NFL team wants roughing-the-passer to be reviewable; league reportedly sees few issues

Sometime next month, NFL Operations will release a list of proposed rules changes for the 2023 season.

NFL teams and the competition committee will make suggestions that are voted on by the league’s owners. Three-fourths of the 32 owners must approve any changes.

We already know one proposal. The NFL Network’s Judy Battista reported Sunday that one team wants to make roughing-the-passer penalties open to replay reviews.

This comes after there were numerous instances of outrage among fans and players about roughing calls during the 2022 season.

The most egregious call came in October when Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones stripped the ball from Raiders quarterback Derek Carr but Las Vegas kept possession thanks to a roughing call.

As Battista noted in her story, the league likely won’t make that penalty reviewable. Part of that reason is the NFL doesn’t see a problem.

“The NFL Competition Committee held meetings on Sunday in Indianapolis, where the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine will take place this week,” Battista wrote. “During the meeting, the committee looked at more than 80 plays of roughing the passer and found three that it deemed questionable.”

Yep, only three.

Just 3.8% of all the roughing-the-passer calls the league reviewed were questionable, which is a comically small percentage.

Twitter user and former NFL player Warren Sharp found six questionable calls simply by reviewing what he had tweeted during the season.

If the NFL can’t seem to find instances of roughing calls that were made in error, then it really is unlikely league owners will approve a rule change to make the penalties reviewable.