The Detroit Lions have learned the fate of their proposed changes for the 2025 NFL season.
The league voted on each proposed change during the NFL's Annual League Meetings, which began Sunday and run through Thursday in Palm Beach, Florida. In order to pass, the proposed changes needed affirmative votes from 24 of the league's 32 teams.
On Tuesday, it was revealed that the Lions' proposal to negate an automatic first down from defensive holding and illegal contact penalties did not pass. Despite explanation from Dan Campbell, this change did not garner enough votes in 2025.
“The illegal contact, defensive holding automatic first down. I think, really I felt like where those are most glaring for us is we had a number of second-and-16, second-and-12, second-and-10, second-and-9, third-and-8," Campbell said at the NFL Annual Meetings Tuesday, via ESPN. "Those specifically. Forget the first downs, our (proposed) rule with first downs, it'd be irrelevant. It'd be first-and-5 now, that's actually better offensively, by the way. When you're in those (situations) I just mentioned, and it's second-and-long and the contact happens six yards down the field and it's on a scramble and you're like, 'Man that seems unfair.'"
The Lions play a physical brand of man-to-man coverage that sometimes leads to penalties, and as a result the team was looking to negate automatic first downs when the penalties occur in long down and distance situations.
"Why not just five-yard penalty and let's replay the down? So I know, for me, that's where that came up. That's really that little bit of the area, those longer yardage situations," Campbell explained. "And I'm not talking about the blatant, 'This is a clear hold, he's 10 yards down the field.' But we had a number of these that really were like that, contact happens six yards down the field and it's second-and-12. Man, that doesn't seem right."
As of Tuesday morning, the fate of Detroit's bylaw change proposals had not yet been learned.
The biggest suggestion by the Lions was to alter the playoff seeding process. Rather than award the top four seeds to division winners, Detroit proposed to have the playoff seeded by record.
“Obviously, the Minnesota Vikings, how that went down. Yeah, I mean, you win 14 games and you’ve got to go on the road," said general manager Brad Holmes in an interview with ProFootballTalk. "Should that really be the case versus a team that wins their division at .500 or even sub-.500, I’d say like an 8-9, should they? Look, in my opinion, if you make the playoffs and win your division sub-.500, I’d be happy to make the playoffs. Should you still be able to host a home playoff game?"
In addition to rewarding teams with the best records, the Lions suggested the change to add intrigue to regular season games. With this seeding process, teams may be more inclined to play their starters late in the season rather than rest them.
"And then, also, the other point of it is can we make every single game matter? Because with the format that we propose, every single game will matter," Holmes said. "And there is no resting stars, and I think that will be great for the league. I think late in the season, every game is compelling. I think there’s a lot of positive, but I do understand the other arguments about what that schedule is gonna look like. If a team wins a division (at) .500, but they’re playing a first-place schedule, I understand that argument too.”
The Lions also submitted a bylaw proposal to allow players on injured reserve prior to cutdown day to be exempt from the 90-man roster limit.
Changes to uniform policy, overtime rules
The NFL did pass multiple changes, as reported Tuesday. The league has expanded its replay assist program, along with changes to uniform and overtime rules.
Under new overtime rules, both teams will be allowed to possess the ball. The length of the overtime period will remain 10 minutes.
Additionally, the league amended its uniform policy to allow teams to wear alternate or throwback uniforms up to four times in a season. Detroit wore its alternate uniforms three times in 2024.
