Three proposed NFL rules changes
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: Three NFL teams have submitted rule change proposals:<br><br>The Packers: Ban the brotherly shove/tush push<br><br>The Lions: Remove automatic first down for defensive holding and illegal contact penalties<br><br>The Eagles: Change the overtime rules of the regular season to… <a href="https://t.co/RazrK64h9U">pic.twitter.com/RazrK64h9U</a></p>&mdash; Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL_DovKleiman/status/1902381276847349961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

yes, no, yes

I wouldn't vote yes to #2 either but would be willing to entertain DPI being a 15-yard penalty instead of a spot foul.

I’m open to all of these. Wouldn’t care if none pass at the same time.

In general, I think the tush push makes for a less enjoyable product on the field. It’s a bit more painful for the average C, Gs and DTs than your typical play, which might invite a greater injury risk. It’s also just very muddy. Did they get the first down? Didn’t they? Who the **** knows! Can’t see shit with 3,000 pounds of man meat all smushed together.

I’ve long hated the auto 1st down for defensive holding and illegal contact. I’m not sure making it a simple 5 or 10 yard penalty is a better solution so I’ll wait to see how that goes..

Extra regular season means bonus football so I wouldn’t hate it but I do like the current system during the regular season. It emphasizes that football is a team sport, which includes defense. If your team gives up a TD on the first drive of OT, they simply didn’t deserve the win. That’s just the way she goes.

Yes to all 3.

It's infuriating when you have a 3rd and long or 4th and long and a defensive holding gives an auto 1st down. Make it equal to an offensive hold - 10 yards.

I agree with the Lions. Tired of every 5 yard penalty (besides offsides) resulting in an automatic first down.

I’m open to all of these. Wouldn’t care if none pass at the same time.

In general, I think the tush push makes for a less enjoyable product on the field. It’s a bit more painful for the average C, Gs and DTs than your typical play, which might invite a greater injury risk. It’s also just very muddy. Did they get the first down? Didn’t they? Who the **** knows! Can’t see shit with 3,000 pounds of man meat all smushed together.

I’ve long hated the auto 1st down for defensive holding and illegal contact. I’m not sure making it a simple 5 or 10 yard penalty is a better solution so I’ll wait to see how that goes..

Extra regular season means bonus football so I wouldn’t hate it but I do like the current system during the regular season. It emphasizes that football is a team sport, which includes defense. If your team gives up a TD on the first drive of OT, they simply didn’t deserve the win. That’s just the way she goes.

They'll never do that, NFL players are way smarter than college kids and would literally tackle guys if they were beat 30 yards downfield.

Only problem with that is Worthy is just going to get tackled as soon as he’s about to beat a DB.

It might create too much gray area, but I’d almost like to see something where an underthrown ball equals 15 yards and a good throw is a spot foul.

That’s the one that annoys me. A bad throw brings the receiver back through the DB and results in a spot foul.

Especially illegal contact.

That is the most subjective call in football

NFL players being smart is a strange statement.

I've never thought college football has a problem with that rule. The DBs aren't going wild with PI. And if they were, I'm assuming the NCAA would change that rule by now.

I would like to see PI be half the distance to spot of the foul, and no auto first down


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Because elite WR's create major separation in college, in the NFL it's smaller...how often is someone just wide ass open in the NFL?

Also recovery speed, if a WR is 4 yards ahead of a CB 40 yards downfield and he sees dudes hands go up he'd just tackle him 15 is better than 50.

I get the idea but it doesn't always play out that way. You have to remember that many of these penalties happen on 3rd down or 4th down where you really don't want to take a penalty. Conceding even 15 yards can be a backbreaker for a defense.

Yes,no,yes

I like all three of them.

I still don't know how the tush push is conceptually different from the flying wedge, which was banned from the sport back when Teddy Roosevelt was president.

They better not vote for the Lions proposal of making playoff seeds higher for record.

Do not turn this league into the NBA. Make winning your division matter

But there's 8 divisions. That's too many IMO. Makes winning a division less important when seven other teams are doing it also.

By the same token, any shit QB can throw up a duck that has no chance to be caught and get 60 yards out of it because of a ticky tack call.

I doubt they change any of these.

1. Tush push has been happening for years now - are they supposed to ban it because the Eagles won a Super Bowl?

2. The NFL doesn't tend to make rules changes that will lower points scored.

3. The NFL seems to generally want less overtime, not more, at least during the regular season. Their message is usually that teams need to win in regulation or roll the dice.

Yeah, I wouldn't want that.

I had a sudden thought the other day. I was looking at the draft and realizing that the broncos, Raiders, and Chargers tend to get higher picks each year because they always lose two games to the Chiefs. It made me wonder theoretically whether one really dominant team can actually create a powerhouse division if all of the teams are good at drafting. You'd then have four stronger teams duking it out each year for the division.

