Tag: NFL owners meetings

NFL adopts new kickoff rule for 2024

The NFL hopes the new rule will lead to more returns. Who could the Commanders turn to as their kick returner in 2024?

The kickoff was once one of the most exciting plays in the NFL. However, with all the injuries over the years, rules were adopted that minimized the kickoff in recent years.

On Tuesday, the NFL owners approved a new hybrid rule that completely changes the kickoff in hopes of making it an important part of the game again but also keeping it safe.

Here’s this directly from the NFL:

  • By Competition Committee; for one year only, amends Rule 6, to create a new form of a free kick play that is designed to: (1) resemble a typical scrimmage play by aligning players on both teams closer together and restricting movement to reduce space and speed; and (2) promote more returns. Permits the Replay Official automatically review whether a free kick legally touched the ground or a receiving team player in the landing zone.

Essentially, the 2024 season is a trial run for this new rule and the league will reexamine again next March.

NFL.com went more in-depth on the new rule.

Kickoffs will remain at the 35-yard line, but the remaining 10 players on the kicking unit will line up at the opposing team’s 40-yard line. The receiving team lines up with at least seven players in the “set-up zone,” a five-yard area between their own 35- and 30-yard lines, with a maximum of two returners can line up in the landing zone.

After the ball is kicked, the kicker cannot cross the 50-yard line and the 10 kicking team players cannot move until the ball hits the ground or a player in the landing zone or goes into the end zone. The receiving team’s players in the set-up zone also cannot move until the kick has hit the ground or a player in the landing zone or the end zone. The returner(s) may move at any time before or during the kickoff.

Penalties on scoring plays also will not carry over and will be taken on the point after attempt. On any penalty that carries over to kickoffs, the set-up and landing zones will not change, nor will the alignment of the 10 kickoff team players and all the receiving team players — only the kicker’s positioning move.

Kickoff scenarios:

  • Kickoffs that hit the landing zone must be returned.
  • Kickoffs that hit the landing zone and then go into the end zone must be returned or downed by the receiving team. If downed, the receiving team would get the ball at its own 20-yard line.
  • Kickoffs that go into the end zone and stay inbounds that are downed would give the receiving team the ball at their own 30-yard line. Kickoffs that go out of the back of the end zone (in the air or bounces) would also be a touchback at the receiving team’s 30-yard line.
  • Kickoffs short of the landing zone would be treated like a kickoff out of bounds, and the receiving team would get the ball at its own 40-yard line.

The legislation also will lead to a tweak in onside kicks, which can only occur in the fourth quarter and onward when a team trails. The kicking team must declare its intent to onside kick.

On the same day as the NFL approved the kickoff rule, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed one of the NFL’s best returners, Cordarrelle Patterson, to a two-year deal. The 33-year-old is entering his 12th NFL season in 2024 and has 22 career receiving touchdowns, 16 rushing touchdowns and has returned nine kickoffs for touchdowns. When you consider how the league has limited the kickoff in recent years, those nine touchdowns are impressive.

Will Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters add a dynamic player to the roster in hopes of boosting the team’s kick return game? Antonio Gibson returned kickoff the past two seasons, but he is gone. Veteran wide receiver Jamison Crowder returned punts in 2023, but is unlikely to return kicks.

A name to watch is Kazmeir Allen. Undrafted out of UCLA last season, Allen remained on Washington’s practice squad all of last season. He re-signed with the Commanders this offseason. During his time at UCLA, Allen returned 39 kickoffs at an average of 27 yards per return and had one touchdown.

Washington’s new special teams coach, Larry Izzo, is one of the NFL’s best and will certainly look to prioritize the return game in 2024.

Bears president Kevin Warren says intention is to build new stadium on lakefront

Bears president Kevin Warren spoke at the owners meetings on Tuesday and says he intents to break ground on a new stadium on the lakefront.

