Competition Committee proposes 2 rules changes for 2020 season

The NFL Competition Committee has released their proposed rules changes for the 2020 NFL season. These two rules change proposals are indicative of an offseason where the Committee wants to deliberately keep the changes simple when other, widely more important, issues face our nation. These two proposals will be considered at upcoming virtual league meetings in May to vote on and finalize which rules will be changed for the 2020 season.

Playing rules proposals submitted by the Competition Committee

1. Extend defenseless player protection to punt returners to include time necessary to become a runner
2. Make game clock start on the snap when two consecutive dead ball fouls are committed by the offense when outside of 2:00/1st half and 5:00/2nd half to prevent manipulation of the game clock

Former senior vice president of officiating Dean Blandino indicated in his podcast, Good Calls with Dean Blandino, that the Committee was considering two other potential proposals, including live-ball personal foul enforcement on missed field goals and a replay tweak for catch/fumbles that are ruled as incomplete passes. It turns out the Committee wanted to simplify their suggestions in this once-in-a-lifetime offseason.

These two proposals will join the seven other proposals submitted by four NFL teams and next month, hopefully, we will receive a verdict on which proposals officially join the rule book.