What NFL Rules Would You Fix/Change/Add/Remove?

[AROS]

I’ve been meaning to start this thread for a while. There are so many things I think are wrong about some of the rules that have been in place for a long time. I don’t think this will be a tough task for us to come up with examples. So therefore I am going to start with one.

The NFL needs to get rid of spot fouls. Since so many spot fouls can be so detrimental to a drive, I think it needs to be how college does it. Any pass interference should be an automatic 15 yard penalty, not a spot foul.

It’s too much. Especially if the call is iffy and if I had a dollar for every iffy pass interference call in the past, almost 50 years of watching NFL games, I literally could buy a French Bulldog. Oddly specific but there you go.

Who’s up next?

 

[Torc]

Love it. I had a similar thought in the offseason and never got around to making a thread. But I'll throw some ideas into yours.

I agree on the spot fouls. The risk is that defenders 30 yards down field will figure it's better to take the 15 yards than the longer play. But at least it isn't cheap yards on a pass that might not have been caught.

I think offensive holding should be a 5 yard penalty. The 10 yard penalty is a drive killer every time, and it's often a very subjective call.


Less of a rule thing but something I think needs to be fixed - salaries for most positions, especially for QBs. It should not be "next man up gets the highest contract". Trevor Lawrence should never, even for a brief time, been the highest paid QB in the league. I get so tired of solid-but-not-great players (again, usually QBs) arguing that they should make more than the most recent contract signing at their position.

 

[Seahawks Guy]

Make hits to the head and horse collar tackles legal again. Bring back more practices and longer work hours.

If the players don't like it, they can go work somewhere else. They know the risks. If they are willing to sacrifice their body for money and fame, then do it.

 

[Cyrus12]

The obvious steering of games. Probably never admit to that one though...

 

[Maelstrom787]

We need to figure out how to cut it out with the PI on underthrown balls. That's my main pet peeve. There's no way for a defender to stop that.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Or PI when the ball is 15 feet over the receivers' head and there's zero shot of WR or anyone else to catch it.

 

[BChawkfan]

Can't stand the new style of Kick-off. Especially the on-side announcement..."Hey Fellas,we're gonna do it"

 

[bigskydoc]

Offensive holding being 10 yards is at the top of my list. I’m really not sure how it ever came to be that it has more yardage than most penalties.

If you are going to insist on making it a QB-centric league, there should be separate caps for QBs and the rest of the team. Maybe structure it so that the top five paid players have to fit in the top five cap, and the rest share a different cap.

Make steroids and other PEDs legal so they can be taken more safely.

 

[Ostatehawk]

Get rid of this new kick-off crap or at least leave onside kicks as a surprise. Didn't someone open the second half of a Superbowl with an onside kick? That is good stuff.

Take the OT rules from college - the current NFL rules are certainly better than they used to be (FG for the win 90% of the time) but ties should not exist.

Someone else mentioned spot fouls - I tend to agree with that.

Bring back the flying wedge.

 

[chris98251]

Make Officials full time and have continuous training, get rid of the review from the booth and New York along with this. Yes there will be bad or missed calls, but in my long time watching the game mistakes made now are worse than before the technology of second guessing the guys on the field. If we use technology use it for checking if a ball crossed the goal line and ball placement etc, they have technology for that already, just dont use it for some reason.

Momentum killers are these long break to have multiple discussions, we have seen it, flow of the game would be much better.

That's a start, then get rid of incidental contact penalties,

 

[Sperrydogg]

I’ve been meaning to start this thread for a while. There are so many things I think are wrong about some of the rules that have been in place for a long time. I don’t think this will be a tough task for us to come up with examples. So therefore I am going to start with one.

The NFL needs to get rid of spot fouls. Since so many spot fouls can be so detrimental to a drive, I think it needs to be how college does it. Any pass interference should be an automatic 15 yard penalty, not a spot foul.

It’s too much. Especially if the call is iffy and if I had a dollar for every iffy pass interference call in the past, almost 50 years of watching NFL games, I literally could buy a French Bulldog. Oddly specific but there you go.

Who’s up next?

I don’t know about changing spot fouls, at least not to college rules because then on a fifty yard pass play just tackle and it defeats the play, maybe half the distance of the foul and 1st down. But then the refs would be doing real math and not just counting their steps

 

[AROS]

Yeah I dunno, I see what you are saying though. I think just make it easy and it's always a 15-yard penalty (or half the distance to the goal if it's within 15 yards of the goal line).

 

[EverydayImRusselin]

Add location tracking to the football so we aren't relying on ref spotting the ball.

Also, have multiple officials in a booth reveiwing every play for every game. Then when there is a questionable call they are on top of it immediately to correct the call.

 

[AROS]

Not sure why the NFL, a billion-dollar business times a billion, is not ahead of the curve of the tracking technology. The technology exists, why not employ it since it truly is a "game of inches"?

 

[Torc]

A few on my "pet peeve that they'll never address, and other people might not find as annoying" list:

- penalties for retaliation. Use the replay to see who the instigator of a scuffle is, instead of penalizing the guy who reacts to getting shoved from behind or whatever it may be.

- players signaling a penalty. So annoying to see the O and D lines pointing at each other when there is false start/offsides. Or jumping up from being tackled and signaling for a facemask. Either the ref saw it or they didn't. If you're trying to influence the ref to call a penalty they didn't see, throw the unsportsmanlike flag.

- Receivers signaling the first down. Should be a 5 yard penalty after the play is over. Make it a 15 yarder for a repeat offense, or if their team is down by 14 or more. (I don't mind the quick first down signal, it's the overly dramatic posing that's annoying.) Heck, apply this to any kind of muscle flex or dance when your team is down by a couple of scores.

(those last two are for fun, I don't expect anyone cares enough to really make those penalties. )

 

[Flyingsquad23]

I 100% like the multiple officials in the booth for every game. And the ball tracking for accurate spots, seen way to many bogus spots really affect games.

I would also like coaches to have the ability to use their two challenges for any play and any call.

Kick-offs have been disappointing this year. I really thought there would be a little more strategy and trickery, maybe they are saving it for playoffs.

 

[AROS]

There's some great ones here. I would back just about every one of them.

 

[retro74]

Definitely agree with 10 yards for offensive holding being too harsh. Should be 5

DPI too, you’ve got teams throwing almost uncatchable passes in desperation, buying a penalty and getting 50 yards downfield as a result. It’s just wrong

One foot in bounds for receptions is another consideration, only because we’d see some spectacular catches

 

[retro74]

Oh and like was said on the thread earlier this week, 15 yard penalty for fake QB slides

 

[Palmegranite]

I would make a change to the intentional grounding rule thus:

when throwing a pass with no realistic chance of completion in order to avoid a sack, period.

The rusher makes some amazing move and has the QB in his sights, a sack incoming...
Then the QB whips the ball into the stands, a place where there is very much no chance of there being a receiver....and dum dee dum, no problem here, on to the next play. Dumb rule..