The Chicago Bears’ stadium saga continues to roll on, with little action taking place. The team is at an impasse with Arlington Heights and the 326-acre property they purchased over a year ago, and reports came out two weeks ago that indicate they have their sights set on a new stadium near Soldier Field.

On Tuesday, president Kevin Warren confirmed that the team intends to build a new stadium on the lakefront.

Warren met with reporters during the 2024 NFL owners meetings in Orlando, Florida, and was asked by CHGO’s Adam Hoge whether the Bears intended to build a new stadium in Chicago if everything came together. Warren didn’t mince words.

“The plan would be to put a shovel in the ground on the lakefront,” he said.

Ever since he was hired as team president and CEO, Warren has expressed his affinity for the city of Chicago. Last August, in an interview with Peter King, Warren talked about the possible options for a stadium location and couldn’t stop gushing about Chicago and its lakefront.

“God really kissed downtown Chicago with that lakefront,” Warren said via NBC Sports Chicago. “I don’t think there’s any place in the country that has that beauty of a city right upon a beautiful lake in Lake Michigan.”

The vision for a new stadium just south of Soldier Field comes after the difficulties the Bears have had with the Arlington Park property. Disagreements surrounding the proposed tax assessments have stalled progress, and even after the village recently proposed a fair compromise that would lower the current tax rate, the Bears are making their intentions clear.

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Andy Reid offers advice to 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan

Andy Reid needed 21 seasons to finally win a Super Bowl. He offered some advice to #49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan:

Kyle Shanahan has run into the proverbial wall that stands between NFL head coaches and a Lombardi Trophy four times now in seven seasons as a head coach. Twice he’s fallen short in the Super Bowl. Twice he’s come up short in the NFC championship game. That kind of success without the ultimate prize is a familiar space for Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.

Reid, thanks to his run with quarterback Patrick Mahomes, is now synonymous with greatness among NFL head coaches. There’s a real chance he tracks down former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick as the most decorated head coach of all-time. That wasn’t always the case though.

Prior to Kansas City’s Super Bowl LIV win (over the 49ers, oddly enough), Reid was 20 years deep into his career as a head coach in the NFL. He’d been to just one Super Bowl and lost five NFC championship games between his tenures with the Eagles and Chiefs. Then he got his quarterback and the winning came fast and furious. Since 2019 Reid and the Chiefs have pulled in three Lombardi Trophies and the head coach has established himself as one of the league’s all-time greats.

Reid on Monday at the NFL owners meetings was asked about Shanahan after defeating him in a Super Bowl for the second time in February.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing and somewhere you pop over the hill there,” Reid said via ESPN’s Nick Wagoner. “I know he’s got a great young quarterback, and him with a great young quarterback is deadly.”

Shanahan has had one of the best rosters in the league since his first Super Bowl run as a head coach in the 2019 season, but the QB has always been a little bit of a question mark. Reid is the second Chiefs coach to prop up 49ers QB Brock Purdy as a great player following his performance in Super Bowl LVIII. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo also did it.

If Reid and Spagnuolo are correct and Shanahan does have his franchise QB in Purdy, then it may not be long until he gets over that hill Reid mentioned. Even if it is Reid and Mahomes standing on top of it.

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Report: Commanders owner Josh Harris ‘active and engaged’ at NFL’s Front Office & GM Accelerator Program meetings

Did Josh Harris meet Washington’s prospective future GM at the NFL’s Front Office & General Manager Accelerator Program last week?

Josh Harris took over as owner of the Washington Commanders almost exactly five months ago. Harris noted when he took over, there was plenty to do, but his ownership group’s focus was on upgrading FedEx Field, the 2023 season and improving fan relations.

Thirteen games into the season, the Commanders are 4-9, and there are four games remaining. It’s expected that Harris will move on from head coach Ron Rivera and at least some in the front office. Harris always intended to give Rivera the 2023 season and has enjoyed a healthy working relationship with the coach.

