AROUND THE NFL

Apparently the nine home game faction is winning the battle over the internationalists in the fight for the 17^th game.  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

he NFL hasn’t provided the NFL Players Association with many/any details regarding how a 17th regular-season game would be implemented. On Monday, Packers CEO Mark Murphy shared one very important aspect of the extra game with Mark Maske of the Washington Post.

Via Maske, Murphy said that all teams in one conference would have nine home games one season and then eight home games the next season. This points directly to the 17th game pitting each of the 16 teams from one conference against the 16 teams from the other conference, pushing the total interconference games played each year by every team from four to five.

As explained in October, the league crafted the perfect formula in 2002, when the Texans joined the league and the number of teams hit an even 32. Currently, each team plays: (1) the other three teams in its own division twice; (2) all four teams from one of the other divisions in its conference, on a three-year rotating basis; (3) all four teams from one of the divisions in the other conference, on a four-year rotating basis; and (4) the teams from the other two divisions in its own conference that finished in the same position during the prior year.

Currently, schedule weighting based on the outcome from the prior season comes only from the fourth category, with the four teams in a given division having only two games tied to where each team finished in the prior season. A 17th game could inject more parity into the schedule.

With every team already playing four teams from one division in the other conference, the 17th game would entail facing a team from one of the other three divisions in the other conference, based on where teams finished in those divisions in the prior year. It would rotate each year, allowing for example the four teams of the AFC North to play the four teams of the NFC East and then one more team from the NFC North, with the first-place AFC North team from the prior year playing the first-place NFC North team from the prior year, and so on.

While some (like Big Cat on Friday’s PFT Live) would like to see the 17th game entail an annual contest against a geographic rival, teams like the Jets and Giants already play once every four years when all teams of the AFC East play all teams of the NFC East. Would the Jets and Giants play once every year and twice every four years?

And what if, for example, the Rams and Chargers play every year but the Rams are great every year and the Chargers stink every year? That would be horribly unfair for the other three teams in the NFC West (who may be playing tougher geographi rivals from the AFC), and for the Chargers (who would be getting curb stomped by the Rams every year).

There are other problems with setting up geographic rivalries. Put simply, there will be odd teams out. (Go ahead, try to find a geographic rival from the AFC for the Cardinals after tying the Chargers to the Rams and the Raiders to the 49ers and the Broncos to the Seahawks and the Texans to the Cowboys.)

The better approach would entail an annual division-vs.-division matchup with first-place team playing first-place team from divisions in opposing conferences and second-place team playing second-place team from those same two divisions, and so on.

With the NFL also determined to add one more playoff team per conference, in turn putting even greater importance on the No. 1 seed, requiring the first-place teams from each division to play one more first-place team per year (pushing the annual total to five first-place teams in a 17-game slate) would tend to inject a little more parity into the annual scrum for that top seed.

NFC NORTH

CHICAGO

The Bears are going to wait three months before making (or announcing) a decision on the fifth-year option of QB MITCHELL TRUBISKY.  This from beat writer Brad Biggs in Indy:

@BradBiggs

#Bears GM Ryan Pace says the team will make a decision on the 5th year option for QB Mitch Trubisky in May.

NFC EAST

DALLAS

Jerry Jones with an update on the team’s desire to get a QB DAK PRESCOTT deal done.  Calvin Watkins of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram:

If you’re wondering when the Cowboys and Dak Prescott will get a deal done, just look at the dates for possible answers.

The last time the Cowboys met with Prescott’s agent, Todd France, was September, and there were no pressing dates in front of them. Stephen Jones, the executive vice president, thought a deal was close, but it wasn’t.

So the Cowboys watched Prescott set career highs in passing yards (4,902), touchdowns (30) and completions (388).

What now?

“I see deals get done, once you decide,” Jones said Monday afternoon from the scouting combine. “Like DeMarcus Lawrence, we went on for months and weeks and then we got on the phone with him and it was done in 36 hours. Same thing with Zeke [Elliott]. There is a lot of sitting and waiting and sitting and waiting. Then you get the momentum and things happen.

 “No, I am not worried. A month is a long time in a negotiation.”

Jones said he hopes the Cowboys meet with France at the scouting combine to work out a long-term deal.