I don't know that it's a reasonable concern given that there's so much variability between teams, and in the long run empires will always fall. You can also easily test the theory (which I haven't done) by looking at interdivisional records. But I think the only way to prevent such a thing would be to randomly shuffle divisions every year.

That then makes me think that randomly shuffling divisions every year would be kind of fun. This year we're taking on the Raiders, Chargers, and broncos. Next year we could be taking on the Brown, Rams, and Vikings. We should give this a try.

Don't have the QBs in your conference, so you get to make the rules. Goodall's NFL

I can't see how you make #2 work. A beat DB will purposely hold or interfere if it's not a spot foul and a first down because then the penalty would be better than the yardage given up. Gotta leave it as is.

I couldn't disagree more. I think that it was bullshit that the Vikings had to travel to the Rams just because the Rams won their division. I don't think that a 10 win team should get a home game against a 14 win team just because they won their shitty division. I don't care for the Vikings, but that wasn't right. And it happens all the time.

The tush push is a bullshit play that shouldn't be allowed. For no other reason than the Chiefs don't run it. End of story.

The 2nd one, here's the deal. The spot foul for pass interference is the real problem. Change that. Rewarding the offense 80 yards for a shirt grab just isn't reasonable.

The 3rd one, I can't remember what that was.....

Or even a 10 yard penalty, it changes the game at the end the way it is now.

The ****ing tush push needs to go, this isn't rugby. :mad:

I think the overtime rules are just fine, leave them alone.

The amount of downfield mugging would look like an old NFL Blitz match.

Can't just tackle a dude 40 yards downfield because you're toast, and only give up 15 for it.

Defensive holding should be tweaked somehow, it's really terrible to have like 2nd and 20 or 3rd and 25 just get instantly negated by a 5 yard auto first down.

The penalty yardage on pass interference is fine. Calling it properly is the problem.

My frustration and I do not even know how to change it is when the WRs are running down the field vertical and then suddenly cut back in toward the line of scrimmage. It is impossible to ask for a defender to account for that. I am honestly surprised there are not more downfield passes that are slightly short for a WR to earn a PI as he goes for it.

I think all replays in the NFL should go thru a Chiefs Planet consensus.

I like the lions one

Tho the looks one may be able to be used strategically on third and longs. The coach may just tell the players to intentionally hold and if it gets called then they have an extra third down defensive chance

For once in my life I actually agree with you. That gets called all the time and it's BS

Yes, no, no

Just go back to not being able to aid the runner, period.

yes, yes, yes

Tush push - Defense isn't allowed to do the same exact thing, offense shouldn't either

automatic 1st down - gives penalties less power over outcomes

overtime - just make it all the same

ta dahhh

I would get rid of offsetting penalties cancelling each other out regardless of the yards. I think it’s stupid that if one team commits a 5 yard penalty (such as offsides on the defense), the other one could commit a 15 yard penalty (such as a personal foul) and they cancel each other out.

If both teams commit a penalty then the difference in yards gets enforced. In the example above the offense would back up 10 yards.

Three proposed NFL rules changes
 

I think the holding and especially illegal contact should be changed. Perhaps 3rd and 15 or less you get a first down on holding. Illegal contact is a first down at 3rd and 10 or less since illegal contact in particular is very subjective.

It's a no for me on all these rule changes. Overtime should be moved back to sudden death.

The way kickers can kick these days? And let me guess… the kickoff rules stay the same.

You’re basically playing “get two first downs and you win”

No thanks.

The proposed Packers rule change, to supposedly do away with the tush push, isn't gonna work. They propose that a player lined up directly behind a ball carrier can't push the ball carrier forward. So shift the running back over 4 feet and run the tush push as normal, and you're compliant with the Packers rule change, but the tush push hasn't changed in any material way whatsoever. We're close to having teams hiring "tush push coordinators" kinda like Brad Childress was once our 'spread game coordinator'.

I hate it. If I wanted to watch rugby I'd watch ****ing rugby.

So the only solution here is to dismiss the Packer idea and just adopt the rule that was on the books for decades and decades and decades: no pushing a ball carrier forward. I don't give a **** where you lineup pre-snap.

If it is clearly PI on a clearly catch-able ball, I'm 100% ok with the spot foul.

But third and a mile and chuck it downfield..., so yes the DB was a little grabby, the ball looked a little long, maybe if the DB hadn't grabbed the WR could have made a pro bowl catch???

So now the ref faces a huge call/non call. I would rather see that called as a five yard penalty replay the down, no automatic first down.

But once upon time the NFL had a 5 and 15 yard version of face mask and they got rid of it.

I don't think they would want two versions of PI.

I would be more okay with sudden death OT, if..

