
The NFL made no changes to extra point rules at this week’s league meeting, but a change may be coming soon.
Competition Committee Co-Chair Rich McKay said after his group met with the owners today that no vote was taken on any proposals to change extra points. But there is a good chance of some type of change being made to extra points at the next league meeting, in May.
“We did not vote on the extra point,” he said. “We did have about a 30- to 40-minute discussion on the extra point, a very interesting and lively discussion with a lot of ideas. Clearly, positive, in support of making a change. I think in the next 30 days you will see the Competition Committee, in conjunction with a lot of coaches, develop a lot of alternatives and be ready to put something forward for potentially a vote in May.”
The problem, however, is that the NFL just hasn’t been able to come up with the right alternative to the current rule of lining up at the 2-yard line, which for NFL kickers is an extremely easy kick.
“The alternatives explored today were all over the place, but some very consistent: The idea of moving the extra point to the one and a half, as opposed to the 1-yard line, incentivizing people to go for two,” McKay said. “I think all teams pretty much said the same thing: It’s time to make this play a football play, and the way to make it a football play is No. 1, allowing the defense to score. So really adopt the college rule that says if you block the kick or you stop a two-point play and the defense happens to get control of the football, they can score two points. I think there was a lot of consensus to the idea of the alternative, that being move the ball to the 1.5, or kick from the 15, you make the choice: One point for kicking, two points for going for two. But it was a very good discussion. I think there’s clear sentiment that there’s a movement to want to change and change this year. The charge to us as a Competition Committee was, come back with a recommended proposal, do it within the next 30 days, and give everybody a chance to look at it and vote on it in May.”
That sure sounds like the NFL is about to make significant changes to the extra point, changes that will be implemented for the 2015 season.