The Cowboys want to avoid placing a franchise tag on Prescott and, as it stands, they can place one on him starting Thursday.

The Cowboys would have until March 12 to tag Prescott preventing him from entering the open market, where he would command a high salary.

With this being the last year of the CBA, NFL teams can place a franchise and a transition tag on players. But the NFL and the NFLPA are working to finalize a new CBA. The player reps are expected to vote Tuesday regarding the new CBA that’s been proposed by the owners. If the player reps are cool with this, then the general population of NFL players will get a chance to approve or reject the proposed CBA.

If there is a new CBA by the start of the new league year on March 18, then only one tag is permitted per team and the Cowboys have a decision to make: Tag Prescott or wide receiver Amari Cooper.

“A little bit of this we’ve been wanting to see how this labor agreement is going to go,” Jones said. “Obviously makes a big difference on a contract this big, but obviously we’re optimistic, and our goal is to get it done before … the last day to tag.”

Jones said the Cowboys are committed to Prescott and expect to either reach a deal with him or tag him. If a new CBA is reached and Prescott gets franchised, Cooper would hit the open market.

“More time always helps, I guess,” Jones said. “I don’t know that it hurts or helps. I don’t think it hurts as well.”

If the Cowboys place the exclusive tag on Prescott, the projected cost will be $33 million. If the Cowboys use the non-exclusive franchise tag on Prescott, it gives the quarterback a $27 million salary. It would also allow Prescott to test the free agent market.

Another date of importance is April 6. That’s the day offseason workouts start for NFL teams with new coaches. So if Prescott has the franchise tag, will he report to The Star?

And say he doesn’t. What’s your confidence level in Cooper Rush? If Prescott does report to The Star and participates in the offseason program and the OTAs and veteran minicamps, then there’s the July 15 deadline.

That’s the last day a franchise-tagged player can sign a multi-year deal with his club. So while there’s an expectation the Cowboys will get this done in the spring, there are other dates looming ahead if they can’t get it accomplished.

It is surprising the Cowboys haven’t closed a deal with the face of the franchise. With so many dates upcoming, it forces everybody to settle in and work on a deal, which should be accomplished.

And if you think the Cowboys should move on from Prescott, Jones wasn’t hearing it.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I mean Dak’s our quarterback. He’s our quarterback for the future, and we have nothing but the greatest respect for him. He’s a competitor. He’s won a lot of football games for us. Obviously he like us, we all want to take that next step and get into a championship game and get to the big game and ultimately win a championship. So there’s no thoughts like that.”

So just sit back and pull out the calendar and wait for something to happen.

NFC SOUTH

CAROLINA

Scratch off the Panthers as a team looking for a starting QB and scratch off QB CAM NEWTON from the list of QBs on the move:

The Panthers are expected to proceed with Cam Newton as their starting quarterback.

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Tuesday that Carolina intends to retain its longtime signal-caller, per a source informed of the situation.

As Rapoport notes, while Newton is making progress in his recovery from a foot injury, it will be several months before the QB will be game ready, which complicates a potential trade for Newton.

New Panthers head coach Matt Rhule and his staff are impressed with how Newton has treated his rehab process and the QB’s drive to return to top form, Rapoport added.

Newton appeared in two games last season after injuring his foot during the preseason. After months of delay, he went under the knife in December.

The foot injury was the lastest ailment for the dual-threat quarterback. Newton had shoulder surgery in back-to-back offseasons after putting off the procedure in the past.

While a lot can change in the coming months with free agency and the 2020 NFL Draft looming, Newton staying in Carolina makes sense for the Panthers. Having an experienced, healthy starter under center would be an advantage for the new head coach in his transition to the NFL.

TAMPA BAY

After the fate of QB JAMEIS WINSTON, it often seems like the second biggest talk among Buccaneers fans is the need for a new uniform look.  The 2014 re-boot was not popular to start with and has not aged well.  But on Monday, the Buccaneers pledged to do better.  Rick Stroud in the Tampa Bay Times:

It remains to be seen how well the Bucs will play in the new decade, but they promise to look better.

After dropping clues with posters and social media posts, the Bucs confirmed on Monday that they will have new uniforms in 2020 with an unveiling planned for April.