You got rid of the kickoff and had some bidding system to determine who got the ball first and where.

So for instance if you believed in your offense you could bid to start with the ball on the 5 yard line or even the 1 yard line instead of getting it at the usual 25 or 30.

There is no reason for the Eagles to ever run anything other than the tush push. You're getting 2-3 yards no matter what guaranteed, but judging from that first Super Bowl matchup when they were running it so often, that play can also easily gain 4-6 yards no problem.

They could run the tush push literally on every single play all game long. All you need is 2.5 yards per play, and that's the absolute floor that play attains.

The Eagles are morons for ever running anything other than the tush push. It's -EV not to run that play, EVERY SNAP. It's a Madden glitch that can't be stopped because of the GODAWFUL decision to end the rule about pushing ball carriers forward. That rule change failed. Roll it back.

The 1/8th measure the Packers propose is stupid.

OT use to be a problem when they wouldn't flip it to the Chiefs game. Now they flip it regardless lol.

If you made the penalty 10 yards I would be okay with no automatic first down. If I’m they removed the first down and keeping the yardage to 5, you’d see a lot more grabbing and less offense. I don’t love the trends of of the last few years that suppress passing and emphasize a rushing attack.

Every pass over 30 yards with a chance of being caught would incentivize a foul. God how boring.

I'm not sold on #1. Yes, it is annoying but teams need to figure out how to stop it. That being said, I might entertain the idea because, to my knowledge, defensive players can't be pushed from behind. So why can they do that on offense?

#2 & #3 are good ideas, IMO.

There is no sporting justification for a 14-3 team having to travel to a 10-7 or even a 9-8 team that barely even deserve to reach the playoffs just because the lower team were the best of a terrible group and the other had an even more outstanding team in their division.

If the Tush Push play is such a cheat code then the 31 other teams would be running it as well.

Buffalo proved in the AFC Championship Game that it's not easy to execute.

I wish they would make a new rule in NFL that cheerleaders have to be an 8 or better, no dudes or trannies.

Play defense.

But also would be cool with putting the kickoff back the way it was 20 years ago.

No
Yes
Yes

It might just be naivety on my part but I don’t understand why the ‘ineligible man downfield’ rule exists and why we can’t just have every player on the offensive side of the ball be a receiver on every play.

LOL. The Chiefs won't even run a QB sneak.

So you're saying the Chiefs should fire all of their cheerleaders?

Illegal contact/holding should be a 5 yard penalty, period.

DPI being a 15 yarder also makes sense.

Yes to all three.

Watching teams that can't move the ball without jump ball penalties is equally boring.

"Play defense"

The rules have been put into place so teams can't just "play defense" anymore, man.

And you would've been asking a team to "play defense" well enough to prevent a team from picking up ~50-60 yards back when sudden death was a thing. The kickoff touchbacks took you to the 20, and while there were some rocket-legged kickers back in the day, many of them were pretty inaccurate from 50+. These days you're making it hard to play defense and the players/circumstances have drastically shortened the necessary field to make the kick.

Things have changed. Players have changed. Rules have changed. Sorry, but you're out of touch on this. You remind me of some asshole customers who would storm into the store way back when I worked retail and expected me to fix a problem or get something in stock when I literally could do nothing. When I told them that, they said, "I won't accept that. I'm the customer. You're the employee. You figure out how to make it happen" as if they thought I was beng lazy or I was just ill-trained and incompetent.

You shouldn't win the game just by breathing. At least with the current rules, the offense has to actually work if they want to win on the first possession of OT. There needs to be a "prove it" factor. And that's the best method. You can have your sudden death immediately after they fail to score a TD. It's pretty simple.

Absolutely this. "Just play defense" doesn't fly for a league that has purposefully slanted the rules towards the offense.

The intent of "sudden death" from what I understand was not to make teams just "play defense". It was to shorten the game and have less wear and tear. It should also encourage teams to play for a win in regulation.

However the majority of coaches never seemed to get this logic and would settle for three, or kick an extra point instead of going for 2. Somehow you avoid criticism losing in overtime but risk getting blown up if you go for it at end of regulation and fail.

Should just have a draw as a final result then and only play overtime in the playoffs.

Lots of 4-6'es and almost no 8s or netter.

Others have mentioned that this will cause/allow defenses to do more holding. NFL likes their offense. I don't think it will pass.

In the grand scheme of true effect on the play, I'd probably order their severity as illegal contact < defensive holding < pass interference but they are always subjective, especially holding versus DPI.

I would honestly make them a 10-yard penalty, 10 yards + automatic 1st down, and 15 yards + automatic first down respectively but that's my 2 cents

For player protection purposes I'd be fine with that. Yeah, there'd be more ties but there'd also be very few teams playing for a tie. It would make the end more exciting for sure.