But Harris is always looking ahead. He was present at last week’s NFL owners meetings in Dallas. What was so significant about the most recent owners meetings? It was the NFL’s Front Office & General Manager Accelerator Program. The goal of the program is to “strengthen the pipeline of diverse candidates across all levels of the league.”

According to CBS NFL insider Jonathan Jones, Harris, along with Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, were the two owners “most active and engaged” with participants in the program.

Sources said the two team owners most active and engaged with participants at the program were Washington’s Josh Harris and Tepper, both of whom could have GM openings by the end of the season. League sources believe as many as a half-dozen GM jobs will be open.

These meetings are important. As Jones noted, it was last year’s Accelerator meetings where Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk met Ran Carthon. Tennessee hired Carthon as its general manager in January.

While Washington fans are impatient due to another meaningless year of December football, Harris has preached patience. In January, Harris will likely begin reshaping the Commanders in his vision.

NFL News: Jimmy Haslam will sit on new ownership rules committee

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam appointed to the committee to oversee NFL ownership rules in response of underwhelming Commanders bid.

Last week, the NFL announced a new committee to review the NFL’s ownership policy, according to Sports Business Journal. The committee is composed of five owners: Jimmy Haslam of the Cleveland Browns, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Falcons owner Arthur Blank, Broncos owner Greg Penner, and the Committee chairman, Clark Hunt of the Chiefs. The committee will suggest changes to the NFL ownership rules ahead of the NFL owners’ meeting in the offseason.

The committee was formed in response to the recent sale of the Washington Commanders to Josh Harris. It’s rumored that the owners were unhappy with the number of bidders for the team. Owners were also reportedly displeased by Josh Harris’s complex bid structure. On the other hand, bidders found the NFL ownership rules extremely constraining.

Currently, NFL teams can only be owned by individuals, and the new committee’s job is to examine whether they need to broaden this policy to include financial entities. The group is reportedly interested in examining nonprofit foundations and Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, which would keep ownership between natural persons. The group is expected to recommend changes to the debt limit that an ownership group can take on to buy a team.

The committee could also recommend radical changes to allow private equity funds, including investment groups, sovereign wealth funds, and public companies, to buy teams. Across the pond, soccer teams are now mega investments for countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia and American-based groups like 777 Partners and RedBird Capital. It seems doubtful that the owners would allow such arrangements to befall the “real” football, but one can never know. While the owners use the business as vanity projects, the teams are still businesses.

The last time the NFL owners changed ownership policy was in 2018, which allowed NFL owners to own and operate teams in other sports. Many league owners took advantage of the policy change, including Jimmy Haslam, who helped save the Columbus Crew from relocation in 2018. Haslam recently bought a 50% stake in the Milwaukee Bucks. Jimmy Haslam has become quite the expert on sports franchises over the past decade. Haslam seems dedicated to Ohio and smaller market teams in general. The committee will gain valuable insight from him as I hope he looks out for small-market teams.

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NFL owners to vote on Commanders sale July 20

The Commanders should have a new owner before training camp.

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Are we less than one month away from the official end of Daniel Snyder’s 24-year reign as owner of the Washington Commanders?

The NFL sent a memo to all owners Thursday evening, informing them of a special meeting on July 20, where it is expected they will vote on the sale of the Washington Commanders, according to Mark Maske and Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post.

The NFL reportedly had given owners two dates for a special owners’ meeting, and July 20 was one of those dates. The other date was Aug. 8.

The Post noted that barring any setbacks, the deal is expected to be approved. For the deal to be final, 24 of the NFL’s 32 owners must approve.

A group led by Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils owner Josh Harris agreed to buy the Commanders from Daniel Snyder in May for $6.05 billion. The NFL finance committee initially had some minor concerns about the bid due to the large number of partners and how it was financed. Harris and one of his partners, Mitchell Rales, met with the finance committee earlier this month, and those concerns were alleviated.

