Three important rule changes are coming to the NFL, which will have a significant impact on the 2024 season.
First, the NFL is instituting a new kickoff rule that totally changes the action in order to promote return attempts while limiting injuries caused by large collisions. The second is the growth of replay assistance, which is a group of replay officials that help referees make objective rulings in real time using video evidence, to extend their role in assisting referees with tasks such as identifying the ball. Finally, a regulation modification affects how players can tackle, with the “hip drop tackle” prohibited in an effort to reduce lower-body injuries.
On Friday, the Detroit Lions had referee Shawn Smith, who has been helping officiate in training camp this week, discuss the upcoming rule changes and how they would be implemented for the NFL season.
Here’s how the three new places will appear:
Kickoffs
The modification to the kickoff regulation is a seismic shift for the sport, which has always operated with relatively unchanging kickoff rules.
Instead of having 10 men line up 5 yards back of the 35-yard line and gain a running start as the kicker blasts it into the end zone, the kicker will be behind the 10 coverage players. The kicker will continue to kick from 35 yards out, but the coverage players will be stationed in the “setup zone” near the receiving team’s 40-yard line.
Return teams must have nine players in the setup zone between the 30- and 35-yard lines, with up to two returners in the landing zone between the goal line and the 20-yard line, with touchbacks now taking place at the 30-yard line and no fair catches.
“It’s all new to all of us,” Smith, a 10-year referee, admitted. “So we’re all trying to get reps and see what it looks like, what it feels like.”
The NFL aimed to boost the number of returns in games after they dropped to 21.8% of kickoffs during the 2023 season, with no returns in the Super Bowl. Smith stated that the ideal goal is to increase the number of returns to 30%, which would create excitement, while the limited distance covered reduces the ability for players to go as quickly as possible before colliding with each other to try to limit injuries.
The preseason will be an important time for both teams and officials to witness what the kickoff looks like in person and all of the different permutations that teams could try. Head coach Dan Campbell said he and special teams coordinator Dave Fipp will re-watch the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, on Thursday night to evaluate how the Chicago Bears and Houston Texans handled the situation.
“I thought it was interesting and I know the first two kicks, the returns were to the 25-26 yard line so I’m like ‘OK,'” Campbell told ESPN. “The setup that the Bears and Houston created was impressive. Fipp and I are quite excited to watch them. We’ll check it out this afternoon.”
Replay assistance
The replay system is expanding in the aim of making replay reviews “more efficient” and assisting referees with objective calls that can be recorded with cameras. Replay officials in New York can now assist game officials with real-time reviews of rulings where “clear and obvious” evidence that the call was missed exists.
Replay officials can now assist with calls such as spot of the ball, inbounds/out of bounds, helmet-to-helmet contact on roughing the passer penalties, a spot of a loose ball, penalty enforcement for yardage, intentional grounding/pocket boundaries, game clock operation (but not the play clock), if a player is down by contact, and a loose ball near the sideline or end zone.
Previously, the NFL rulebook stated that replay officials were “only permitted to provide input on limited administrative issues and during replay reviews”. The choices will be made in real time, and both sides will be notified if replay assistance changes a call.
“They would initiate it because we’re programmed to assume we are right,” Smith said. “So they’re going to come in and tell us we are wrong in that situation. So it’s not going to change how we officiate the game.”
One of the biggest changes is how it impacts calls on roughing the passer and quarterback hits.
“If we call roughing the passer or high hit to the head/neck area, replay assistance will come in,” Smith informed us. “If there’s no contact at the head/neck area, they can assist and see if there was no roughing the passer for a high hit if that’s what you deemed it to be.”
In addition to the expanded scope of the replay department, the coach’s challenges received a minor modification. Coaches will be awarded a third challenge if they win one of the first two, lowering the bar from the previous requirement that both be successful.
Hip drop tackle
The NFL banned the hip drop tackle, a technique for bringing a ball carrier down in which a tackler dumps their weight on the carrier’s legs to cut them down. Last year, Ravens tight end Mark Andrews became the latest player to sustain significant injuries on the play, bringing the tackle back into focus. According to the NFL, the play is 20-25 times more likely to inflict injury than typical tackling techniques.
If a tackler takes down a carrier in a way that meets the league’s three criteria, he will be penalized 15 yards: wrapping the runner, swiveling the hips to move his body across the back of the runner and unweight his body and drop, and then dropping the weight and trapping the back of the carrier’s legs. All three conditions must be met before a flag can be thrown.
Again, Smith believes the players will be able to pick it up and that it will be policed in a similar “clear and obvious behavior.”
“We want to make sure we see the clear and obvious three elements,” according to Smith. “We want to see the wrap, we want to see the swivel and unweighting and then the trapping.”
Campbell stated that the squad has placed a strong emphasis on fundamentals since the alteration was made in the spring.
“We talked about it in the spring,” Campbell said earlier this week. “We know you have to get your head across, you have to keep running your feet, so yes, we have talked about it, but we are not teaching it. It is a point of attention, and the only way to avoid it is to focus on tackling.”