NFL owners to vote on rules regarding player safety, pace of play

The NFL Competition Committee, on a conference call Thursday, announced several rules changes up for vote at next week’s annual league meetings.

After meetings after the Super Bowl, at the scouting combine in Indianapolis and over the past week, NFL vice president of football operations Troy Vincent, competition committee chairman and Falcons president Rich McKay and NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino said that the owners will vote on a series of proposals focused primarily on improving player safety and pace of play.

“Our number one priority was to focus on player safety, number two the quality of our game - and the film shows that the quality of our game is extraordinary - It’s good. It’s in a good place. But we won’t stop aiming towards perfection,” Vincent said.

Blandino confirmed reports that the owners will vote on whether or not to outlaw jumping over the line to block an extra point or field goal.

They will also vote on whether or not to keep the 2016 touchback rule, which moved touchbacks to the 25-yard line on a temporary basis last season, in place for another year. The league was happy with the results from last season because touchbacks went up, so keeping the rule in place for another year on a temporary basis would be intended as a data-collecting tool. If the results stayed the same - which it seems likely that they would, as there were nearly 3,000 kickoffs last season - the committee would likely recommend that it be adopted permanently next year.

“The committee was pleased with the results, touchbacks were up, the lowest rate of return in NFL history at 39.3 percent,” Blandino said. “So we’re proposing that for another year to get another year’s worth of data and then evaluate that after the 2017 season.”

The owners will also vote on making the automatic ejection rule for two unsportsmanlike conduct fouls in a single game permanent, after it was passed on a temporary basis last year.

The defenseless player protection could also be expanded to include receivers running routes, even within five yards of the line of scrimmage. This is designed to protect receivers tracking the quarterback or looking over their shoulders for the ball. Defenders could still make contact, but not to the head or neck area.

The Competition Committee is also recommending several measures designed to improve pace of play.

“It’s part of an initiative to really reduce down time,” Blandino said. “We have in-game downtime. We’re not looking to impact the play on the field but to reduce the in-game downtime.”

Under the proposals, the league office would also be given final say over replay decisions, eliminating sideline replay monitoring, though they would still get input from referees who would review plays via tablet on the field.

“We’re not taking the referee out of the equation, the referee will still be involved, the referee will still be able to give input, but will no longer have the final say,” Blandino said.

There would also be a 40-second clock counting down until kickoffs after extra points when there is not a commercial break.

Referees would also be allowed to make replay announcements during commercial breaks, instead of waiting for the TV broadcast to show them.

We feel like that will improve the in-game, in-stadium experience for the fans and reduce some of that overall replay delay.

A standardized length of time between when a runner goes out of bounds outside two minutes remaining in the first half or five minutes remaining in the second half and when the clock starts up again would also be created.

Halftimes would be 13 minutes and 30 seconds league-wide, instead of the current length of 12 minutes, plus extra time given by referees for teams to get to and from locker rooms depending on stadium configurations.

How much of a difference those measures would ultimately make is difficult to calculate, and Blandino said that other ideas are always up for discussion, though the window for teams to submit proposals has closed.

“We’re also looking to just find more efficiencies in some of the discretionary areas of game administration which includes getting in and out of TV breaks, penalty enforcement, replay administration and just being as efficient as possible in those areas,” Blandino said.

Meetings begin on Sunday and run through Wednesday. A minimum of 24 out of 32 “yes” votes are needed for a proposal to be adopted.