“We have heard the feedback from our fans loud and clear and have been working with the NFL and our league partners at Nike to usher in a new look as we enter the next decade of Buccaneers football,” co-chairman Ed Glazer said in a statement Monday. “We look forward to revealing more details in the near future about our official unveiling event which will take place later this spring.”

@Buccaneers

We heard you!

New uniforms coming April 2020.

It will be the third major change in uniform design for the Bucs since their inception in 1976 when they debuted an orange and red scheme in 1976 with a stiletto-chewing pirate logo on the helmet.

The Bucs’ first major change came in 1997, two years after the Glazer family purchased the team. The Bucs drastically changed the entire color scheme. They introduced pewter to the NFL and changed to a darker red as the primary color and a new logo featuring a skull and crossed swords over a wind-swept red battle flag. An alternate logo of a ships was adorned to the uniform sleeves.

It may have brought the Bucs some luck because the team’s 14-year playoff drought was broken that season.

The Bucs’ last change, in 2014, wasn’t as well received. The uniform’s shoulders featured a color bar and numbers that resembled an alarm clock with reflective trim. The Bucs also added an all chrome face mask to their helmets.

This happened a couple of weeks ago on Bucs social media channels:

In the video, which has very V for Vendetta vibes, an artist enters an empty Raymond James Stadium at night, opens a backpack and pulls out newspapers and cans of spray paint. The camera focuses on numerous headlines — “Return to glory,” “Tampa Gets NFL Franchise For ’76,” “MANY HAPPY RETURNS,” “BELIEVE IT,” “SUPER!,” “Bucs uniforms mold old with new,” “Uniform effort,” “A BOLD NEW ERA” and “HOISTING NEW COLORS.”

After plastering the newspaper clippings to a blank wall, the artist spray paints a Bucs ship logo over them. We see three colors: red, orange and what looks like a grayer tone of pewter.

The team declined to comment about the video or about the possibility of new uniforms. That in itself might be a clue that change is coming. The Times asked the team late in 2018 whether it had plans to introduce new uniforms in 2019, and it said that it did not.

NFC WEST

SEATTLE

Eliot Wolf and Alonzo Highsmith left Cleveland in the aftermath of John Dorsey’s firing.  Now, they have both landed front office slots with Seattle.  Mike Garofolo of NFL.com:

As the league descends upon Indianapolis for the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine this week to officialy launch draft season, Seahawks general manager John Schneider has called upon an old friend and his trusted partner for a hand.

Seattle is hiring former Browns executives Eliot Wolf and Alonzo Highsmith as consultants during the draft process this spring, NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported. The pair spent the past two seasons in Cleveland, with Wolf serving as the team’s assistant general manager and Highsmith the vice president of player personnel.

Wolf, regarded as a rising talent evaluator, mutually agreed to part ways with the Browns last month after they tried to convince him to remain on staff under new GM Andrew Berry. Schneider and Wolf spent eight years together in the Packers’ front office (2002-09), before the former left for the Seahawks.

Highsmith would arrive in Green Bay in 2012 and has worked alongside Wolf ever since. Garafolo added that both are candidates to remain with Seattle long term.

The Seahawks, expected to be active players in free agency, currently hold nine picks in the 2020 NFL Draft, beginning with No. 27 overall. Some of their more pressing needs include restocking their defensive and offensive lines.

AFC NORTH

CINCINNATI

QB JOE BURROW caused a sigh to be heard throughout the Ohio River Valley on Tuesday.  Kevin Para of NFL.com:

Joe Burrow rebuffed any notion that he doesn’t want the Cincinnati Bengals to select him No. 1 overall in the 2020 NFL Draft.

“I’ll play for whoever drafts me,” Burrow said Tuesday from the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine. “I’m just not going to be presumptuous about what they want to do. It’s the draft. You guys have been covering it for a long time. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Burrow might not be presumptuous, but the rest of the globe assumes the Bengals will use the top pick on the Heisman Trophy winner. The LSU quarterback’s previous comments have seemed noncommittal about joining the Bengals organization. The hiring of Carson Palmer’s brother, Jordan, as a QB coach after the former blasted the Cincy franchise, added fuel to the speculation.

Burrow said Tuesday that the narrative was spun from others reading into his previous comments about having “leverage,” insisting he was simply talking about his choices of how to handle the combine.

