Nobody asked, but if I were commissioner of the NFL, there would be a lot of changes. There’s a lot of work to do, so let’s get started.
1) This is non-negotiable. Quarterbacks are fair game once they pass the line of scrimmage. No more sliding. Once they become a runner, they’re fair game. If they don’t want to get hit, they can run out of bounds — or just don’t run in the first place. Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Baker Mayfield, among others, are too good for this nonsense. They’re football players, not just QBs. They’re big, strong and athletic. Why should they be able to run downfield with impunity?
The hands-off rules — the slide — has created an impossible situation for the defense — and Mahomes has piled on. He has abused the very rules designed to protect him, with his fake slides and fake out-of-bounds moves. At the very least, deliver a heavy penalty for any quarterback who fake slides. Call it the Mahomes Rule.
2) Teams get a bye before every Thursday night game. It’s unfair to expect teams to play two games in five days. This rule change makes so much sense that it has no chance of being adopted.
3) Equal treatment for defensive players. Why are defensive players penalized for hands to the face when ballcarriers are allowed to stiff-arm would-be tacklers in the face? And why are defensive players prohibited from pushing their defensive teammates into the offense for “safety” reasons, when offensive players are allowed to push ball carriers into the defensive line a la the tush push? It makes no sense.
4) The NFL should swallow its pride and adopt the college format for overtime. Period. It’s simple, it’s fair, it’s exciting. The NFL format is convoluted and, as we saw this season, can still result in a tie. Who wants a tie?
5) Create a separate salary cap for quarterbacks. It’s common knowledge that the best time to win a Super Bowl is with a quarterback on his rookie contract because it’s a manageable salary that allows his team to spend money building the rest of the roster. On the other hand, the league’s top-tier quarterbacks command so much of the cap space with their huge salaries that most of them can’t play on teams that are good enough to get to the Super Bowl — i.e. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, Dak Prescott, Jordan Love, Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield. Brock Purdy appeared in the Super Bowl in his second season (2023) on a rookie deal, but not since. Joe Burrow appeared in the Super Bowl in his second season (2021) on a rookie deal, but not since. Jared Goff appeared in the Super Bowl in his third season (2018) on a rookie deal, but not since. Patrick Mahomes, whose rookie deal ended in 2021, has been the exception, but he has a cap hit of only 9.8%. Allen’s contract consumes 23.6% of his team’s cap, Burrow’s 24.5%. According to the New York Times, 13 quarterback contracts exceeded 17% in 2024, compared to just two from 2011-2018.
Quarterbacks who have made the Super Bowl on their rookie contracts:
- 2012: Colin Kaepernick
- 2013: Russell Wilson, won Super Bowl
- 2014: Wilson
- 2018: Jared Goff
- 2019: Patrick Mahomes, won Super Bowl
- 2020: Mahomes
- 2021: Joe Burrow
- 2022: Jalen Hurts
- 2023: Brock Purdy
That’s nine of the past 28 Super Bowl starters (32%) and six of the past 14 (43%). According to The Athletic, prior to the 2011 CBA, rookie-contract quarterbacks accounted for just 16% of Super Bowl starters.
6) Either get rid of the kickoff completely or restore it to its previous form. The NFL, which considers it a safety issue, has wrestled with this problem for years and still can’t get it right. This season’s new kickoff format has produced more returns but a record low for touchdowns. The returns go for an average of about 25 yards — same as last year. It’s a pointless exercise in futility. Bring back the old kickoff, incentivizing returns by placing the ball at the 15 if the ball is downed. Or just start each drive on the 20-yard line and be done with it.
7) This will never happen, but let’s dream: play the games on real grass, outdoors, in the elements. The game has lost something being played on sanitized, indoor fields consisting of plastic grass. If the Bears can play outdoors on real grass — in Chicago, no less — then why can’t the rest of the league? Bring back the mud, snow and rain.
8) Follow the lead of the Premier (soccer) League: any team that finishes among the bottom two in the standings more than two years in a row gets relegated to the minor leagues (goodbye, Jets and Browns). Of course this will require the creation of a minor league, something every other pro sport already has (see NBA, Major Leagues, Premier League). You get the feeling that some franchises don’t care if they win because they make tons of money simply by belonging to the money-making machine called the NFL.
