On Tuesday, the NFL relaxed the touchdown celebration rule and will not penalize players for using the football as a prop. In addition, celebrations on the ground and group demonstrations are also now permissible without the threat of a yellow flag.
New Eagles running back LeGarrette Blount knows a thing or two about getting in the end zone. Last season, he led the entire NFL with 18 total touchdowns, all on the ground. Should Eagles fans expect anything creative out of Blount when he scores this year? Don't hold your breath.
"I never even knew what the rule was in the first place," Blount said. "I definitely don't know what it is now. I'm not huge on any crazy celebrations. It's not going to hurt me either way."
Blount joined Dave Spadaro for a one-on-one interview on the Eagles Live podcast this week. Here are some of the highlights:
On the reaction from Eagles fans: "All positive. Everybody is excited about me being here. Everybody is excited about having me, so I'm going to go out there and do everything I can, do my best, to try and outmeet their expectations."
On checking out the City of Philadelphia: "I'm pretty much a homebody. We come to work every day and we grind and we do everything that we have to do, so whenever you do get a chance to go home and just relax that's kind of what I like to do."
On if he can already tell whether or not Carson Wentz is a special player: "Definitely. He's going to be a really good player. He's going to be a good player to start a franchise around."
At the NFL Spring Meeting in Chicago, the NFL addressed the celebration rule and made changes to three other rules for 2017:
1. Shorter Overtime - The length for overtime in the preseason and the regular season is now 10 minutes long, down from 15. Here are some interesting numbers from NFL Research: In 83 overtime games over the last five seasons, just 22 continued at least 10 minutes into overtime. There have been five ties in that span. The average length of overtime from this study has been 7:43.
2. One Roster Cutdown Date - The 90-man roster will be reduced directly to 53 at the end of the preseason. There was previously a cutdown to 75 prior to the final exhibition game. Now, the 15 players on each team will benefit from extra time and exposure on the field as key players are typically watching that game from the sidelines.
3. Return From Injured Reserve Expands - Back in 2012, the NFL allowed teams to bring back one player from Injured Reserve. The challenge for teams was that they had to determine immediately whether or not the player being put on IR would be the one designated for return after eight weeks. Last year, the NFL tweaked the rule so that teams could select any player on Injured Reserve to come back after eight weeks. Teams can now activate two players from Injured Reserve in 2017.
