PHOENIX — On Tuesday morning the NFL owners approved the Philadelphia Eagles’ proposal to allow players to wear the number zero.
Any player, with the exception of offensive and defensive linemen, can now wear the number. This includes punters and placekickers.
The proposal was one of nine submitted by different teams, which will bring another change to how jersey numbers are handed out around the league. In 2021, the NFL approved the Chiefs’ proposal allowing non-linemen to wear numbers 1-49.
Two years later, non-linemen players will be able to wear zero for the first time since 1981. The NFL is now following in the footsteps of college football as players have been able to wear No. 0 since the 2020 season.
As a linebacker at Utah, linebacker Devin Lloyd wore the No. 0. But because the number wasn’t allowed in the NFL when he was drafted in 2022, Lloyd switched to 33 after the Jaguars selected him in the first round.
Another resolution the league approved on Tuesday was the NFL would have only one preseason cutdown date, which will be Aug. 29 this year.
Previously, the NFL had two separate cutdown dates in August. In the middle of the month, teams had to cut their roster down from 90 to 80 players. Then following the final preseason game in late August, NFL roster sizes went from 80 players to 53 players.
Now teams will have to release 37 players by 4 p.m. on Aug. 29. Twenty-five teams submitted the proposal for one cutdown date in the preseason.
One proposal that was not approved was the Rams’ proposal to replay roughing the passer penalties.
The proposal would have allowed coaches to challenge roughing-the-passer calls, similar to the one year officials reviewed pass interference penalties during the 2019 season. The pass interference review experiment was a failure, so the NFL scrapped it after one season.
