The Detroit Lions aren’t only looking to take the next step as a franchise this offseason. They have also prioritized making changes to the NFL’s list of regulations for the 2024 season.
For the second year in a row, owner Sheila Hamp and the Lions have suggested four rule changes for the NFL, a multibillion-dollar enterprise. A year ago, the league decided to embrace only one of Detroit’s rule proposals: the emergency quarterback roster change.
Let’s have a look at the four alternative suggestions that the Lions have brought to the owners for consideration at their annual meeting at the end of this month.
1.) Teams can earn a third challenge by winning only one of their first two.
Currently, NFL teams have two challenges at their disposal throughout a game, with the opportunity to earn a third by winning the first two. With this rule suggestion, a team might earn a third challenge just by winning one of its first two. In addition, no fourth challenge will be permitted.
Note: The Lions suggested this exact regulation adjustment last year, but it was not implemented.
2.) Remove the need that a player spend at least one day on the active roster after the final roster cutdown in order to be considered for a return.
Under the current roster regulations, if a player sustains a major injury during training camp or in an exhibition game, a team must do one of two things:
a.) Place the player on injured reserve immediately, making him ineligible to return that season.
b.) Add the player to the season-opening 53-man roster, keep him there for one day, and then place him on injured reserve. By doing so, the athlete would be eligible to return at some point this season.
To avoid such a nightmare roster scenario for themselves and the rest of the league’s 32 franchises going forward, the Lions propose the following:
a.) Organizations may restore a maximum of two players who are placed on an applicable reserve list on the business day of the final roster cutdown. A player who is eligible to return must be marked as “Designated for Return” and “Returned to Practice” on his first day back.
b.) Organizations may identify returning players who are placed on an applicable reserve list after 4 p.m. EST on or after the day following the final roster cutdown. As stated above, a player who is eligible to return must be labeled as “Designated for Return” and “Returned to Practice” on the first day of practice.
3.) Allow an unlimited number of players from the reserve injured lists to return during the postseason.
The current NFL regulations allow teams to return a maximum of eight players from the reserve injury list (IR, reserve/non-football injury list) during the course of the season.
Hamp & Co. are attempting to amend the rules such that the maximum of eight designated-for-return transactions applies only during the regular season. Furthermore, the Lions’ rule change would allow for limitless postseason moves.
This regulation proposal reads as follows:
“During each season a club will be permitted to return eight players during the regular season and an unlimited number of players during the postseason from either the Reserve/Injured or Reserve/Non-Football Injury/Illness List to its 53-player Active/Inactive List, or from Practice Squad; Injured to the Practice Squad.”
4.) Set the trade deadline for Tuesday after Week 10.
The Lions, along with the Browns, Jets, Eagles, 49ers, and Commanders, have asked the NFL to move the deadline from Week 8 to Week 10.
Detroit was relatively quiet at the 2023 trade deadline, with only one transaction: the acquisition of wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones.
The argument behind the regulation proposal is as follows:
“Accounts for the 2021 season alter to 17 games. Provides clubs with greater roster alternatives, particularly in terms of player injuries. The NFL trade deadline is more closely aligned with the other major US sports leagues. Gives the league a better chance to put its finest product on the field for the final stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs.”
Along with the aforementioned rule recommendations, it is worth noting that the NFL’s competition committee recommended a rule change that would have helped the Lions this past season.
The proposed regulation change is written as follows:
“By Competition Committee; amends Rule 15, Section 3, Article 9, to allow a replay review when there is clear and obvious visual evidence that the game clock expired before any snap.”
If such a rule had been in effect in 2023, Dan Campbell could have reviewed the contentious play that concluded the third quarter of Detroit’s Week 4 game against Green Bay. On that play, Packers quarterback Jordan Love threw a 44-yard pass to Jayden Reed, despite the fact that the game clock had already reached 0:00 by the time the ball was snapped.
If Detroit’s above-mentioned regulation proposal is passed, such a play will be evaluated and rejected in the future.
Despite the controversy, the Lions held on for a 34-20 win on Thursday Night Football.
