A quartet of rule changes has been approved Thursday by the NFL owners during their virtual meeting. However, the intriguing option to create an alternative to the onside kick was tabled.
Those given the okay:
- A bylaw change increased the number of players who could return for injured reserve from two to three per team.
- Made permanent the expansion of automatic replay reviews to include scoring plays and turnovers negated by a foul, and any successful or unsuccessful point-after-try attempt.
- Expanded defenseless player protection to a kickoff or punt returner who is in possession of the ball but who has not had time to avoid or ward off the impending contact of an opponent.
- Teams are prevented from manipulating the game clock by committing multiple dead-ball fouls while the clock is running. The rule will eliminate the ability for teams to drain clock while in punt formation with more than 5 minutes remaining on the game clock, which became more prevalent this past year.
The suggestion to make the onside kick more friendly to the kicking team having a chance to recover than under the current rules would have provided coaches the option to attempt one untimed down to convert a fourth-and-15 from their own 25-yard-line. If the play failed, the opponent would have taken possession at the dead-ball spot.
There was no official vote on the 4th-and-15 proposal, but they did take a (virtual) show of hands and it did not have the support to pass at this time. A bold idea that would've needed 24 of 32 votes. Expect it to come up again. https://t.co/XRuJBIlEG9
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 28, 2020
As interesting an option as it seemed, it did not pass.
Even if proposed 4th-and-15 alternative passes today, traditional onside kick would still be allowed. But it’s harder to recover under current rules: 49 of 299 in 2013-17 (16.3%), 12 of 114 in 2018-19 (10.5%). This is a response to that, not a precursor to eliminating kickoffs.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 28, 2020