NFL Competition Committee could be considering notable roster changes

The NFL owners will meet the week of March 22-25, at which point numerous potential rule changes will be on the table for discussion. There will be various game rules up for discussion, but there could be a pair of roster rules on the table.

The Competition Committee is holding a meeting this weekend in advance of the owners' meetings. On Saturday, they discussed the roster system, and how to potentially handle it this season. According to Pro Football Talk, a pair of rule changes were discussed that are pretty interesting.

The first would be to expand rosters to 55 players. Currently a team has 53 players on their roster, with seven inactive on game day. This would increase the pool of rostered players by 64, although it does not say if that means 48-man game-day actives, or just two more inactives. That decreases the per player amount of money in the roster pool, but creates more jobs. And considering this is the bottom end of the roster, it is likely increasing primarily league minimum contracts.

Speaking of inactives, the second potential change would be to dump inactive lists for Thursday Night Football. The NFL has repeatedly emphasized that TNF injuries have not increased compared to other games, but there is a problem with players slowed down due to a short week. A player might not be on the injury report heading into the game, but he is not playing at the same level as a player with a full week worth of rest. Removing the inactive lists would give teams a chance to rotate in more players to decrease snaps for tired players. Or even rest a player the entire game if need be.

The committee would need to recommend these to the full ownership at the March meetings. There is no word yet on if that will happen, but both strike me as good ideas.