NFL rule changes that could shape the Buffalo Bills’ 2024 season

The NFL and its competition committee have made some notable changes to American football this spring, all of which may play a role in how this season plays out. You may recall that Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott was named to the NFL’s competition committee earlier this year, a responsibility he took on with humble aplomb.

What do these rule changes have in store for the NFL and, more importantly for our discussion here, the Buffalo Bills? I think there are three key changes that could have significant implications for the bills in 2024. What kind of impact, exactly? There should be some upside for Buffalo this upcoming season, especially considering the team’s hiring of former NFL referee and ESPN rules analyst John Parry as liaison officer.

The new rules in place for the 2024 NFL season, in detail:

Let’s dig deeper to see how things might play out for the bills.

New NFL Kickoff Rules

The most notable change this offseason, kickoffs have become (hopefully) relevant again. Now, kicking and returning units will have to line up their forces 10 yards away, unable to begin play until the ball has been caught. It will look like this below – originally shared by Ian Rapoport on social media:

@Rapsheet on X

Personally, I like this change. It’s difficult to recode a long-standing play in a sport without pissing everyone off, even though the NFL has tinkered with the kickoff since its inception. This new setup shows that experimentation in spring football leagues is worth it and adds excitement to a part of the game that has become far too ceremonial and meaningless. The new rules have the potential to once again foster game-changing plays while giving the NFL what it wants: variance.

It took a long time, in my opinion. In 2023, the Green Bay Packers led the league with 31 kick return attempts – a mark that would place them 26th in 2015. Additionally, the NFL saw an all-time high of just 22% kick returns. kickoff last season. Only four touchdowns were scored off the opening kickoff last year, and one of them came from a running back. Safety concerns led the league to cancel kickoffs and essentially caused coaches to favor a touchback because it was both a safer and statistically smarter play than risking a return. Now, teams will need to adapt to new trends, develop more unique strategies, and even re-recruit specialists.

Why is it important?

Getting a head start here will provide a competitive advantage to those who take it. But will Buffalo be able to reap those benefits? Sean McDermott’s inclusion on the NFL Rules Committee allowed him to participate in the development of this new rule (and all new rules). So one would assume he has an idea of ​​what makes this new kickoff successful and how to shape the roster. the needs for different types of field and reception teams.

Wide receiver Curtis Samuel was mentioned as a candidate for return duties when the rule change was announced, but he hasn’t returned a kick since 2018. Wide receiver Khalil Shakir possesses the skills of a returner, but only did it five times last year and had just 31 returns throughout his college career (either punt or kickoff). Additionally, both should be regular players on offense – and Isaiah McKenzie has been the only returning man during Sean McDermott’s tenure who has also been a consistent player outside of special teams.

Running back Ty Johnson led the Bills in attempts last season and is the only known product listed, but the new rules seek to benefit teams that risk higher returns. As such, Johnson would be a very safe option while Shakir and Samuel would be more of a threat to make a big play or cause a touchback.

Roster flexibility can and should be another plus of this move, as it could place backup offensive linemen or other previously unused players in special teams roles, allowing the Bills to have more depth at rare positions instead of a sixth receiver or third running back.

The NFL is used to it in recent years. Although it has been recorded that starting points do not necessarily impact the score, a touchback bringing the ball all the way to the 30 yard line will certainly encourage teams facing Josh Allen to take the risk and trying to jam him deep every chance they get.

Teams like the Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins and others will be the most frequent victims of kicks inside the “landing zone”, causing them to field returners with real prowess instead of placeholders who watch the ball go over their heads.

Hip-drop tackles prohibited

In another attempt by the NFL to promote player safety, the “hip-drop” style tackle was kicked out, reducing the risk of a star player blowing out his knee. But beyond that, it also adds another subjective decision that referees must make that could impact a game.

There is no Imperial evidence on how often these types of tackles occur or the exact rate of injuries due to them, but whenever a new rule comes into effect it tends to be a point of importance to officials and apparently still plays a controversial role in some games. However, unlike the rule changes regarding defensive passing or roughing the passer, this type of tackling is not something that necessarily has to happen.

Limiting the ability of passers to put weight on quarterbacks when sacking them, or asking defensive backs to play cleanly when confronted by a receiver is iffy because these interactions happen so often in football, and the Subjective nature of these calls can vary wildly while the “hip drop” is a little more clearly presented and is not a piece that can be as blurry.

For Buffalo, with its head coach on the competition committee and a former defensive coordinator, there’s no excuse for not knowing exactly what the officials are looking for when calling this offense — and that’s an advantage. This should be something hammered into players’ heads from minicamp/training camp through the playoffs, and alternative tackling methods in “hip-drop” circumstances will certainly be taught.

Again, there is no real data on these particular tackles, so determining the impact on defensive performance is questionable. Nonetheless, we can look at teams’ overall penalty rates and in terms of unnecessary roughness calls, Buffalo has been in the top eight most penalized teams three of the last four seasons. Safety Jordan Poyer received two penalties himself in each of those seasons and the other offenders were a mix of offensive and defensive players, so it’s hard to draw a connection and say that McDermott is allowing players to be “undisciplined”. Overall, with a veteran staff and players already known for tackling well, this penalty should just give Buffalo an advantage by reducing free yards given out compared to other clubs.

Coach Challenge Rule Changes

Lost in the fold this offseason is the fact that NFL coaches can now challenge a third appeal if they are successful on at least one of their two initial challenges. This should alleviate some of the impact of missed calls by officials and provide new strategies for coaches in terms of retaining timeouts and risk/reward challenges. Most importantly, it will allow viewers to bask in the glory of even more car commercials in which they drive a pickup truck down the side of a mountain for some reason (just kidding).

For the Bills, this could offer a path to more efficiency on tough calls. Sean McDermott is currently the secondworse coach in terms of challenge win rate (10 wins, 23 losses), ranking above Mike McDaniel but with 20 more attempts. Having an extra bite in the apple is valuable because coaches can be more aggressive in the first half instead of being afraid of only having one for the rest of the game if the call is upheld.

Subjectively, McDermott always seemed very shy about risking a challenge unless it was a vital point of the game (which might explain the dismal record; challenging for fun rather than catching a missed call), so more challenge ammo can allow for a faster challenge trigger finger.

On the other hand, if its poor record continues, Buffalo could find itself outmuscled in a game due to replay review. There is now a scenario in which an opposing coach could go three-on-three (which had not yet happened under previous rules requiring both challenges to be successful) while the Bills failed on two attempts. The impact of reviewed/overturned calls can be enormous, and this rule change places additional responsibility on Buffalo’s replay review team who can now rely on John Parry.