“The only thing I’ve said is I didn’t want to be presumptuous about the pick,” Burrow said. “So, that’s why I’ve been noncommittal, because I don’t know what’s going to happen. They might not pick me. They might fall in love with someone else. You guys kind of took that narrative and ran with it. There has never been anything like that from my end.”

Burrow noted that he wouldn’t sit out if the Bengals use the top pick on him.

“I’m not going to not play. I’m a ballplayer. Whoever picks me, I’m going to show up,” he said.

If selected by Cincy, Burrow hopes A.J. Green remains with the franchise.

“If I’m lucky enough to be drafted No. 1, I’d like to have him on the roster,” he said.

The signal-caller added he’s not yet met with the Cincinnati brass yet but plans to over the next few days. Asked multiple times whether there are any concerns of his that he’d like the team to quash during the interview process, Burrow said he’s just looking forward to “talking ball.”

“I wouldn’t say there are any concerns. I want to learn a lot about a lot of different teams,” he said. “Through these interviews you just talk ball, and that’s what I enjoy doing. I think we’re meeting with the Bengals here in a couple days, and I’m looking forward to just talking ball, seeing what they’re about. Seeing the offense that they run. See how they think about ball. So that’s what these interviews are about. The people and the process.”

The quarterback confirmed he doesn’t plan to work out during the combine this week, citing LSU’s long run in the College Football Playoff as a reason for sitting out drills. He doesn’t need to do on-field drills, to be the top selection in April, his game-tape speaks plenty loud enough.

Burrow made it clear he’d be excited about joining Cincinnati if he’s the No. 1 overall pick.

“Of course, I want to be the first pick. That’s every kids’ dream. I’ve worked really, really hard for this opportunity,” the Ohio native said. “Two hours, 15 minutes from my house. I could go home for dinner if I wanted to. Not a lot of pro athletes could get to do that.”

The QB might not want to be presumptuous about his landing spot. But the rest of us can be. Unless something goes awry in the next couple months, expect to see the Bengals announce Joe Burrow as the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

Good to know he is not retiring.  He sent this tweet out on Monday:

Joey Burrow

@Joe_Burrow10

Considering retirement after I was informed the football will be slipping out of my tiny hands. Please keep me in your thoughts.

Henry McKenna of USA TODAY explains:

Joe Burrow isn’t fazed by the jokes and the scrutiny.

The LSU Tigers quarterback has small hands. We learned that during the first day of the 2020 NFL combine in Indianapolis, where Burrow showed up with 9-inch hands. That’s really small — smaller than the mitts on Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, who is 5-foot-10. (Burrow is 6-foot-4.) But Burrow took the silliness of the combine in stride. He managed to make light of his situation.

“Considering retirement after I was informed the football will be slipping out of my tiny hands. Please keep me in your thoughts,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Of course, hand size doesn’t matter. Murray went No. 1 overall in 2019, and Burrow is likely to be the top pick in 2020 when the Cincinnati Bengals are on the clock. And if anything, Burrow’s ability to have a sense of humor at a stressful moment will appeal to the Bengals, who surely know how inconsequential it is that Burrow’s hands were the smallest in recent memory.

Heck, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and Super Bowl 54 MVP Patrick Mahomes has 9.25-inch hands. He’s doing just fine. He even jumped into the conversation on Twitter to back up Burrow.

@PatrickMahomes

My small hands are doing alright so far….i believe in ya 😂😂😂 …

AFC SOUTH

JACKSONVILLE

DT MARCELL DAREUS, once the third pick in the draft, is on the move again.  Jelani Scott of NFL.com:

Marcell Dareus’ time with the Jacksonville Jaguars has presumably come to an end.

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Monday that the Jags intend to decline the defensive tackle’s $19.5 million option. Jacksonville had until Feb. 25 to make the decision.

Dareus, 29, appeared in six games (Weeks 2-7) in 2019, contributing 0.5 sacks and 13 tackles. His season ended prematurely on Oct. 25 when he was placed on injured reserve after undergoing core muscle surgery. In his two and a half seasons with the team, Dareus tallied 65 tackles, 2.5 sacks, two passes defensed and a forced fumble in 30 games played (22 starts).

