NFL competition committee would be making a huge mistake if it bans FG and XP leaps

One of the most hotly debated plays of the entire 2016 NFL season happened when Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner leaped over the Arizona Cardinals’ long snapper — legally — in an attempt to block a Chandler Catanzaro kick in Week 7.

However, next week at the league meeting, the competition committee is expected to recommend a ban on leaping over the line of scrimmage on any field goal or extra point attempt, according to Mark Maske of The Washington Post. The NFLPA suggested the ban during a meeting with the competition committee at the NFL Combine.

For the NFL, which can’t shake the “No Fun League” label, making the leaps illegal would be a huge mistake. They’re one of the only few ways to add excitement to field goal kicks and extra point attempts.

Many players agree, too.

Safety Kam Chancellor, Wagner’s teammate and another known leaper, is one player who is not on board.

Chancellor leaped over the line on back-to-back attempts against the Carolina Panthers in 2015. He forced a false start on Graham Gano’s first attempt. Gano missed the second attempt, but Chancellor was flagged for running into the kicker, who made the kick on the third try.

Wagner’s leap last season came in the second quarter and resulted in a blocked 39-yard field goal attempt. It was one of three missed field goals in a game that ended up a 6-6 tie.

It’s clear that Wagner makes incidental contact with the snapper on the play, but does not land on him, so he’s well within the current rules here.

NBC color commentator Cris Collinsworth said on the broadcast that he felt it should have been an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The play also raised the ire of Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, who said that leaps like this were “bad for football.”

“Because what you’re going to have to do now is start having centers raise their face up and get kicked in the face and things that are just dangerous to the players,” Arians said on Sirius XM Radio. “I think it’s a dangerous play as it is and should be taken out of the game.”

Wagner agrees with Chancellor that a rule change isn’t necessary.

The league has taken measures to make extra point attempts more interesting. In 2015, they tested moving the line of scrimmage for extra points back to the 15-yard line from the 2-yard line, and they made the change permanent prior to the 2016 season.

It worked. Extra points were previously almost a certainty, but the success rate dropped from 99.3 percent in 2014 to 94.2 percent after the rule was changed on a trial basis for 2015. Last season, kickers missed a record-setting 12 extra point attempts in Week 11.

It’s fair to say that the modified rule made extra points more exciting. Making leaps illegal would have the opposite effect.