Breaking Down New Rules That Will Impact 2012 NFL Season

Including the owners' meetings in late March and through the league's spring meetings that took place Tuesday, the NFL has passed a total of eight rule changes for the 2012 season and beyond.

While some aren't as significant as others, each will have an impact on your viewing experience of NFL games either next season or in 2013.

Below, we give you a breakdown on what to expect from the new rule changes imposed by the NFL this offseason:

Rules Passed on March 28

1. Overtime

The NFL's regular-season overtime rules will now mirror the postseason, in which the team that receives the ball first cannot win the game with a field goal.

A touchdown on the first possession results in a win (see: Denver Broncos over Pittsburgh Steelers last postseason), but any other outcome will result in both teams getting a chance to possess the ball during the overtime period. If no points are scored on the first possession, overtime becomes sudden death. 

2. Kicking a Loose Ball

As are the rules in college football, kicking a loose ball during a live play will now have a loss of down associated with the original penalty.

3. Too Many Men on the Field

Call it the Buddy Ryan Rule or Super Bowl XLVI Rule, but having too many players on the field will now result in a dead-ball foul. A five-yard penalty will be assessed, and no time will run off the clock if the foul is committed by the defensive team. 

We saw the New York Giants attempt this tactic somewhat during February's Super Bowl, in which New York fielded too many men on purpose to ensure more time would run off the clock during heaves to the end zone. This rule eliminates the incentive for defenses to pull off that kind of play.

4. Expanding Defenseless Players' Rule

Defensive players are now included more thoroughly in the defenseless players' definition, as crackback blocks from offensive players at or above the head or neck are now outlawed. Big blocks from receivers such as Hines Ward are just part of the reason why this rule was put into place. 

5. Reviewing Turnovers

Turnovers can be such game-changing plays, so the NFL took the initiative to ensure every single turnover will be called correctly in 2012 and beyond by instituting an automatic review from upstairs.

Turnovers are now just like any other scoring play, which the NFL reviews without a coach or referee initiating. Coaches have possessed the opportunity to challenge turnovers for years now, but making sure every single one of those calls is correct is a positive change. 

Rules Passed on May 22

1. Trade Deadline

The NFL moved the trading deadline from Week 6 to Week 8, which gives teams a bigger window to make moves during the regular season. With the old rule, teams rarely made any significant changes because teams aren't dealing with the season-altering injuries that so frequently happen later into an NFL season.

While moving the deadline back just two weeks isn't going to significantly increase the amount of moves made before or at the cutoff, it's a move in the right direction. Down the road, a Week 11 or 12 trading deadline makes a lot of sense.

2. IR Changes

For years, landing on the NFL's injured reserve was an automatic season-ender. While that essentially remains the same for 2012, teams now have the option to designate one player placed on injured reserve (and who was still on the roster through the first week) as an marquee exemption.

That player will then have the opportunity to practice after six weeks out and play after eight, giving that exemption the option of returning during the same season in which he was injured. 

3. Padding Up

Starting in 2013, the NFL has made wearing knee and thigh pads mandatory for all players. The NFL will argue that the rule is done to protect players, but Bleacher Report's associate NFL editor Michael Schottey wrote a smart column on why the change really has very little positive impact in terms of keeping NFL players safer.