The NFL may finally take a step in the right direction when it comes to delivering justice for missed penalties during games. A report from CBS Sports' Jonathan Jones suggests the league's competition committee will explore allowing officials to throw flags after replay review.
The proposal wouldn't permit every foul spotted in a replay to be called, that would just slow down the game, but specific penalties such as facemask, unnecessary roughness, roughing the passer, use of helmet and hip-drop tackles could be eligible for enforcement after the fact.
This would be an additional step to the already in-place process officials use of discussing things like intentional grounding before making an official call once the ball is dead. Replay assist is already used to determine whether a flag already thrown should remain or be picked up.
The NFL should explore and implement replay-assist penalties
We've already seen the league experiment with adjudicating fouls after the fact like in 2019 when defensive pass interference was subject to replay review. That yielded disastrous results.
Starting this exploration process with player safety fouls will help ease skeptical fans, players and coaches into things and (hopefully) be a successful proof of concept. There have been more instances than any of us can count where a penalty has gone missed, the broadcast crew catches it and then crowds react in the stadium to the injustice but officials can't do anything about it.
An instance where this process would've been helpful was in 2024 when the Vikings were screwed by a missed facemask penalty or when Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams was ejected for throwing a punch against Kansas City Chiefs safety Bryan Cook. While Williams certainly deserved the punishment, fans were quick to point out that Cook should've received the same treatment for instigating the tussle with his own shot to Williams' helmet.
The purpose of #NFL Replay Assist is to get calls right-especially calls that can impact a game
— Scott Pioli (@scottpioli51) October 22, 2024
The old "they always catch the second guy" is tired & lazy
Trent Wiliams was ejected?! Initiator gets fined but make this reviewable & get the call right @NFL https://t.co/TCqiDkpk0o pic.twitter.com/ZjcJWMlwZy
The league also discussed implementing this process last January to examine QB slides so that fewer defensive players were being penalized for committing to a tackle while a running passer is still up but making contact when they touch the ground. It was rarely seen used in that scenario this season.
There is also the possibility this opens a pandora's box of uncertainty each time it's used. For example, there could be an obvious holding called on a play but at the same time a roughing the passer infraction goes missed. If replay review buzzes down to check it, the holding call would potentially go away because only one flag can stand post-review. Is that still fair and just?
There's going to need to be a lot of trial and error in this process. If I were leading the committee, I'd propose it be used heavily during the preseason as a trial run. This allows the league to modify it as necessary for regular season use and then, of course, we find out how well it actually works before there are real stakes.
It won't be perfect, so let's all prepare ourselves for the inevitable moment the subjective system gets something wrong in a big moment. But at least we're trending towards utilizing improved technology to make sure games are called correctly more often than not.