A Pro Bowler in 2013 and 2014, Dareus spent the first seven years of his career with the Buffalo Bills, who drafted him third overall out of Alabama in 2011, before being traded to Duval County in October 2017 for a conditional 2018 sixth-round pick.

Dareus will turn 30 on March 13.

Rapoport also noted that the Jaguars will also decline the contract option for linebacker Jake Ryan, which would’ve guaranteed him $1M of his $5.5M base salary. Both moves are expected to get them under the cap.

AFC EAST

MIAMI

Erik Edholm of YahooSports.com on the buzz around the Dolphins:

Indianapolis will be the center of the NFL universe this week with the 2020 NFL scouting combine. But by the time the 2020 NFL draft arrives in Las Vegas, the center of power will actually be several time zones away in Miami.

The Miami Dolphins are this year’s power brokers in the draft, armed with a trove of high picks both this year and next. And before we even arrive at the draft, there’s free agency, where the Dolphins are as well-positioned (with around $90 million in salary cap space) as any of the 32 teams to make a splash.

The Dolphins own three picks in Round 1 — Nos. 5, 18 and 26 overall. They also have two more in Round 2, giving them five of the first 70 overall selections. They currently own five more picks in Rounds 5 through 7, and are expected to earn at least one fourth-round compensatory pick, plus a later selection, that will be allocated later this month.

Throw in the fact the Dolphins also own the Houston Texans’ first- and second-round picks in 2021, and there’s almost nothing they can’t go after this offseason that they see fit.

“They’re set up to control the draft,” a former GM told Yahoo Sports back in January. “It’s a front office’s dream to have this much ammo. They can take almost any route they want to filling those holes.”

With this much flexibility in the months to come, it’s a great birthday gift for Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, who turns 39 on Monday. He helped coach up a shorthanded team to a strong finish in his maiden season, going 5-4 down the stretch — including a shocking Week 17 upset against his former New England Patriots team in Foxborough — after starting 0-7.

General manager Chris Grier also has to be excited, if not daunted, by the possibilities. After surviving several iterations of a Dolphins front office that has been in near-constant flux over the past 13 years, he’s emerged as the chief decision-maker and has helped position his team to have a massive offseason.

The top need is at quarterback. The Dolphins have Ryan Fitzpatrick in their proverbial back pocket as a bridge option if they want to bring him back as a spot starter and shepherd for a draft choice this year. And even if they can’t find a way to move up for LSU QB Joe Burrow, there are several interesting options — including Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa — this year.

And if the right 2020 draft QB doesn’t tickle their fancy, there’s always the option for the Dolphins to go the veteran route at the position (Cam Newton might come free, for instance) and punt on a draft QB until 2021, when Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State’s Justin Fields might be the two most coveted options.

Outside of QB, there are several needs. It’s possible the Dolphins could draft two offensive linemen this year. They also are seeking help in the secondary, at linebacker, receiver and running back. A pass rusher also would figure to be high on their priority list.

“I think it lines up pretty well for them,” the former GM said. “If they determine it’s not a great year to draft a guard, let’s say, they can put that position in the crosshairs in free agency and pretty much blow away any other team’s offer on a certain player, like [Washington’s Brandon] Scherff, for instance.”

Even though this is a team that has several needs, the Dolphins might not hang onto every one of their dozen picks this year. If they want to move up for a specific prospect, there is not much holding them back.

How the Dolphins could approach the QBs

But make no mistake, the Dolphins’ combine focus will be on scouring the fairly talented 2020 QB crop and trying to hone in on one or two prospects they could feel good about handing the keys of the franchise.

Assuming Burrow is a pipe dream, Tagovailoa is the name most Dolphins fans feel drawn to. The team certainly knows about Tagovailoa’s football skills, but the combine efforts will be geared with a two-pronged approach on him: determining the Alabama QB’s health following hip surgery (and two prior ankle surgeries) and also figuring out if he can be the face of their franchise.

The franchise has also done extensive work on Oregon’s Justin Herbert. His health concerns are minimal at worst. Herbert possesses top-notch physical traits and terrific personal character, so those are non-issues.

The biggest questions about Herbert center around his seemingly plateaued development over the past two seasons with the Ducks and whether his bookish smarts can adequately translate into the quick-processing ability that all great NFL QBs possess. There’s also some chatter in league circles about whether Herbert can be an alpha leader, although some of those fears appear to be a bit overblown.

