[Elvis]

[Rams1PlateSince1976]

Yes, the ball carrier has a duty to protect the ball, but it seems a decent % of the fumbles through the end zone are when the ball carrier extends the ball trying to break the plane for the score. Gurley did that at least once. That is reckless behavior that should be coached out of the player.

[Dare]

https://www.nfl.com/news/new-onside-kick-rules-could-be-up-for-vote-at-annual-league-meeting

Kickoffs could get very strange this year. With McVay on the competition committee it will be interesting to see what he thinks about this. If I read this right, there are going to be a whole lot of squib kicks to either force a fumble, or get the ball to roll into the endzone.

Not saying it's bad but kickoffs will require ST Coordinators to spend a whole lot of time working on it. Sounds like a whole lot of moving parts. A bad kick could lose a game.

[rams1974]

Re the fumble through the end zone, it's reflective of high risk / high reward. You can extend the ball, all you need to do is cross the plane and the play is over, TD. That's a big advantage to the offense .. so allowing that to carry some risk is sensible IMO.

The kickoff thing, I am hoping they do not install a gimmicky 4th and long for onside kicks. It sounded like they were moving to what I've long thought was a sensible solution to onside kicks no longer being relevant .. the team declares they will be attempting an onside and for that one kickoff, everyone is allowed the running start.

You'd have to litigate something where if a team declares it but then thinks they can deceptively kick to beyond a certain yard marker, like the opposite 35 (illegal kick, ball at 40, plus 15 more for unsportsmanlike conduct, easy).

[majik]

I actually enjoy the “ceremonial kickoff”. In fact, I would be happy if they bagged kickoffs and just put it on the 25 and bring the offense out

[Elvis]

[Elvis]

[Elvis]

[AltiTude Ram]

[Dare]

Considering how badly the games are officiated now, leaving one more penalty as discretionary is just one more way they can cheat. Just ask a Lion fan how much they trust officials. Look at how many roughing calls against Stafford that aren't called.

I mean I'm all for player safety. But the officials simply pick and choose when they want to call a penalty according to their own bias or whatever.

They should make all penalties subject to review i.e. challengeable.