NFL Competition Committee Announces 2016 Rule Proposals

The NFL competition committee announced proposed rules changes for the 2016 season on Thursday. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported the proposals will be considered next week. 

Among the proposed rules, a prominent theme is instant replay and challenges. The Baltimore Ravens are among those lobbying for teams to have three challenges.

Baltimore—who also proposed players wear vests on their jerseys with numbers appropriate for their positions, probably in response to a particular situation—wants coaches to have three challenges outright.

The Minnesota Vikings and Washington Redskins are hoping to eliminate the requirement that coaches have to succeed in their first two challenges to earn a third one.

Washington also put in a couple of other key bids, including for personal foul penalties to be eligible plays for review and cutting overtime from preseason games. The Buffalo Bills went a bit further on the review front, requesting coaches can challenge any play except for turnovers and scoring plays.

On penalties where it's half the distance to the goal, the Kansas City Chiefs want to add the penalty yardage to the yards to gain for a first down. They also proposed a prohibition on quarterbacks falling to the ground, getting up and throwing a forward pass.

Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk poked some fun at the Chiefs' latter proposal:

That situation happened twice in the most recent NFL playoffs. The first came when Russell Wilson made a game-changing completion in a wild-card win at Minnesota, and the second was in the divisional round from Peyton Manning, who completed a 34-yard pass in the fourth quarter of a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Nine of the 19 rules proposals are from the competition committee.

Most notable among them are the permanent moving of the point-after attempt to the opponent's 15-yard line, making all chop blocks illegal and players being ejected if they're called twice for "certain types" of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.

A notable absence from the prospective rules changes is any alterations to the catch rule.

NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said, per the Washington Post's Mark Maske, that safety for the receiver was one reason no change to the catch rule was made. Vincent added that the decision from the committee to leave that rule as is was unanimous.