Significance of NFL combine week for Dolphins

This is the most important week for the Dolphins franchise in many years. The promotion of Grier, the hiring of Flores and the stockpiling of resources have all led the team to this launching point. The opportunity is too good to let pass this time.

The last time the franchise faced a similar crossroads, back in 2012, it didn’t quite work as planned. Led by former GM Jeff Ireland, Miami selected Ryan Tannehill with the eighth overall pick that year. Although he had a few solid moments in aqua and orange, Tannehill didn’t really emerge until after he was traded — for quarters on the dollar — to the Tennessee Titans last offseason.

What the Dolphins determine at the combine this week is going to help shape their offseason plan with the hope of turning around a franchise that has a mere two playoff appearances in the past 18 seasons and hasn’t drafted a true franchise QB since Dan Marino in 1983.

If the Dolphins are to end their moribund trend, the hands-on groundwork for that revival will begin in earnest this week.

THIS AND THAT

PASS INTEFERENCE

Peter King tries to save review of pass interference:

The crummy pass-interference rule seems doomed. But I’ve got an idea how to save an important part of it.

Where things stand now: The weekend before the start of the combine is usually the weekend we start hearing about new rules and tweaks from the league office and the eight-man competition committee. In Indianapolis on Sunday, the committee began meetings with one rule hanging over the league: the 2019 rule that turned into a weekly conflagration around the league—offensive and defensive pass interference calls and non-calls being reviewable.

After conversations with coaches, others close to the process, and one person close to officiating over the past month, I can’t see the rule surviving in its current form, and maybe not at all. What happened last year, clearly, was there was a different standard to overturn calls either made or not made on the field that passed 31-1 by club owners at the March NFL meetings. In short, there had to be assault and battery on a receiver three or four seconds before the ball arrived for no-flag to be turned into a flag. (I jest, but not by much.) The rule became a sideshow, a joke, surely because the NFL wanted to discourage coaches from throwing challenge flags and making the games challenge-flag-filled. But the result of it was that the league looked foolish for passing a rule it didn’t enforce.

The rule was passed in 2019 on a one-year trial basis. I just don’t see 24 owners (and their football people) agreeing to pass such a haphazardly enforced rule again in 2020. No one in the league in any position of authority is saying it’s doomed in the current form. It’s just a feeling I get that passage now is unlikely. We’ll see. Competition committee chairman Rich McKay told the Washington Post’s Mark Maske in Indianapolis on Sunday, “I think we all saw the frustration that we all had during the year. And I do think it began to get better. But I want to see it all and the total picture and not deal from emotion.” Hardly an optimistic forecast.

So this is my idea: Let’s say owners get to the league meeting in Florida in late March, and the league sees no way to get a three-quarters vote for the rule as is. (Likely.) The impetus for this rule was to provide a fail-safe for plays like the one in the NFC Championship Game 13 months ago. With 1:49 left in the fourth quarter of a 20-20 game, New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees threw to wideout Tommylee Lewis inside the Rams’ 10-yard line, and defensive back Nickell Robey-Coleman slammed into Lewis clearly before the ball arrived. No flag. The non-interference call forced the Saints to kick a field goal. The Rams tied it with a field goal to force overtime, and the Rams won in overtime.

Let’s leave the fail-safe in place. Create a rule in, say, the last three minutes of a game to prevent a catastrophic play like the one in the title game. Allow the New York officiating command center to ride herd on the last three minutes of every game, and allow them to call for a review of calls either made on the field that look shaky, or calls not made that look like they should have been flagged.

The amount of time is malleable. If it’s four minutes, okay. If it’s two, okay. (I’d probably rather have three, four or five, because games can be determined on a big call with four or so minutes to go.)

I wish the rule could have worked. But I see the league’s reticence to see the game slowed with challenge flags. Given that the league (and probably a majority owners) doesn’t want the rule in its current state, there’s still a way for an amended rule to save games from ending with a terrible call or non-call affecting the outcome in the waning seconds. The league should strongly consider it.

The DB would also limit pass interference reviews to plays at the arrival of the ball.  No more review of actions earlier in the route.