ORLANDO, Fla. — The NFL owners meetings begin today, which has a lot of people wondering what exactly the NFL owners meetings are. We’ve got you covered.
Where
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Orlando, Fla.
Who
NFL owners, general managers, presidents, coaches
Expected Lions contingent
Owner Martha Firestone Ford, president Rod Wood, general manager Bob Quinn, coach Matt Patricia and team spokesman Bill Keenist, among others. Wood and Quinn are expected to speak with Detroit reporters on Monday, while Patricia will have breakfast with reporters and the rest of the league’s coaches on Tuesday. It’s unknown whether Ford plans to make any public comments. She usually shies from the public spotlight, and still has not taken questions since the hire of Matt Patricia.
What exactly’s happening
The NFL’s biggest power brokers will descend upon one of the swankiest hotels in Central Florida, and there will be more on their plates than just umbrella drinks. Although there will probably be a few of those going around too. Several bodies will be in session, including the competition committee and broadcast committee. They’ll unpack the last season of football, and then begin plotting the future. One of the biggest items on their agenda will be 10 rules proposals, including a modification of the so-called Calvin Johnson rule. It appears, at last, we might have some clarity on what exactly is a catch in professional football.
Proposed rule changes (24 votes needed to pass)
1. Makes permanent the playing rule that changes the spot of the next snap after a touchback resulting from a free kick to the 25-yard line. (Proposed by competition committee)
2. Changes standard for a catch. (Proposed by competition committee)
3. Makes the penalties for illegal batting and kicking the same. (Proposed by competition committee)
4. Amends Rule 15, Section 2, Article 5 to add fouls for roughing the passer and fouls against players in a defenseless posture as reviewable plays in the instant replay system. (Proposed by Chargers)
5. Amends Rule 15, Section 2, Article 5 to add review of personal fouls as reviewable plays in the instant replay system. (Proposed by Washington)
6. Amends Rule 8, Section 5, Articles 1-4 to change the enforcement for defensive pass interference. (Proposed by Jets)
7. Authorizes the designated member of the officiating department to instruct on-field game officials to disqualify a player for a flagrant non-football act when a foul for that act is called on the field. (Proposed by competition committee)
8. Conforms the amount of time in which a team must challenge a play if there is a television commercial break following the play in question. (Proposed by competition committee)
9. Eliminates the requirement that a team who scores a winning touchdown at the end of regulation of a game to kick the extra point or go for two-point conversion. (Proposed by competition committee)
10. If there is a turnover, a team may win an overtime game, even though it scores on its second possession. (Proposed by competition committee)
Lions storylines to watch
Calvin Rule watch: It might be eight years too late to help out the Lions, but it seems there is momentum to finally simplify the much-derided catch rule. The competition committee has proposed defining a catch/interception by three components: Control of the football, two feet or another body part down on the ground, and “a football act” like reaching for the goal line or tucking the ball. Which, yes, means “completing the process” will no longer be part of the standard. “We think we got to a good place,” Troy Vincent, the league’s executive vice president of football operations, said on a conference call Friday. “We’ll present it next week with the hopes that we’ve at least addressed what the fans and most players and coaches think is something that’s been long overdue.” Yep.
Bob Quinn’s free-agency plan: The Lions have added some solid players in free agency, including probable starters at linebacker in Devon Kennard and Christian Jones. But Bob Quinn has declined (so far) to hand out the sort of big-money deals that he extended to Rick Wagner and T.J. Lang last year, and Marvin Jones the year before that. This is how the Patriots have built their teams over the years — draft well, and spend smart — but that hasn’t stopped many Lions fans from growing a little restless by Detroit missing out on some of the year’s biggest names. Where exactly has this team gotten better? What’s the plan going forward, especially on the defensive line and at tight end? Expect Quinn to field those this week. Whether we hear an answer is another matter.
What’s the plan at tight end? It shouldn’t have been a surprise that Bob Quinn cut Eric Ebron. He shopped the former first-round pick at the trade deadline last year, after all, and then leaked he would listen to offers again heading into free agency. Clearly, Quinn was cool with proceeding into 2018 without Ebron. What’s less clear is how the Lions expect to replace him. He was Detroit’s third-leading receiver last year. He was top 11 among all tight ends, despite his first-half funk. He finished the year as one of the five hottest tight ends in the game. And now the Lions look like they’ll head into 2018 with a rotation that features a young guy with four career catches (Michael Roberts) and a veteran guy who has never caught more than 22 passes in a season (Luke Willson). Ebron had his problems as a player, no doubt, but he does have a better track record as a pass-catcher than what Detroit is set to trot out there. So what’s the thinking here?
And what about defensive tackle? The Lions had depth issues at defensive tackle heading into free agency, and then their efforts to re-sign Haloti Ngata failed. They hosted Jonathan Hankins on a visit, and he’d definitely help fortify the depth on the interior. But then they signed Sylvester Williams. So it remains unclear whether they’re still in the market for a defensive tackle (they ought to be) or plan to acquire help in the draft (there’s some really good ones, especially at the top). Again, the likelihood these questions are answered in any degree probably isn’t high. But they are big questions, and ones Quinn and Patricia will surely face when they see reporters this week.