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The NFL always seems to have some type of controversy surrounding penalties and officiating. It seems like every other week there is a huge missed penalty that decides the outcome of a game. Thankfully, it sounds like the league is willing to discuss some offseason changes that could improve officiating across the board.
The NFL's competition committee will review potential recommendations for expanding replay assist, per NFL Network's Ian Rapaport. Those recommendations would then be voted on by owner's at the offseason's owner's meeting.
“Let me tell you the thing that struck me,” Rapaport said. “The potential to expand replay assist. Now replay assist is something that you know, I'm not sure how fans are really aware of what's going on. But it's basically when the officials talk to New York. They review a play very quickly, change it to what should be the correct call. Something very clear and very obvious.”
Rapaport highlighted face mask penalties as one example of a foul that could potentially be included in replay assist.
“Expanding that to additional fouls, including face masks, egregious face masks like of course Sam Darnold had a few weeks ago,” Rapaport continued. “There was a Joe Burrow one recently as well. If it was clear and obvious, theoretically they should be able to fix it.”
This idea apparently has enough momentum for the NFL's competition committee to give it some serious consideration.
“They're going to look at that this offseason,” Rapaport concluded.
It will be interesting to track this topic throughout the spring and summer.
Could expanding the NFL's replay assist lead to better officiating?
The main question on everyone's mind is: would expanding the NFL's replay assist actually result in better officiating?
There are plenty of advantages to the replay assist system that the league has implemented. When it is used, decisions are often pretty quick and create a better experience for fans watching at home.
It may be more accurate to say that expanding replay assist could lead to better results for NFL teams, not necessarily better officiating. That's because the replay assist is there as a check on officials when they make mistakes.
There always seem to be multiple games each season that could benefit from a system like expanded replay assist. Rapaport mentioned the end of Bengals vs. Ravens from Week 10 in his above quote.
Another great example is the end of Thursday Night Football from Week 8 between the Vikings and Rams. In that game, the Vikings were the victims of a missed call that nullified their chance to try to win the game on their final possession. Sam Darnold was sacked in the end zone for a safety, but multiple cameras caught a face mask penalty on the tackle.
Despite this, the safety stood and the Rams won the game.
Hopefully these types of outcomes can be avoided in the future if the NFL expands the replay assist system.
