In the wake of several controversial calls and no-calls that appeared to favor Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, ESPN's NFL insider Adam Schefter reports that the league will seek to expand its replay assist to include plays like quarterback slides.
In 2021, the NFL added replay assist for officials to review calls in a limited number of game situations. Replay assist assesses video to spot the ball, the veracity of a completed pass, and several other scenarios.
This season, the league expanded replay assist to include whether a penalty should be upheld on fouls involving hits, out-of-bounds plays, hits to a player's head or intentional grounding.
Per Schefter's reporting, the league will consider adding late hits on quarterback slides to replay assist.
Last week, Mahomes slid and drew a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty on Houston Texans linebacker Henry To'oTo'o.
The 29-year-old signal-caller has become a frequent target of criticism from NFL fans for his attempts to bend the league's rules to protect quarterbacks to his advantage. Several former players like Tom Brady and Troy Aikman have publicly criticized his play.
Aikman called the game in question and said, "Oh come on. He's a runner, and I could not disagree with that one more. He barely gets hit. That's the second penalty now that's been called against the Texans."
Brady responded to the controversy while appearing on "The Herd" with Colin Cowherd.
"The reality for me is offensive players need to protect themselves," said Brady. "If they're running full speed and the defenders are coming up ... the only way to turn the ball over is to create force.
"You're not going to blow on the football and knock its way out of a running back's hands or a quarterback's hands. You've got to go in there with force and knock it out. You're trying to create turnovers, you're trying to disrupt the passer, you're trying to dislodge the ball. The only way to do that is with force, and there needs to be an aggressiveness to doing that. When quarterbacks become running backs and they're out of the pocket, they should lose their protection."
The Chiefs host the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship on Sunday.
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