The NFL owners are holding their annual meetings and there have been a few changes to rules adopted on Wednesday afternoon that will take effect this upcoming season.

1. Overtime – The owners decided to apply the playoff format for OT to the regular season. if the team winning the coin toss in OT kicks a field goal the other team is guaranteed a possession, unless a touchdown is scored then its game over.

2. Turnovers will now be reviewed by the replay booth automatically, coaches will no longer have to use a challenge. Reviewable plays will include fumbles, interceptions, backward passes recovered by an opponent or those that travel out of bounds through an opponent’s end zone, and muffed scrimmage kicks recovered by the kicking team.

3. A proposed rule change that would make all challenged calls reviewed by the reply booth instead of the on field referee didn’t pass.

4. Here’s one that not too many fans probably knew about. Horse collar tackles of QB’s while in the pocket are OK. Competition Committee Chairman Rich McKay said this was acceptable due to the fact that it doesn’t happen that often, and there is not much impact on player safety.

5. the banning of crack back blocks on defensive players lined up more than 2 yards laterally outside an offensive tackle at the snap.

6. Instead of being a five yard penalty and time run off the clock being caught with more than eleven players on the field will be a dead ball foul. A loophole was exposed during the Super Bowl when the Giants put 12 player son defense during a last minute drive by the Patriots. The fear being that more teams would try and do this. Go figure the Giants cheated against the Patriots in a Super Bowl.

Here are a few more rule changes that will be discussed during the next owners’ meetings in May.

1. A game by game roster exemption for players who suffer concussions but are not cleared to play. It would allow teams more flexibility to sign short term replacements without adversely effecting the roster, and would
lessen pressure on concussed players from returning prematurely.

2. The ability to bring one designated player off injured reserve during the season after a minimum  eight week recovery period. Right now all players on injured reserve must sit out the season.

3. The rescheduling of the trade deadline from six to eight weeks into the season. Designed to give teams more flexibility to swing deals. This is a good idea.

4. The expansion of training camp rosters from 80 to 90 players. Would mean less wear and tear on starters and key backups, while allowing more scouting of possible in season injury replacements. As long as season ticket holders get the option to either buy or decline preseason games.

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