Which NFL rule would you change?

You get to pick one rule to add to or remove from the NFL. What’ll it be?

This year’s NFL Annual League Meeting was a productive one. Bill Belichick showed up to foster debate on the rules and grumpily drink orange juice, Andy Reid brought back his favorite Hawaiian shirt, and, after some debate, pass interference calls were made reviewable.

Only one thing of note really happened in Phoenix for the first official meeting of the 2019 league year, but it was a doozy. Coaches will be able to challenge blown or miscalled offensive and defensive pass interference calls, giving the league the latitude to prevent another Nickell Robey-Coleman situation in big games moving forward. Other rule tweaks included the adoption of 2018’s new, safer kickoff rules, eliminating blindside blocks, and allowing league officials greater freedom in ejecting players for unsafe plays.

That’s more reform that we normally see before the spring meetings, but why stop there? There are plenty of other ways to augment the rule book to make 2019 more exciting. Here’s what we’ve got to either add to or slash away from the officials’ guides this summer.

Adopt the Broncos’ scuttled onside side replacement plans

Denver borrowed from the American Alliance of Football for its big proposal at this week’s meetings. The fledgling league doesn’t have onside kicks, instead allowing teams to opt to take a fourth-and-12 possession from their own 28-yard line following a touchdown or field goal in the final five minutes of the game or any time they’re trailing by 17 points or more. If they convert the play, they keep the ball. If not, the defending team takes over wherever the ball is stopped.

The Broncos’ proposal wasn’t an exact copy of the AAF’s innovation, but it’s pretty dang similar. Teams would face the equivalent of a fourth-and-15 play from their own 35 with a chance to keep the ball with a successful conversion. And while the topic earned some debate this week, it was eventually shut down — though it can be revived at future meetings.

But why not this May at the league’s Spring Meeting? Onside kicks have become so well-covered that the odds successfully converting one dropped from 21.7 percent in 2017 to 7.5 percent last fall. Over the past three years, NFL teams have converted 61 of their 253 fourth-and-long attempts — 24.1 percent — with 10 yards to go or more. At 12 yards or more that number actually rises to 21.8 percent, and at 15+ yards to go it drops to 17.8 percent.

Those seem like proper odds for a potential game-changing play, and it would take the most important sequence in a desperate comeback out of the hands of special teamers and give it to quarterbacks and offensive coordinators instead. Let’s make it happen — Christian D’Andrea

Stop with all the automatic first downs

Say it’s a third-and-40 situation for the offense after back-to-back disastrous plays. The offense is probably toast unless it somehow pulls off an incredible pass play that covers about half the field. OR the offense can hope for just about any penalty on a defensive back.

Defensive holding, illegal contact, pass interference, and hands to the face all result in an automatic first down — even if most of those are just a 5-yard infraction.

The rule only serves to bail out offenses who put themselves in a bad spot and got out of it with (an often ticky-tack) rule.

Would defensive backs suddenly be more lax with the rules if they were only penalized 5 yards and not a first down too? I’d imagine they’d still be making an effort to just shut down the play cleanly. A 5-yard penalty is enough. — Adam Stites

Fix overtime already!

Give. Both. Teams. The. Ball. In. Overtime. It’s really not that hard.

The Chiefs presented a proposal that would have done just that, but it was tabled at the league’s annual meeting, giving them a chance to make some tweaks. They’ll get another shot at passing a new OT rule in May at the next owners meeting.

Here’s my advice: DO IT. — Sarah Hardy

Ban spot fouls. Please.

Under the current rules, defensive pass interference is a spot foul. That means that any time a defensive pass interference penalty occurs, the ball is placed at the spot of the foul.

That’s ludicrous.

It’s working under the assumption that every pass that was interfered with, would be complete. We need to go back to the days of 15-yard pass interference penalties — without it being an automatic first down in cases where the offense needs more than 15 yards for a first down.

College football still has 15-yard pass interference penalties and it’s worked out fine for them. Give defensive backs a chance to play football and don’t punish them too harshly for pass interference. — Charles McDonald

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