The NFL will also expand the use of instant replay as an officiating tool starting next season, and the league will expand the role of replay officials to assist on-field officials with certain objective aspects of penalties for pass roughing, intentional grounding and late hits out of bounds.
The league and the NFL Competition Committee haven't been ready to go as far as some coaches have wanted in recent years. Coaches such as Baltimore Ravens' John Harbaugh, Kansas City Chiefs' Andy Reid and others have previously pushed for a “sky judge” system, in which officials in the press box for each game would have the power to overturn on-field errors using instant replay. The NFL has continued to resist it, but has inched closer.
“For us, Replay Assist is just going to grow from here,” Atlanta Falcons CEO and competition committee chairman Rich McKay said at the league's annual meeting in Orlando in March. “The concept that Coach Harbaugh and Coach Reid pushed and that we talked about years ago – the idea of sky judges, right? We've always been against the idea that the game has to be officiated on the field. It just has to be officiated on the field. There's just too much going on. But we like their concept and the idea that Replay Assist will help make the calls right. And this is just one step on that.”
The stick-and-chain system of first downs isn't scheduled to be phased out just yet, and the 10-yard chain is expected to remain at least as a backup system even after an electronic system of first downs is used during the regular season.
The NFL said it tested optical tracking camera technology for line-to-gain decisions last season in Miami Gardens, Fla., East Rutherford, N.J., and at the Super Bowl. The testing will continue in preseason games this summer. If all goes well, the electronic system could be used in regular-season games starting in September, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
Some believe it may take until 2025 before the system is ready for regular season use.
“We need to make sure it works properly in all stadiums,” said another person familiar with the matter.
The human element remains in the first down process, as on-field officials manually verify the ball's location at the end of each play — there's no chip embedded in the football to electronically determine if a runner has reached the first down marker, for example.
But once the ball is spotted, it is measured virtually using optical tracking cameras at the NFL Referee Center in New York, and line-to-gain software can calculate exactly where the ball is on the field and determine whether it has reached the point needed to gain a first down.
A report submitted to teams by the competition committee at its March meeting outlined an expansion of replay official input on plays that are flagged for pass roughing, intentional grounding or out of bounds. After a “thorough investigation,” the committee recommended that a replay assist system could be used to assist on-field officials on those plays, according to the report.
“Replay officials or umpire staff may not instruct an on-field official to lower their flag through the replay assist process in any of the above circumstances. Flags may only be lowered when a foul is called on the field,” the committee said in its report.
NFL executives and competition committee members have always been wary of making subjective calls reviewable on replay, but an exception was made when owners voted to make pass interference calls and no-calls reviewable for the 2019 season after an infamous no-call on pass interference in last season's NFC Championship Game led the Los Angeles Rams to advance to the Super Bowl instead of the New Orleans Saints.
The move prompted widespread complaints from players, coaches, media members and fans about the functionality of the interference call replay system, and owners repealed the rule after one season. Some league executives have cited that failure as a reason to oppose subsequent proposals to make subjective calls reviewable.
But the NFL has gradually given replay officials more leeway to assist on-field officials with objective matters, and the new directive will do just that.
According to the Competition Committee report, in cases where an out-of-bounds late hit foul is called, the replay assist system can be used to determine “whether the runner was out of bounds when the umpire assessed the penalty to the defensive team.” If replay shows the runner was “clearly in bounds,” the penalty will be canceled.
According to the report, replay assistance may be used on plays flagged for pass roughing if “the official who threw the flag used the sole criterion that the defender made contact with the quarterback's head or neck.” If there is “clear video evidence that the defender did not make contact with the head or neck,” no penalty would be assessed.
Replay officials also assist with intentional grounding penalties and can advise on-field officials on objective considerations, such as whether the quarterback was in or out of the pocket and whether he was in imminent danger of being sacked based on his proximity to the defender.
“We put an objective rule in there,” McKay said in March, “… if the defender isn't within two yards… it's not intentional grounding. You can step back and throw the ball wherever you want, but you're not allowed to throw the ball away when you're about to get sacked. … So we wanted to bring those two aspects back into replay assist.”
The Competition Committee hopes that this new system will make judging more accurate and efficient, especially in cases of intentional grounding.
“When you look at the calls on the field, when you look at the calls we didn’t get right. [grounding] “It was a tough call,” McKay said. “It wasn't the best call because there are so many factors at play and it's a crew penalty. There are literally always going to be moments where the officials have to step in. They'll call in the linesman, they'll call in the down judge. In this case, all they need is an earful and a 'yes, he was in the pocket' or 'yes, he wasn't.' And then if they need help with anything else, they'll help with that as far as the objective findings say they will.”
