Is the NFL in danger of making games too long?

Now that NFL coaches can challenge pass interference, you can probably expect to see more replay reviews.

For the first time in NFL history, coaches will have the chance to challenge penalties.

Not all of them — just pass interference calls and non-calls — and for now, it’ll only be for the 2019 season. Still, it’s relatively uncharted territory for a league that has previously avoided making “judgment calls” (i.e. penalties) reviewable.

The rule change came two months after an egregious missed call cost the New Orleans Saints a trip to the Super Bowl. Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman blatantly interfered with receiver Tommylee Lewis in the final minutes of the NFC Championship. But instead of a game-icing pass interference penalty, the Rams were afforded one last possession. They took advantage of it and earned a trip to the Super Bowl.

With the new rules in place, the missed call could’ve been reviewed and likely would’ve been changed. That’s a good thing.

The biggest potential downside is that NFL games already take over three hours to finish. Any additional replay reviews stand to make games last even longer. That probably sounds unappealing for fans who already have to sit through a lot of downtime to watch about 11 minutes of actual action on the field.

Is it something the NFL should be worried about?

There will probably be more replay reviews

That sounds obvious, but some of the movers and shakers at the NFL Annual Meeting actually suggested the opposite could be true.

“We even looked at the fact that if we broaden what coaches can review, that maybe that even speeds the game up, because maybe they’ll save some and not challenge as many as they have in the past,” Broncos executive John Elway said. “So there are always unintended consequences that we try to figure out before a rule would go in.”

That seems wildly optimistic.

Coaches will still have just two challenges, along with a third if they win the first two. But the problem is that NFL coaches rarely use those allotted opportunities to call for a review.

No coach in the league challenged more than eight plays during the 2018 regular season. That means even the most aggressive coach with replays only averaged one challenge every two games. That leaves a worst-case scenario where we could see more than four times as many challenges if coaches actually used all of them.

It’s highly doubtful that coaches will actually challenge less often now — especially when they’re able to review a highly impactful penalty that was called 320 times during the 2018 season.

It seems inevitable that the rule change will add at least a little bit of time to the average length of an NFL game.

Does it really even matter, though?

Many factors contributed to a gradual increase of the length of NFL games. Penalties are at an all-time high, instant replay has been expanded, and the increase in passing allows even more opportunities for clock stoppages.

All those only added a few minutes, though. The concerns about the length of a game probably stem more from the changing viewing habits that make NFL RedZone — essentially a live stream of highlights — a popular alternative to watch on Sundays.

It’s why Major League Baseball is currently in the middle of a pitch clock experiment that aims to speed things along.

But baseball is seeing dipping attendance and television ratings. Football doesn’t have that problem, and it’s done a good job parsing things down in recent seasons anyway.

According to competition committee chair Rich McKay, NFL games in 2018 were three minutes and 51 seconds shorter on average than games in 2015.

Among the changes that sped up NFL games in the last few years were tweaks that caused more touchbacks and fewer kickoff returns, and more strategic placement of commercials. So even if the addition of a few more challenges adds a couple minutes, the NFL won’t look much different.

Its viewers often sit down for a full slate of Sunday games and probably won’t notice one bit if games last a couple minutes longer. It threatens to add some tedium to lackluster primetime matchups, but don’t expect an extra challenge to drive away fans in significant numbers.

College football games are even lengthier due in part to longer halftime breaks, and more clock stoppages. It hasn’t done much to negatively affect ratings.

Maybe the eventual danger is that the NFL opened the door for more judgment calls to be reviewed. But for now, there isn’t too much reason to think games will drag on forever in 2019.

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