Mike Vrabel’s creative two-point proposal to settle NFL overtime issue facing a goal-line stand | Opinion
PALM BEACH, Fla . – If marching down the field in overtime and scoring a touchdown to win the game isn’t enough, Mike Vrabel has another idea.
Just make the two-point conversion, too.
“It’s like the old Skins Game,” Vrabel, the Tennessee Titans coach, explained Monday, with his proposal to settle the NFL’s overtime quandary on the docket for team owners to consider during league meetings this week. “You make a birdie, you’ve got to putt the next hole to validate it. If you don’t want to kick the extra point, then (maybe) Josh Allen gets a chance, too.”
Leave it to Vrabel, whose resume as an NFL linebacker, primarily with the New England Patriots, included 10 career TD receptions as niche goal-line tight end, to create a proposal inspired by the popular golf event.
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The Titans have submitted one of the two proposals relating to overtime that owners could vote on, which would allow for OT contests to end in sudden death without both teams guaranteed a possession. The other proposal, submitted by the Indianapolis Colts and Philadelphia Eagles, would simply require both teams to have a possession in overtime.
It’s also possible that NFL owners could opt for a one-year trial for a new overtime rule or for a rule that applies to the postseason only, with the current standard left intact for the regular season, a person with knowledge of the discussions told Paste BN Sports. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the fluid nature of the proposals. While postseason games inherently need a winner, the regular-season rule allows that game end in ties after a 10-minute overtime.
“I’m a traditionalist,” Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin declared when asked about the two-point proposal. “I don’t want to have to stand in front of my team at the most significant moment of the game and explain to them why it’s different, to remind those guys of the rules. So, the more closely that we can remain to continual football, I’m going to be in alignment with that. When you start talking about rule changes and the way that games are changed structurally, that’s probably when I get quiet and move away from the discussion.”
The current rule dictates that games end in overtime if the team that wins the coin toss scores a touchdown on its first possession – which fueled intense debate after the Kansas City Chiefs used an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to win a shootout against the Buffalo Bills, and Allen, in the AFC divisional playoffs.
Vrabel maintains that his proposal reflects the evolving trend in the NFL, where coaches are more prone to risk going for it with make-or-break ramifications. NFL teams combined for a record 154 two-point conversion attempts during the 2021 season, with a success rate of 49%. It topped the previous mark of 131 attempts in 2020. Likewise, teams converted on 53% of 388 fourth-down plays.
And in 2021, 34 regular-season contests were decided on the final play of the game.
“Just watching the game as a fan and thinking, these quarterbacks, we’ve made a decision as a league to compensate the quarterbacks with 45, 50 million dollars,” Vrabel said. “Fans are invested in the quarterback. If I was a Buffalo Bills fan, a Josh Allen fan – and I’m a Sean McDermott fan, personally – should he have had a crack and had a say in that game?”
Never mind that defense and special teams are part of the NFL equation. Vrabel was on a roll as he argued his position. Don’t stop him now.
“Look at how some of these overtime games have ended,” Vrabel continued. “A 75-yard touchdown or 75-yard pass. Two 35-yard pass plays. ... These are some examples of some bigger plays. Some critical penalty. Does the touchdown now have to be validated?”
Of course, not everyone will agree with Vrabel’s passionate plea – especially in a universe of NFL owners where 24 votes are needed to pass a proposal.
Vrabel’s former coach, Bill Belichick, sounds like a hard sell for either of the ideas that could come up for a vote on Tuesday.
“My position on overtime hasn’t changed,” Belichick succinctly stated.
And what exactly is Belichick’s position? He wouldn’t elaborate, except to say that his sentiments have been stated previously.
“This comes up every year,” Belichick added. “We talk about it every year. My position hasn’t changed.”
A few years ago, Belichick adamantly advocated that the overtime rule should be attached to the game clock, which would allow for a set amount of time. Belichick’s position maintained that when the game clock is in play, strategy on offense, defense and special teams reflect such – including, perhaps, a team’s attempt to milk the clock. It is believed that he is also wary that with a system that would guarantee both teams a possession, the possibility of longer games could exist with, say, both teams using 10-minute drives…with the possibility that the game still isn’t settled.
The notion of tying OT to the clock is similar to what the Bills trumpeted recently during the NFL scouting combine. Interestingly, there’s no formal proposal from the Bills on the docket this week. It’s possible that a Buffalo proposal lost steam while vetted by the competition committee, with concerns about longer games coinciding with health and safety issues.
Bills coach Sean McDermott wouldn’t elaborate on why his team didn’t formally propose a tweak to the overtime rule, yet reiterated, “I’m a proponent for change.
“Whether we put in a proposal or not is not important right now,” McDermott added. “What’s important is that we do the right thing. The right next thing to do, I think that’s what the game is calling for. When the game speaks. I think we need to listen.”
It may be tough to find enough votes for either of the proposals in play, especially with a group of purists resisting change to the current OT rule.
“I don’t know what the momentum is,” Vrabel said. “It’s like Baskin-Robbins. It’s 31 flavors. Some are purists. Some want everybody to have the ball. Some want sudden death. I don’t know if there’s one perfect system.”
Then again, perfect is in the eye of the beholder. No team attempted or converted more two-point conversions last season than the Los Angeles Chargers, who went 7-for-11 in that category under then-rookie coach Brandon Staley. The Chargers also converted more fourth-down plays (22) than any team in the league.
No question where Staley stands on the two-point proposal.
“It fits into the framework of overtime,” Staley said. “And you still have a chance to end the game on your terms.”
In other words, double down or else.
Follow Paste BN Sports' Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell.