The NFL has made a tweak to its rule book ahead of the 2026 season.
According to a report from ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, the NFL is set to allow head coaches to appoint a member of their sideline staff as a designated replay challenger.
This differs slightly from the ruling of previous seasons, whereby head coaches have been the only ones able to declare a challenge.
They do this by throwing a red flag that they have available to them twice a game.
However, a team can earn a third challenge if at least one of their first two challenges is successful.
Seifert wrote, “Rule 15, Section 1, Article 1(a) now reads: ‘The head coach or head coach’s pregame challenge designee can initiate a challenge by throwing a red flag onto the field of play before the next legal snap or kick.'”
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Under the new ruling, if a coach would prefer to delegate that responsibility to another member of staff, then he is able to do so, but only if he informs the game officials prior to kick-off.
This rule was not announced during the NFL’s annual meeting where rule changes are typically voted on by owners.
Officials can make additional changes each summer when finalizing its rule book for the upcoming campaign as long as they are not big enough to require owners to vote on them.
In the 2025 season, 151 coaches’ challenge flags were thrown, the highest number in six years.
While the reasoning behind why this new rule is being introduced hasn’t been made explicitly clear, it is believed that it has come at the request of some coaches who have acknowledged that sometimes challenging calls comes from getting caught up in the emotion of the game.
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That’s not to say that the head coach won’t be involved, with communications between staff set to continue via headsets.
Tighter deadlines for final roster cuts
This isn’t the only rule change that has been implemented for the 2026 season.
With all 32 teams needing to whittle their rosters down from as many as 90 players to just 53 before the start of the season, the NFL have imposed tighter deadlines for these to be finalized.
Now, general mangers and coaches have just over 24 hours from when they play their final pre-season games on August 29 to make their decisions.
The official deadline date is August 30 at 6:00PM ET (5:00PM CT).
This differs from previous seasons when team brasses were afforded until the Tuesday after the final slate of preseason games to make their final cuts.
With the new deadline implemented, this has altered the dates in which teams can also claim players previously cut on the waiver wire.
Now, teams have until 1:00PM ET on Monday 31 August to submit their waiver claims.
Teams will also be able to fill out their practice squads, where they can keep up to 17 players, one of which is reserved exclusively for international players who have progressed via the NFL’s International Player Pathway Programme.
