DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum New Rule Changes for 2026

NFL owners have approved four rules changes, per source:

🏈 By Competition Committee; to permit the kicking team to declare an onside kick at any time during the game.

🏈 By Competition Committee; to eliminate the kicking team’s incentive to intentionally kick the ball out of bounds when kicking off from the 50-yard line.

🏈 By Competition Committee; to modify the kickoff alignment requirements for the receiving team players in the setup zone.

🏈 By Competition Committee; for one year only, to allow the NFL Officiating Department to correct clear and obvious misses made by on-field officials that impact the game, in
the event that there is a work stoppage involving the game officials represented by the NFL Referees Association.

Plan to assist replacement refs among approved NFL rules changes

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/48358865/plan-assist-replacement-refs-five-approved-nfl-rules

PHOENIX -- NFL owners approved two significant changes to the league's replay review system Tuesday, one that is contingent on the NFL using replacement officials this season and one that will take effect whether or not there is an officiating work stoppage.

The NFL and NFL Referees Association broke off collective bargaining last week as a May 31 expiration of their contract looms. The league has already begun collecting names of college officials who could serve as replacements during the preseason and possibly the regular season, if needed.

The first set of Tuesday's approved changes will create a massive expansion of authority for staffers in the league's officiating command center in New York City, allowing them to consult with the on-field referee on a wide variety of called and uncalled penalties and other administrative procedures.

Rich McKay, co-chairman of the NFL's competition committee, said the league would reallocate existing gameday employees to ensure appropriate staffing levels to cover each game if a work stoppage activates these rule changes. NFL owners are "alarmed" about the state of negotiations, sources said over the weekend, and NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said Tuesday that owners are "insistent upon" a new CBA that provides avenues to improve the state of NFL officiating.

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"That's where we are in these negotiations," Miller said, "and that's exactly where we're going to stay."

According to verbiage in the rule, staff members in New York could alert a replacement referee if they see clear and obvious evidence of an uncalled foul for roughing the passer, intentional grounding or an act that would normally lead to disqualification.

Those staff members would also be permitted to alert replacement referees that a flag shouldn't have been thrown if there is clear and obvious video evidence that "at least one element of the foul called is not present," according to the verbiage.

Fouls eligible for this alert include: twisting, pulling or turning the face mask; roughing the passer; intentional grounding; horse-collar tackles; illegal contact; pass interference; and disqualification.

In 2019, the NFL conducted a one-year experiment that subjected pass interference to replay review. The effort bogged down amid a muddled standard for overturning an on-field decision. In Tuesday's approved rule, the competition committee limited league staff members' involvement to only circumstances where "there was inadvertent tangling of feet when both players were playing the ball or neither player was playing the ball."

In addition, after the two-minute warning or in overtime, the list of called or uncalled penalties that league staff members could provide referees with would expand to include unsportsmanlike conduct based on punching or kicking at an opponent. During kicks, league staff members could also consult on the leverage and leaping rules.

Finally, throughout a game, league staff members could assist on discerning whether a foul should be classified as roughing or running into the kicker.

NFL team employees received a memo over the weekend prohibiting public discussion of the NFLRA negotiations.

On Tuesday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, "the negotiations haven't progressed the way hoped from a timing standpoint."

Dallas Cowboys owner and CEO and co-chair of the competition committee Stephen Jones declined to talk about the contingency plan Monday, "out of respect for the process and ongoing negotiations." Multiple head coaches also declined to comment on officiating throughout the meetings.

New England Patriots coach and competition committee member Mike Vrabel said in jest, "I think we should just have coaches call fouls."

"I trust the league," San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York told ESPN on Monday. "I don't deal with that piece of the NFL. I'm not on any committees that deal with it, so whatever they're going to do, I trust the league's operations."

Another club owner who requested anonymity told ESPN: "We have to be prepared for everything."

Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said Tuesday he viewed the contingency plan as a first step to having more input from New York overall even with the regular officials.

"I think we're in for some great future days of getting better all the way around, and we all think we can do a great job of zeroing in and training and looking for nuances to help the decision making regarding the calls on the field. We all think that," he said. "Everybody's been striving, that's nothing new, to try to get better. But it's our job to put the incentives in place and demands in place to get better. Fans deserve that."

Meanwhile, the second change to replay review will represent a notable shift for owners who have previously sought to limit its scope. For the first time, replay officials in New York will have the authority to both disqualify a player and direct that a penalty be enforced even if on-field officials had not thrown a flag, in the case of either a flagrant football act or non-football act. It takes effect independent of negotiations with the NFLRA.

Previously, owners have not wanted replay officials to throw a flag because they wanted to preserve that for the discretion of on-field officials. The original wording of Tuesday's rule change did not allow replay officials to throw a flag. But McKay said it was amended when multiple coaches said there should be an on-field impact if the act is flagrant enough to merit disqualification.

