Art Rooney II calls fourth-and-15 idea “too much of a gimmick”

[Steely McBeam]

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The league is not expected to revisit an alternative to the onside kick before the 2020 season. Teams were split Thursday on a proposal for the fourth-and-15 replacement of the onside kick.

Owners didn’t take an official vote after a straw poll produced a 16-16 tie, Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports. Thus, the proposal was tabled, likely until more discussion in 2021.

“That one got the most discussion, and there’s interest in possibly looking at what we can do here, but there wasn’t enough support for this particular proposal, and the Commissioner left it open that we’re still open to ideas about what to do about this,” Steelers president Art Rooney II said, via Bob Labriola of the team website. “I think everybody agrees that it would be good to have some form of onside kick available to teams trying to make a comeback. Under the current rules for the kickoff, it has become almost an impossible play to make. I’m skeptical that we’ll come up with something for the 2020 season at this point, but the Commissioner did leave the door open for further discussion on it.”

According to Michael Lopez, director of data and analytics for the NFL, teams are 0-104 the past two years in games they attempted an expected onside kick.

But the Steelers, whose coach, Mike Tomlin, is a member of the Competition Committee, were not in favor of the fourth-and-15 proposal to give trailing teams a better chance to come back.

“I would say we’re open to thinking about whether there’s something we can do with the kickoff in a more traditional setting that might allow onside kicks to have a better chance of happening,” Rooney said. “But this one was just a little bit too much of a gimmick. Coach Tomlin and I just didn’t like the idea.”