What’s on Tap for NFL Owners Meetings in Phoenix?

PHOENIX — The NFL world has descended on the desert for the league’s annual owners’s meetings here in Phoenix.

As usual, the four-day event will feature a ton of business regarding the future of the NFL, as well as an opportunity to catch up with the owners, general managers and head coaches that make things happen around the league.

Here’s what will — and will not — be on the docket for this week’s get together in suburban Phoenix.

RULE CHANGES APLENTY

There are 17 different rule change proposals that have been put forth by one or more team or the competition committee and will be voted on by NFL ownership.

Those range from relatively unimportant to the flow of a regular game — the Philadelphia Eagles would like the numeral zero to be a legal uniform number and for kickers to wear any eligible digit — to ones that could have far-reaching repercussions regarding the way the game is played.

The Eagles have also proposed an XFL-style 4th and 20 offensive play to take the place of onside kicks.

The Detroit Lions have proposed including personal fouls in the coaches challenge and also a plan to let teams have a third challenge as long as they get one of their first two right. The current rules say coaches must get both correct in order to get a third challenge.

The Houston Texans want to include failed fourth down plays as turnovers for purposes of automatic replay review.

The Los Angeles Rams also want to add to the replay review process, but more narrowly than the Lions. Instead of all first downs, they have proposed to add roughing the passer calls to the list of challengeable and reviewable plays.

The New York Jets have proposed a rule to ban the split-flow cut block, where a player comes across the formation against the flow of the play and blocks a player below the waist. This is the kind of block that T.J. Watt was injured on in the 2022 preseason against the Lions.

The competition committee itself has put forward several minor proposals, including to change the line of scrimmage for a touchback after a punt to the 25. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is a member of the competition committee.

Not currently on the docket was a floated plan to eliminate the “tush push” quarterback sneak popularized by the Eagles. Things can always be added to the agenda, though.

BYLAW CHANGES, AS WELL

The Lions would like to allow a quarterback that is not on the active roster to enter the game if both of the team’s active quarterbacks are injured, preventing the situation from the NFC Championship Game, where the San Francisco 49ers ran out of healthy quarterbacks.

The Los Angeles Chargers would like division winners that finish below .500 to lose their right to a home playoff game in the Wild Card Round, as long as the Wild Card opponent has four more wins.

The Chargers would also like players that have returned to practice but remain on the injured reserve list to be part of the teams’ mandator injury status reporting.

A rule that seems sure to pass is a joint proposal by 25 teams to have one cut-down day in training camp, going all the way from 90 players to 53 instead of the current step-down process. The idea is to allow more opportunities for end-of-the-roster players in the final preseason game, when starters usually do not play very much.

FLEXING THURSDAYS

Not a part of the officially released agenda, but still expected to be voted upon is a plan to include Thursday Night Football in the league’s flexible scheduling process.

The proposal would allow the games in Weeks 14-17 to be moved to/from Sunday to Thursday with a two-week notice, in order to avoid meaningless prime time games. Monday Night Football will already be adding flex scheduling for the first time in 2023.

The change would also eliminate restrictions on the number of times a team can play on short rest in a given season.

D.C. DRAMA

The ongoing groundswell to remove of Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder will not move forward this week, as Snyder is in talks to sell the team to a third party. With Snyder working toward his own exit, the rest of the owners will seek to avoid a messy ousting and let him leave of his own accord, as long as he can work out a deal in a reasonable timeframe.

CATCHING UP

In addition to all the league news, Steelers president Art Rooney II, general manger Omar Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin are all expected to speak with the local media in Phoenix for the first time since making a big splash in free agency. Stay tuned!