NFL introduces alternative sky judge proposal backed by coaches

The NFL may be set to trial a new booth official in the 2020 preseason after all.

According to Albert Breer of the MMQB, the NFL’s Competition Committee recommended an alternate proposal that led to the withdrawl of two other potential sky judge rule changes. The new proposal is slightly more limited in scope and will be tested in the preseason.

So having talked to a couple of guys on the committees, the SkyJudge proposals as they were written were pulled in favor of this recommendation from the competition committee. It, in essence, is a SkyJudge.

If it works in preseason, they could implement it for the 2020 season. pic.twitter.com/vmD6PzxefA

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 27, 2020

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the new proposal is one that was backed by coaches.

While the two withdrawn proposals would've added an official with broad ability to weigh in on judgment calls and — in one version — call penalties, this narrower test would be limited to objective calls and game management. That had support from coaches at the combine. https://t.co/m9rRpRPjnT

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 27, 2020

This proposal is slightly narrower in scope than the others were. This allows the referee to seek out the booth official’s feedback on objective calls such as complete or incomplete passes, the spot of the ball, and the game clock. Subjective calls such as penalties will not be reviewable by the sky judge.

When both sky judge proposals were withdrawn earlier Wednesday, it looked like the idea was off. It turns off there was a compromise idea that seems like a reasonable option.