for kicking out of bounds now! You only need 25 yards to be in FG range for a good kicker.

I think the idea is you make it painful to decide to take the touchback. Because the difference in the touchback and the penalty are now only 5 yards you will probably see kickers try and coffin corner the kickoffs and work on that craft.  I believe the touchbacks will go way down as a result of this which is what they want.  You will have to put more resources into kick and kick return.

1 minute ago, Bleeding Bills Blue said:

And this season it felt like if you did kick short, more often than not it was starting right around the 30 so teams felt like touchbacks limited risk.

I almost made the exact point....I noticed this too.  I predict teams will get good at defending the kick return....and knock down the 30 to the an average of like the 25.   Last year there was not much reason do put the effort in.

[mike22nc]

Am I the only one that has no interest in more kickoff returns?

[US Egg]

More NFL ridiculousness!…..season can’t get here fast enough.

[Logic]

The NFL seems absolutely obsessed with fixing what ain't broken.

Best sport in the world, and they're constantly tinkering with it to try to increase scoring and "protect player safety" (yeah right).

In response to these rule changes, I mainly just have more questions about the overtime amendment. So...each team gets a chance to possess the ball -- straightforward enough. If both teams score touchdowns, then what? Are teams forced to go for two point tries from there on out? Are they allowed to just keep kicking extra points?

The replay assist and kickoff rule tweaks are straightforward enough, but the overtime change begs more questions.

[Kaenon]

Let's see....

More scoring - good for the NFL

Longer games for review reviews, more commercial$ - good for the NFL

 

Win-win for the NFL

 

Goodell has to help do something to justify his $70M per year salary...