The Commanders open training camp on July 26, and head coach Ron Rivera had stated that any big deals were on hold until the transfer in ownership. Players such as safety Kamren Curl and defensive end Montez Sweat are players Washington would like to extend but wasn’t able to due to the ownership situation.

 

 

Roger Goodell: ‘I grew up in Washington D.C…so I understand the passion of the fans’

The NFL commissioner discussed the Commanders’ sale and potential new stadium.

It’s no secret that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell grew up in Washington, D.C., as a fan of the then-Washington Redskins. The son of a former United States Senator, Goodell became a fan of the Washington franchise when the legendary head coach George Allen took over the franchise in 1971.

“I was a Colts fan through the 60s when I grew up in Washington,” Goodell said in an interview with the Big Lead in 2009. “Then I became a Redskins fan. I think a lot of it had to do with George Allen coming in and taking over the Redskins.”

While Goodell long ago gave up his fandom when he first began working in the NFL offices in the 1980s, he never lost sight of his once-favorite team and what has happened to the franchise under Daniel Snyder’s ownership since 1999.

Goodell has personally had to deal with the fallout of many of the issues surrounding Snyder over the years, including the multiple investigations into his alleged misconduct and the franchise’s formerly toxic workplace.

But since the franchise went up for sale in November, Goodell has toed the company line and asked Snyder’s fellow owners to do the same after Colts owner Jim Irsay spoke out against Snyder in October.

Now that the franchise has a deal in place for Snyder to sell to Josh Harris, Goodell is still saying all the right things.

“I think we’ll get it to a place where it will be approved,” Goodell said Tuesday at a news conference with reporters at the NFL owners meetings in Minnesota, per Nicki Jhabvala and Mark Maske of The Washington Post.

“The [finance] committee really just had their first meeting on the matter. We really got the documents last week. So we’re hard at work as a staff looking at that, as we do every transaction. There’s a lot of due diligence as well as compliance issues. All of that’s happening and working full speed… .And we’ll have a meeting at the appropriate time.”

Fair enough.

From that point, JP Finlay of NBC Sports Washington and 106.7 The Fan asked Goodell if it was a priority for the NFL to get back into Washington, D.C., by building the Commanders’ new stadium in the district.

“Listen, I have had the conversation with the Mayor [Muriel Bowser],” Goodell said. “I’ve had conversations with others in the Washington, D.C. region. As you probably knew, I grew up in Washington, D.C., going over to RFK Stadium, so I understand the passion of the fans in Washington. I think that’s something the new ownership is going to have to address,” Goodell said. “It is not something we’re requiring in the context of the transaction. But I know that the new ownership will be focused on it, just from the limited conversations I’ve had with them.”

Virginia may offer the best incentive for a new stadium, and Maryland may want to keep the Commanders in P.G. County, but building a new stadium in the District remains the team’s No. 1 preference.

Jim Irsay comments on Harris group and NFL hoping to get deal done

Jim Irsay was talking about the Commanders again.

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Jim Irsay was again commenting about the Commanders.

Monday at the NFL owners meeting which is taking place Monday through Wednesday, Irsay expressed some comments regarding the Harris group hopefully getting the deal done in the purchasing of the Washington Commanders.

Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, had recently expressed some anger feeling the Commanders had broken the NFL’s tampering rules. Irsay had warned that tampering with Colts retired quarterback Andrew Luck would bring a team trouble.

But Monday, Irsay was speaking as representing the finance committee overseeing the sale of the Commanders by Daniel Snyder to the Josh Harris group.

The finance committee had met earlier Monday, and consequently, it was very reasonable that one of the committee members would update the media or answer questions.

Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post, provided some of Irsay’s statement:

Listeners and readers may find themselves wondering if there has been some discussion or debate regarding the NFL rules and policies being altered. Irsay did bring up the rules and said the NFL was not changing them. Then Irsay went as far as to offer that NFL owners are looking for the same type of cooperation they received from the Broncos’ sale to the Walton family.

