Yesterday, the NFL passed a series of new rules, ranging from the interesting change to which players can wear which uniform numbers to an allowance for the replay official to provide “objective information” to the officiating crew to presumably help them not screw up calls so badly. Those are welcome changes.
Because the tantalizing possibility that the Falcons might not be on the wrong end of an extremely costly call, the biggest and most noteworthy change for the the team might be the alteration to onside kick rules.
Previously, teams were allowed to have either 10 or 11 men in the setup zone to give them a shot at recovering the kick, and teams rolled out 10 players 87% of the time.