PHOENIX — The NFL will gather for its annual league meetings this week in Phoenix.
Among the items on the agenda is a new ownership succession plan for the Raiders, another Super Bowl for Las Vegas, and some new rules changes.
Here is what owners will consider in Phoenix:
Super Bowl coming back to Las Vegas
The NFL is clearly in a rush to get back to Las Vegas for another Super Bowl. Sin City hosted its first big game in 2024, and hit the mark so well in terms of hospitality, infrastructure, entertainment, and fan value that it’s looking to return as soon as possible.
The league will do just that when it votes this week to send the Super Bowl back to Las Vegas in 2029. According to multiple league sources, it’s essentially a done deal after the league and Las Vegas leaders hammered out all the details over the last few months.
As of right now, the next two Super Bowls will be at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium after next season, or in 2027, and Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2028.
By next week, Las Vegas will almost assuredly be added to the list of host cities.
New Raiders ownership succession plan
By league rules, all 32 NFL teams must have an onsweship succession plan in place at all times. All of those plans must also be approved by fellow owners.
In the Raiders case, Mark Davis is looking to alter the succession plan that’s been on the books for multiple years, with his new plan giving Silver Lake co-chief executive officer Egon Durban first dibs on purchasing the team if Davis either decides to sell the team or he passes away.
According to multiple sources, Davis is not looking to sell the team any time soon. He just wants to put a plan in place should he decide to sell or should something happen.
Durban purchased 7.5% of the Raiders in 2024 as part of a deal in which Davis sold 15 percent of the club to Durban and Michael Meldman, the founder of Discovery Land Co.
That coincided with Davis selling five percent of the team to Tom Brady, who is now the leader of the Raiders football operations department along with general manager John Spytek, another five percent to Knighthead Capital Management co-founder Tom Wagner, and .05 percent to Raiders Hall of Famer Richard Seymour.
Clearly, though, the plan is for Durban, who has a net worth of $2.5 billion, to eventually own the team.
Nothing new on the Tush Push
As opposed to last year, when the league took into consideration issues with the viability and fairness of the “Tush Push” play, there is nothing on this year’s agenda about that controversial play.
However, expect it to be brought up in the future.
“I don’t know that it’s the end of the debate, because I think there’s still people that are concerned with the whole pushing element,” said Rich McKay, the CEO of the Falcons and the NFL’s Competition Committee Chairman. “But I would say to you that, just like last year I told you – there was no Competition Committee proposal last year on the tush push, there was no proposal the year before on that. And over the years, we’ve ve now seen that the tush push is going down. The percentage of, or I should say the number of plays it’s being used on, is going down. The success rate on the traditional sneak is above the tush push success rate. So, I just think there’s s less talk about it within the football community, and there was no proposal on the table to put anything in this year to deal with that.”
Bringing back the onside kick
As part of the NFL’s recently implemented dynamic kick-off rules, the onside kick element was marginalized. Currently, only the trailing team is permitted to attempt an onside kick.
Under the new proposal, any team can attempt an on-side kick at any point in the game. However, they still must warn the officials and the opposing team of their intentions, as it changes how both teams line up.
In addition, the league will consider a proposal that alters how the kickoff receiving team is allowed to deploy the alignment of its players.
Currently, a minimum of six players are lined up with their front foot on the receiving team’s restraining line. The new proposal would reduce the requirement to five.
The new proposal could lead to longer kickoff returns without exposing players to more risk.
“We have found that the people in the setup zone and the floaters themselves literally have very little risk of injury, both lower-extremity and concussion,” said McKay. “And so, the idea to start was we limited them. And now, we’re back to let’s not limit them. Let’s create a little more opportunity to create kind of more offensive plays that could be run out of this formation. We’re comfortable with it now. The special teams coaches would have been okay waiting a year. They liked it where it was. But they like this because they see no downside, only upside, and they liked this proposal from the start because this is what they wanted to originally do.”
