Mel Kiper two high safeties NFL rules. Screengrab via ESPN.
ESPNNFLBy Matt Yoder on

Passing stats and scoring are shockingly down across the board in the NFL through the first two weeks of the season. And Mel Kiper Jr. has an idea to fix it. It’s a terrible idea, but an idea nonetheless.

On the Thursday episode of Get Up, Kiper made a special appearance to float an idea that was discussed on an ESPN NFL podcast – ban defenses from lining up with two high safeties playing deep off the line of scrimmage. Kiper’s belief is that deep safeties prevent the deep balls that make the game exciting and is limiting football to a dink-and-dunk, running first league.

While the thought behind the idea is noble, after all, who doesn’t love offense, the actual logic of it falls apart as quickly as you can say Tampa-2.

While Kiper might be the best ever at analyzing the NFL Draft, he was left wanting in trying to fill the shoes of Mike Pereira. The former NFL veterans on Get Up – Dan Orlovsky, Harry Douglas, and Jason McCourty – weren’t on board with Kiper’s suggestion. They argued that offenses have ways to succeed against two deep safeties, especially by running the football. Later McCourty tweeted he should have walked off set.

Similarly, Kiper was called out on Twitter by other NFL analysts and veterans saying the idea was a non-starter and masking what’s really lacking in offensive play today.

There could be another 5,000 words written on how bad this idea truly is, but if we’re all playing expert NFL columnist today, here are just five things wrong with it.

1) For YEARS we have heard NFL folks complain that running backs are no longer relevant and that there’s no more Walter Paytons or Emmitt Smiths running through that door. Yet the second that running backs start to become a focal point for offenses again we want to change the rules? Come on!
2) How do you legislate where and when the safety ban takes place? What if it’s an obvious passing down like a 3rd and 15? What if the offense is backed up due to a penalty? Should they be rewarded by limiting the defense?
3) The NFL has always bent the rules towards offenses but this would be a gigantic step too far. What’s next? Make the defense line up a yard from the line of scrimmage? Forward motion? Just let the offense play with an extra man?!? Chuck Bednarik is rolling over in his grave.
4) Starting position doesn’t always dictate coverage. Teams can back out of press coverage to play deep zone. Also, the Tampa-2 defense has been around for decades, including when quarterbacks were lighting up the league. Is it the defense’s problem? Or is it that there’s just not enough good QBs to go around?
5) The deep ball can still be wildly successful. Just ask Rashid Shaheed of the New Orleans Saints whose 11 career TDs AVERAGE 51 yards per play!

If anything, the return of successful run games has balanced the NFL more than it has in recent years. It’s a refreshing change of pace, not something that needs to be neutered. Furthermore, while baseball implemented a ton of rule changes to the game like banning the shift and the pitch clock, it needed to in order to make a more watchable product. Last we checked, the NFL’s ratings and interest are just fine.

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