During the NFL league meetings this past week, a number of rule changes were passed for the upcoming season. With most of the discussion centered around the new kickoff rule, the swivel hip drop tackle, and bumping back the NFL trade deadline, there are some other rules that made it through which could impact how teams do their business that aren’t being widely discussed.

For those who may not have read all the rules changes this week, here are three in particular which could be utilized for teams at various times this coming season.

A potential third challenge

This is a rule change that simply makes sense. The previous rule when it came to coaches challenges for a game was that a team had two challenges available, but if both challenges were successful then a third challenge was granted. Rather than having to have both challenges correct, teams now are allowed a third challenge unless both of the previous two were ruled unsuccessful.

Here is the exact rule change NFL.com:

By Detroit; amends Rule 15, Section 1, Article 1, to protect a club’s ability to challenge a third ruling following one successful challenge.

So instead of a team having to be perfect on their first two challenges to get a third, they now just have to be successful on one of the two challenges to get a third one. While some might believe the rule should ultimately be expanded to where teams are allowed challenges until they have two incorrect, this is not yet the case. Teams still are limited to only three challenges even if all three are successful.

Adding things which can be reviewed

It’s interesting when having a discussion during an NFL game with fans, particularly when they’re happening in-stadium, of what exactly can be reviewed and what can’t. While ultimately there was a proposal of allowing a review on penalties called in the final two minutes to be reviewed which did not pass, they were two different changes in terms of reviewed plays that were accepted.

The first real change has to do with being able to review if a quarterback was down by contact or out of bounds before throwing a pass as being reviewable. Honestly, most fans probably did not realize that these plays were not under the umbrella of what was reviewable in the past.

The other reviewable play is in regards to the game clock and whether or not the snap occurred before time expired.

Once again, here are the rule changes from NFL.com:

By Competition Committee; amends Rule 15, Section 3, Article 3, to include a ruling of a passer down by contact or out of bounds before throwing a pass as a reviewable play.

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.

Although sometimes the review process can get frustrating as it interrupts the flow of the game, these items do not seem to really be egregious in this department. In both cases, this may simply be cleaning things up about plays that likely should have been reviewable before but simply were not included.

Players placed on Injured Reserve before the 53

This rule change ultimately affects a team’s ability to form their 53-man roster for final cut downs. In the past, if a team was wanting to have a player to be eligible to return from the Reserve/Injured List (IR,) the player must have spent one day on the 53-man roster before they were placed on IR. In order to do so, the player took up a roster spot and another player had to be released. Teams then had to wait until the next day to then fill the spot with a healthy player. Now, teams will not have to go through this procedure for up to two players.

Here is the breakdown from NFL.com:

By Competition Committee; amends Article XVII, Section 17.16(C), to permit each club to place a maximum of two players who are placed on an applicable Reserve List on the business day of the final roster reduction to be designated for return. Such players will immediately count as two of the club’s total designations.

While this does not have to be specifically to IR as this could be a different “reserve” list, using it for an injured player is going to be the overwhelmingly most used case. Now a team can designate up to two players who they place on IR on the final day of roster cut downs and designate them to return without having to go on the 53-man roster. This eliminates a procedural release and resigning and also keeps the player from having to stay away from the facility during that time.

So there are three of the rule changes for 2024 which may not have been a large topic of conversation among most NFL fans. Even beyond these three, their other changes that may have an even smaller affect on fan experiences during NFL games. For the complete list of rule changes for 2024, they are listed below courtesy of NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero:

Full list of approved rules changes and bylaws — including pushing back the trade deadline one week to the Tuesday after Week 9. pic.twitter.com/PZVh3tsLRT

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 26, 2024