The 7 Biggest NFL Rule Changes Ever

By Richard Janvrin Contributor Updated: 13 November 2024

Richard Janvrin Contributor

Richard has been writing about sports since he was a teenager. Still, his first professional role came in 2015, covering all things NFL and fantasy football-related. From there, in December 2018, he started in the sports betting industry, covering sportsbook reviews before arriving to where he is today. 

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Biggest Rules Changes in Football History

The NFL was officially founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football League before changing its name to the National Football League in 1922. With more than 100 years of games and counting, several NFL rule changes have been made to better the product on the field, keep players safer, and add new dynamics to the sport.

Today, the NFL is the most popular sport in America, with 37% of participants in a Gallup poll stating it was their favorite sport. It also holds television viewing records with hundreds of millions of viewers.

Over this century-plus of games, teams, players, and more, I’ve compiled a list of seven of the biggest NFL football rules that were added or adjusted.

Let’s check them out.

The Mel Blount Rule
2024 Dynamic Kickoff
Two-Point Conversions
Addition of Instant Replay
The Introduction of Free Agency
Third Quarterback Rule
Overtime Adjustments

The Mel Blount Rule

Mel Blount is a Hall of Fame cornerback who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1970 to 1983. He won four Super Bowls and was the 1975 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

While he has several NFL accolades, one of the more intriguing is that there’s a rule named after him, “The Mel Blount Rule.”

Appearing on a radio show on 93.7 The Fan, Blount detailed the play that made the rule start to form and eventually become implemented.

“We played a game in 1977 against the Bengals in Pittsburgh. Bob Trumpy, who was the tight end, came out into the flat. Ken [Anderson] throws this ball, I react to the ball and unintentionally broke his jaw. We collided and unfortunately he got hurt. A play later, Isaac Curtis was trying to get off the line of scrimmage, so I was jamming him, but he couldn’t get off. In the meantime, Paul Brown was on the competition committee. They called Pete Rozelle.”

Blount was flown to the league office and said he wouldn’t change how he played unless a rule change was made. Well, in 1978, that’s what happened.

With this new rule, defenders could not contact receivers after five yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

With this change, passing attacks became more prominent. The first year the rule was in place, Blount had four interceptions.

This is one of the biggest rule changes in NFL history, as it drastically impacted the way defense is played.

2024 Dynamic Kickoff

Heading into the 2024 season, the NFL changed how kickoffs were done, adding their new “Dynamic Kickoff” rule. Of those on the list, this is the one of the most recent in NFL rule changes history.

With this rule, there’s a new alignment for special teams players and there’s a specific landing zone for where the ball must fall unless the ball is kicked out for a touchback.

Here’s how it works:

Teams kickoff from the 35-yard line.
Kickers are alone when kicking.
The rest of the kicking team lines up on the receiving team’s 40-yard line.
The kicker cannot cross the 50-yard line until the ball hits the ground, end zone, or a player.
Other players cannot move until the ball meets the above parameters.

The landing zone is between the receiving team’s goal line and 20-yard line. If a ball is kicked out of bounds, it’ll go to the 40-yard line.

Kicks in the landing zone must also be returned.

In essence, this change was made to help keep kickoffs a bit safer by putting the special teams units for both teams closer to prevent running starts before hitting, but it’ll also allow for more kickoff returns for touchdowns. In fact, we saw that in Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season, with the Arizona Cardinals taking one back on the Buffalo Bills. This rule could impact your experience at NFL online sportsbooks as teams could cover the spread or win the game outright.

Two-Point Conversions

While two-point conversions are common in today’s NFL games, they actually weren’t implemented until the 1994 season.

The two-point conversion was used in college football starting in 1958, and it was also used in the AFL before they merged with the NFL. Even the CFL used it in 1975.

Fun fact: Cleveland Browns punter Tom Tupa became the first-ever player to score a two-point conversion. He ran in a fake extra point in Week 1 of that season.

Two-point conversions are now a pivotal play in the NFL. As of Jan. 2024, two-point conversions since 2015 have been converted 47.5% of the time.

Speaking of 2015, the NFL also moved the extra point back 13 yards, enticing teams to go for two more often and further amplifying this as one of the most notable NFL rule changes.

Addition of Instant Replay

While we may think that instant replay slows the game down, it’s vital for certain situations to ensure calls are made correctly so that teams aren’t on the losing end of games they should’ve won or been put in a position to win.

The first instant replay technology was used in the 1986 season. However, coaches were unable to challenge plays that went to instant replay. That rule was added about a decade later, in 1997.

After initially passing in 1986, instant replay was used for possession/touching, plays on the sidelines, and specific on-field infractions and NFL football rules like 12 men on the field.

Fast-forward to 2014, when the NFL assisted with instant replay reviews live from its New York headquarters.

This was further expanded upon in 2021 with an expedited system that allowed for a dedicated replay official or assistance from headquarters to help speed up the process of examining reviews.

The Introduction of Free Agency

With today’s NFL, we look forward to the annual draft and the start of the free agency period. However, free agency isn’t that old in the NFL. The free agency that we know today began in 1993 after the NFL was determined to be violating antitrust laws by not allowing players to become free agents.

Before this, there were other systems used:

Reserve Clause: This allowed teams to reserve the rights of players before it was removed in 1948.
One-Year Option: R.C. Owens was the first player to leave a team under this new rule, who played out his deal with the San Francisco 49ers before signing with the Baltimore Colts.
Rozelle Rule: Players needed to accept the one-year option as part of their contract. Under this rule, the one-year option was 90% of the compensation. This also made it so that teams that got a player from another team had to pay that team draft picks or another form of compensation.
Right of First Refusal: This allowed teams to match the contract given to a player by another team.
Plan B Free Agency: At the time, the rosters included 47 players, and teams could protect 37 of them.

Then, in 1993, it all changed. A salary cap was introduced at $32 million. After the league sold television rights, the cap was increased to $34.6 million.

This is easily one of the most important NFL rule changes that heavily impacts the game today.

Third Quarterback Rule

First introduced in 1991, the “Third Quarterback Rule” has undergone several changes. The rule was initially passed after Washington quarterbacks Jeff Rutledge and Stan Humphries got hurt, forcing running back Brian Mitchell into the game as quarterback.

Then, in 2011, the rule was taken away when the gameday rosters were increased from 45 to 46 as the team could use that additional gameday roster spot on a quarterback.

Starting during the 2023 season, the NFL changed the rule again in a response to the NFC Championship Game from the season prior which was both 49ers quarterbacks get injured.

Today, the third quarterback can be placed on an inactive roster spot, so he would not count as one of the 48 active players come gameday. However, he must be on the 53-man active roster. This player can then enter the game if one of the quarterbacks on the gameday active roster is injured or taken out of the game. If one of the quarterbacks taken out is medically cleared, the third quarterback must come out of the game.

Overtime Adjustments

Overtime has changed quite a bit over the years. The first iteration came in 1941 when the NFL added a sudden-death element for divisional games.

Five years later, it was added to the NFL Championship before being added to the regular season in 1974.

The next big modification came in 2010 when the NFL allowed each team to possess the ball once if the team that first received the ball kicked a field goal. However, if they scored a touchdown, they’d win the game.

However, that was changed after the Buffalo Bills lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round of the 2021 season.

Now, both teams will get a chance to possess the ball once, regardless of what the team receiving first does.

If they score a touchdown, the other team can also score a touchdown to keep overtime going. Of the NFL’s new rules, or those in recent memory, this is important as a single field goal doesn’t decide key games.