The NFL simplifies catch rule, adds targeting foul and other changes

On Tuesday, at the Annual League Meeting in Florida, all 32 owners voted to approve modifications to the NFL’s catch rule for the 2018 season.

Cruz says as much as the rule change helps, it’s still not gonna help receivers actually CATCH the ball. but says he’s confident the league is doing what’s best for the players.

As expected, the league changed its baffling catch rules, allowing movement of the ball in the receiver’s hands, ending the need to control the ball to the ground, and making it more hard for officials to overturn catches.

Mention the names Calvin Johnson, Dez Bryant, Zach Miller and Jesse James, and what looked, sounded and felt like a catch wasn’t one.

If this were a league that has shown consistency and clarity when it comes to rule changes, perhaps the new legislation wouldn’t be such a problem. The old rule was so technical. Or “surviving the ground”. The league has signed off on a catch rule created to be more simple and more clear than in recent years.

“The language they came up with, I thought, was very good”, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marv Lewis, who until this year was a longtime committee member, said on Tuesday. With the new rule, James’ act of lunging for the goal line would be considered a football move and a completed touchdown grab. If the foul is by the defense, it is also an automatic first down. There are many reasons that the NFL has seen its ratings dip in recent years, but the pace of a football game is undoubtedly among them.

“It is a foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent”, the new rule says, according to the NFL. The league made alterations to rule along the way that has protected the long-term health of its players. “If you have movement of the ball but haven’t lost control of it, then you still have it”.

“Our intent is to go to each team with tape and all the analysis work done (by the football operations, technology and medical staffs) and be able to present it to them”, Goodell said, adding it will be “all hands on deck” in the educational process.

Expect, then, there to be another meeting of the Competition Committee.

And if just one of those touchdowns was called incomplete, the outcome of the game could’ve been totally different for both the New England Patriots and the Eagles.

Of course, with more catches, there could be more fumbles as receivers try to extend plays and get extra yardage. Oakland was found to have not violated the rule that requires minority candidates to be interviewed for head coaching and executive positions.