The NFL's competition committee is considering tweaking a couple of rules for the upcoming season.
The league is looking to simplify the nomenclature of the catch rule, and they recently acknowledged that the infamous "no catch" by Dez Bryant in the 2015 playoffs was, indeed, a catch. The NFL knows that the current wording of the catch rule is too complicated and too vague, as has been evidenced on numerous occasions in the past few seasons.
At this point, even commentators have trouble defining what is and isn't a catch. Everyone, from fans to coaches, to players, will be glad when the league provides us with some clarity.
However, what is likely to be more controversial is the potential change to the pass interference rule. Instead of being a spot foul, pass interference would instead become just a 15-yard penalty, as it is in college.
There is generally multiple pass interference calls each game; Pro Football Reference reported 266 in the recent NFL season. Because of their frequency and magnitude, P.I. penalties can have a profound impact on the complexion of a contest.
For example, a team around the 50-yard line may take a shot down the field just before halftime or at the end of a game. If pass interference is called in the end zone, the ball is automatically placed at the 1-yard line by rule. The benefiting team is then allowed to run one more untimed play, giving them a chance to punch it in from a yard out or kick an easy field goal.
The rule change is seemingly reasonable, and we know that it works because we see it being used in college. However, it could result in significant backlash. For example, coaches will likely instruct their defensive backs to simply tackle a receiver if he’s got the defender beat. Lessening the severity of the pass interference penalty would cause a decent uptick in the frequency in which they are called.
The rules committee will be weighing these factors when deciding whether a rule change would benefit the league. Since the idea is being seriously discussed, they could try it for a season and see what happens.
We’ve seen this before, mainly when the league decided to back up extra point attempts in 2015. Fans took to the new rule change, as it has made the game more interesting, so the NFL decided to keep the longer extra points. However, ahead of the season, the league did announce that it was a one-year proposal and that they would evaluate its impact after the season to decide whether or not to keep it.
With many rule changes having been made in the last couple of decades benefitting the offensive side of the ball, this one would give defenses a bit of help. This could be another point of debate for those who are deciding on the new interference penalty.
On one hand, most casual viewers enjoy seeing high flying offenses that score a lot of points. The league’s revenue has grown in recent years because of changes to the game that help offenses.
On the other hand, changing the penalty would arguably make the game fairer since it’d be giving defenses an advantage that they currently don’t have.
It is unknown where exactly all of the members of the competition committee stand on this issue, but Bob Glauber of Newsday does not suspect a change will take place based on word from his sources.
Regardless, an announcement on both the catch and pass interference rules will likely be made sometime in May, which is when new rules have commonly been established in the past.
