NFL Rules That Need to Change

There is nothing worse than watching your favorite team get a stop on fourth down and the bottom bar on the screen turns yellow. Flags can make or break drives, give teams second chances, and completely alter the game’s ending. If we had the power, we’d like to make a few rule changes.

Reduce Offensive Holding to 5 Yards

10 yards seems too severe a consequence for a play most lineman, offensive and defensive, agree happens on almost every play. The Dallas Cowboys had an NFL leading 338 yards lost to offensive holding penalties in 2021. Imagine how many more points, wins, etc. they would have had if they’d only lost 169 yards. It’s hard enough to get first downs in this league as it is. Tacking on an additional 10 yards for such a common penalty seems harsh.

Fix Defensive Pass Interference

Joe Flacco was seemingly the king of this flag. He’d just chuck it deep and hope the defensive back mauls his receiver for a free 50 yards. If it were made a standard 15-yard flag, the roles would be flipped and the defense could take advantage. We have the perfect solution. In the last two minutes of each half, DPI is a 15-yard penalty, but the clock resets to its time at the start of the play and the down is re-played. Now the offense can’t throw it deep hoping for a 50 yard gain in crunch time and the defense can’t commit a DPI on purpose to waste 10 seconds and only give up 15 yards. In all other sections of the game it is a flat 15-yard penalty.

Officials Get an Earpiece Which Beeps When the Play Clock Expires

This one is not so much a rule change as an umpire enhancement. In this day and age, with all the technology we have, how are we so far behind at calling Delay of Game penalties. They happen every single Sunday and we just let it slide. The clock is at 0 and a team is gifted an extra second to snap the ball. If the official didn’t have to watch for the clock to hit 0 then look at the ball it would be called correctly more often. It doesn’t make any sense. He should be watching the ball the entire time and when the beep in his earpiece goes off, if the ball is still there, he blows his whistle. 

Gunners Must Wait 2 Seconds Before Chasing a Punt

There is probably not a world where this would ever happen, but it would bring back a lot of action to punts. Check out this clip of Dante Hall’s craziest punt return and tell me you don’t want more of that every Sunday.

Reduce Defensive Holding to Only 10 Yards

The automatic first down needs to be removed from the defensive holding penalty. 10 yards is punishment enough for this flag. The redzone is a hotspot for this penalty. If it’s 3rd and Goal from the 4 and the DB holds, the ball should be moved to the 2 and the play starts over. The offense doesn’t deserve an extra 4 downs because of one hold. 

The NFL is already exciting and entertaining to watch. These rule changes would make it much more enjoyable though. I don’t know about you, but I am tired of watching my favorite team come onto the field, get penalized for holding and have to now gain 20 yards for a first. It kills the entire drive and all the fun.