A decent off-season topic.
Here are the rules changes for the 2026 season.
1. Targeting. 1st offense, the player is gone for the game, but not the any of the next game. The commentators said there was frustration with targeting and this fixed it. But I sense most of the frustration with fans is comparing one tackle to another. If you look at the criteria for what constitutes targeting, and one guy gets called for targeting, but the next does not get called, fans are scratching their heads and asking, "How is this one targeting but that one is not?" This rule change does nothing for that. The rule changers did say they wanted to correct the issue of players "losing eligibility," and this change fixes that, but on the second offense, a player does lose the 1st half of the next game, so they really have not fixed the issue.
2. Eligible players on punts. Any number can play offensive line on a punt, but the center, the two guards and the two tackless, regardless of what number they are wearing, are ineligible. Further, the punt team must show that in their initial formation, they cannot shift to that. I had not noticed this being a significant issue, but whatever.
3. The weird one is the "fair catch kick." If the team receiving a punt declares they want a fair catch kick, then they line up line a kickoff (except no tee, you must have a holder), and kick the ball. The kicking team lines up like a kickoff, but the instant the foot hits the ball, field goal rules apply. This sounds to me like a solution looking for a problem.
1. Targeting. 1st offense, the player is gone for the game, but not the any of the next game. The commentators said there was frustration with targeting and this fixed it. But I sense most of the frustration with fans is comparing one tackle to another. If you look at the criteria for what constitutes targeting, and one guy gets called for targeting, but the next does not get called, fans are scratching their heads and asking, "How is this one targeting but that one is not?" This rule change does nothing for that. The rule changers did say they wanted to correct the issue of players "losing eligibility," and this change fixes that, but on the second offense, a player does lose the 1st half of the next game, so they really have not fixed the issue.
2. Eligible players on punts. Any number can play offensive line on a punt, but the center, the two guards and the two tackless, regardless of what number they are wearing, are ineligible. Further, the punt team must show that in their initial formation, they cannot shift to that. I had not noticed this being a significant issue, but whatever.
3. The weird one is the "fair catch kick." If the team receiving a punt declares they want a fair catch kick, then they line up line a kickoff (except no tee, you must have a holder), and kick the ball. The kicking team lines up like a kickoff, but the instant the foot hits the ball, field goal rules apply. This sounds to me like a solution looking for a problem.
