Detroit Lions propose 4 new rule changes for 2024

Under owner Sheila Hamp, the Detroit Lions have been active when it comes to advancing the game of football. Last year, the Lions proposed four different rule changes for the NFL, and the league ended up adopting one: the emergency quarterback roster rule.

The Lions are back at it in 2024, proposing another four potential rule changes that will be discussed at the upcoming owners meetings in Orlando at the end of the month. Here’s a look at the four different rule changes they’ve proposed:

1. Teams can earn a third challenge by winning one of their first two challenges

The Lions proposed this exact rule change last year, but it was not adopted. Current NFL rules allow teams to have two challenges per game. The only way a team can be awarded a third is if they get both of their first two challenges correct. Here’s how the Lions’ rule proposal reads:

A team will be permitted a third challenge if it is successful on at least one both of its challenges. A fourth challenge will not be permitted.

2. Remove the requirement that a player must spend at least one day on the active roster following final roster reduction in order to become eligible to be designed for a return

This one requires a bit of explaining. Under the current roster rules, if a player suffers a significant injury during training camp or in the preseason, a team has two options:

• Place them on IR immediately, and they won’t be eligible to return that season
• Have them make the initial 53-man roster, stay on that roster for a day, then place them on IR—where they’d be eligible to return at some point in the season.

In order to keep injured players that they want to return during the season, this has forced teams to play roster gymnastics. For example, cutting a veteran player and re-signing them back a day later once the team can place an injured player on IR-to-return.

Editor’s note: Lions fans may recall at the roster cut down prior to the 2021 season, the team cut both kickers for their initial 53-man roster on August 31st to make sure they could carry injured defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand and backup quarterback Tim Boyle into the official start of the league season before being moved to injured reserve. Both Hand and Boyle were put on IR two days later to make room for the Lions to bring back tight end Darren Fells and safety Dean Marlowe.

The roster gymnastics was actually important because the Lions reactivated Boyle a little over two months later in November to come back for Week 11 in place of an injured Jared Goff. Had the Lions placed Boyle on IR instead of carrying him through the first cuts, they would not have been able to bring Boyle back that season. Hand was also activated at the end of October. Though it didn’t pan out and the team ended up releasing him with an injury settlement near the end of November, there was no way to know that before the start of the season. Again, the roster gymnastics at least gave the team a chance to check him out in the middle of the season.

That 2021 season was the brutal first year that general manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell had to endure, so the team’s current leadership has first-hand experience with how ridiculous the eligible-for-designation rules can be. Had the proposed language below been in place, Hand and Boyle would have been designated in item (1) and the Lions could have simply made their normal 53-man roster choices instead of having to file a flurry of moves each day to shuffle their veteran players to being eligible to return.

The Lions are hoping to avoid the unnecessary process with the following rule change:

(1) Clubs are permitted to designate for return a maximum of two players who are placed on an applicable Reserve List during the business day of the final roster reduction. A player who is eligible to return must be reported as “Designated for Return” and “Returned to Practice” on the first day that the player returns to practice.

(2) Clubs are permitted to designate for return players who are placed on an applicable Reserve List after 4:00 p.m., New York time, on or after the day following the final roster reduction. A player who is eligible to return must be reported as “Designated for Return” and “Returned to Practice” on the first day that the player returns to practice.

3. Expand postseason injury return designation to unlimited players

Under current rules, teams are only allowed to return eight players from a reserve injury list (IR, reserve/NFI) during a season. The Lions are proposing only a slight modification to that rule, changing it from eight players during the regular season and unlimited returns during the postseason.

The full text is as follows, with the bolded text signifying the rule change:

During each season a club will be permitted to return eight players during the regular season and an unlimited number of players during the postseason from either the Reserve/Injured or Reserve/Non-Football Injury/Illness List to its 53-player Active/Inactive List, or from Practice Squad; Injured to the Practice Squad.

4. Move the trade deadline to Tuesday after Week 10

Currently, the NFL trade deadline is Tuesday after Week 8. The Lions—along with the Browns, Jets, Eagles, 49ers, and Commanders—are all proposing to push it back two weeks.

Here’s the reasoning given for the proposal:

Accounts for 2021 change to 17-game season. Provides clubs with more roster options, specifically as it relates to player injuries. More closely aligns the NFL trade deadline with the other major US sports leagues. Provides the league with a better opportunity to put its best product on the field for the stretch run of the regular season and into the postseason.

You can see all of the 2024 rule proposals here.