"They said, 'Hey, if we're going to do this, we have to put a flag on, because we cannot have a fourth-and-2 show up, they disqualified a player from the previous play for a non-football act -- he's punched somebody, he's done whatever -- and the team still has to punt,'" McKay said.

McKay said he foresees a continued effort to expand replay review and assist in the near future but said: "We've stayed true to the idea that we want replay assist, and we want New York to be able to help, and we just don't want to move too fast. We don't want to add too much to it."

In other changes, owners approved:

• A rule that eliminates a team's incentive to kick the ball out of bounds on kickoffs from the 50-yard line.

• Allowing teams to declare an onside kick at any point in a game. This change arose because teams wanted to be able to use an onside kick if a penalty enforcement led to them kicking off from the 50.


• A modification of alignment requirements on the kickoff for members of the receiving team in the setup zone, aligning the kickoff rule with the original intent of special teams coaches who developed it in 2024. The NFL thinks it could address an increase in the concussion rate on kickoffs.

• Approved an expansion of its mental health coverage to require each team to employ a full-time clinician or offer full-time coverage. Eight of the 32 teams already are in compliance. It is subject to approval by the NFL Players Association because it's part of the collective bargaining agreement. The policy will also provide more support for players on injured reserve.

• A rule that permit players on the reserve/physically unable to perform list to begin a 21-day practice period after the team's second game of the regular season.

ESPN's Todd Archer contributed to this report.

I think it's funny that the NFL's flex is to warn the refs that if they go on strike the league will begin the process of replacing them with technology. 😁

By Competition Committee; to eliminate the kicking team’s incentive to intentionally kick the ball out of bounds when kicking off from the 50-yard line.

For those as confused as I was...

Touchbacks (downed in end zone, out of bounds or through endzone) are spotted at the 30 yard line. When the kicking team is kicking off from the 50, it made more sense to just kick the ball out of bounds, which resulted in possession being started from the 25 instead (ball placement is 25 yards from the spot of the kick).

Now, specifically for balls being kicked off from the 50, touchbacks will be spotted at the 20.

During the last work stoppage, there was a ton of press and hand-wringing about the effect the replacement refs were having on game outcomes... but honestly, I didn't feel like they were all that worse than the regulars.

Similarly, games would benefit from this with oversight when played with regular refs as they would with replacements.


Overall, I just find myself very unimpressed with officiating consistency in the NFL, so it's annoying to see people give replacement refs such a hard time.

It was worded in a way that sent a message to current officials that they no longer have any power in negotiations and no more than that. A power play short and simple.

I don’t know what an official makes in the NFL, but I’d bet they’re underpaid.

And it’s a difficult job in a fast/paced game, so mistakes happen.

They are paid $250,000+ per season to learn rule changes, stay in shape and know the one part of the field they are assigned to... and to not get the calls wrong consistently. I don't think they are under paid in the slightest. This is also a part time job for them, nearly all of them have other careers.

I wish I had gotten heavy into officiating as a youth and worked my way up the chain. The problem is, most of them are lawyers and dentists that know someone that got them in.

To be clear, most of the problem (IMO) has to do with many rule-changes making the game harder to officiate vs easier. Also, some rule changes seem to be slanted to try to increase scoring (which sometimes makes it tough to make the "right" call). The lack of accountability in struggling to make officiating more consistent in the NFL extends way beyond the guys wearing stripes on the field.

Kind of along the same lines, I believe there has been a fairly significant amount of turnover in NFL reffing crews (outside of any impending work stoppage).

I just have a hard time with the NFL not really doing a whole lot for standards and accountability for bad reffing (I know they're graded which goes towards scheduling in the playoffs... this isn't accountability) while in the same breath making the game harder to ref and not investing in officiating consistency (boggles my mind how little technology is used).

I did a deep dive, albeit about ten years ago, and was blown away at the number of lawyers and doctors!

Agree heartily with that last paragraph. The league seems too stubborn to embrace some of the most common-sense tech, it's ranges from head-scratching to jaw-dropping. For instance, how is there not a chip in the ball that lights up a TD light at the goal line? And yeah, if you're standing two feet away and can't see a player's foot is out of bounds - suspend that dolt for two games without pay.

As far as the officiating itself, I think there are some bad eggs, but not any more than any other workplace. My biggest complaint is the league's constant penchant for making rules even more subjective than they already are. There is enough nuance in determining a catch to fill a Stephen King novelette. What the hell was wrong with coming down with two feet? Then they had to add "make a football move", pretty soon they decided "they must survive the ground"... GTHOH, it wasn't broken in the first place!

Lastly, let the booth pick-up flags AND distribute them if a play is under review anyway. That Hollywood Higgins dive could have changed the face of this franchise forever if the penalty the whole world watched was enforced.