The NFL is expanding the role of replay assistants in communicating with referees to fix missed calls.
NFL Competition Committee Chairman Rich McKay told Tom Pelissero of NFL Network that the replay assistant will now be permitted to correct certain types of incorrect calls for roughing the passer and intentional grounding.
The NFL has largely shied away from using replay on those kinds of calls, which are more subjective in nature, but McKay claims the league can use replay assistants for purely objective questions such as whether or not a defender made contact with a quarterback’s helmet, or whether or not a quarterback was outside the pocket.
Still, if mistakes like that can be fixed by the replay assistant, it raises the question of why other mistakes can’t be fixed by the replay assistant. As long as the NFL has a replay assistant in the booth, watching the game on screens and communicating with the referee, there are going to be questions about why that replay assistant isn’t chiming in and letting the ref know about any missed call.
So this appears to be a small step toward what could be a much bigger change, which is making the replay assistant a full-on official with all the same authority to make calls as the on-field officials.