On the one hand, the NFL does not want to alter the rules, change the policies, or change the procedures. On the other hand, might the Harris group be responding that the world of NFL sales and purchases is escalating? In this case, the purchase price is $ 6.05 billion. This necessitates a plurality of people making a purchase, not simply a single owner.

Was Irsay speaking to the Harris group through the media about rules, policies and cooperation? Or might Irsay have been hinting that the NFL is not going to update its policies for the Harris group purchase?

Might we be in the middle of an old-fashioned game of chicken? The owners want to rid themselves of Daniel Snyder so much; might Harris actually possess more leverage than we imagined at first?

Randy Jordan to participate in the NFL Coach Accelerator Program

The NFL will hold the Coach Accelerator program at the owners meetings next week. Commanders RBs coach Randy Jordan will attend.

The National Football League will host the second annual Coach Accelerator Program at the spring meetings next week in Minneapolis. The Coach Accelerator will run from May 21-23 and will include 40 coaches who are viewed as potential future head-coaching candidates.

Some on the list have interviewed for head-coaching vacancies before, and most are currently with an NFL team.

The Coach Accelerator program and the Front Office Accelerator began last year.

Representing the Washington Commanders will be running backs coach Randy Jordan. Jordan, a former NFL running back, has been with Washington since 2014 and transitioned from Jay Gruden’s staff to Ron Rivera’s staff. The 52-year-old Jordan played 10 years in the NFL and immediately jumped into coaching in 2003 after his retirement.

Another familiar name from his time in Washington is Drew Terrell. Terrell spent the past three seasons with Washington before the Commanders reshaped their offensive coaching staff under new offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. Terrell took a job with the Arizona Cardinals as wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator.

Here’s a press release from the NFL regarding the Coach Accelerator:

The Coach Accelerator aims to increase exposure between owners, executives, and diverse coaching talent, providing ample opportunity to develop and build upon their relationships. In a change to the nomination process this year, clubs were able to nominate those from outside of their organization.

The 40 participants this year are attending based on their high potential to be considered for a Head Coach position in the future. Sixteen of the participants will be returning from the May 2022 Accelerator cohort.

In addition to networking, further development of the participants is a critical component of the accelerator, with curated content sessions scheduled that will further engage each participant on the advancement of their executive leadership skills and business acumen.

“In the year since its inception, we’ve been encouraged by the positive response to the Accelerator from both club owners and participants,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “We look forward to continuing to build on an incredible program that supports diverse talent.”

 

What will new NFL Thursday Night policy mean for the Commanders?

Could the Commanders avoid Thursday Night football in 2023?

The NFL has reminded its fans the 2023 NFL regular season schedule will be released as planned this Thursday, May 11, at 8 pm on the NFL Network.

The NFL, always looking for something to get the attention of fans, has stated one new addition for the 2023 season will be a Black Friday game. That’s right, as if three Thanksgiving Day games are not enough, the NFL is going to schedule an additional game on the Friday following Thanksgiving as well.

Some fans will not be pleased to learn that their favorite team will not be given a Prime Time Thursday Night game this season. NFL owners in March agreed to vote this new policy into action, feeling they need to have the better teams being broadcast on Thursday Night games.

Thus, be assured that the NFL will schedule the Cowboys to play on two Thursday Night games this season. Don’t be surprised to see the Jets scheduled for two Thursday Night games as well, seeing they have recently traded for future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

It’s a quarterback-driven league, even more so when it comes to marketing. Consequently look for more prime-time games to feature big-name and highly popular quarterbacks such as Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Rodgers, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts.

“What about the Commanders?” you ask.

Well, they have not produced a winning record since Kirk Cousins was the starter of the 2015 and 2016 teams. In addition, Sam Howell is not exactly a proven and recognizable star, so don’t be surprised if the Commanders are not given a Thursday Night game.

Frankly, why not be glad if that is the case?  I remain opposed to Thursday Night games, knowing it is not good for the physical recovery of the players.