2022 CFL Rule Changes

I just had a look at the rule changes being adopted for the 2022 CFL season. You can see them on the CFL Website. It seems that they are really trying to generate more offense and higher scores.

I suspect that the kicking game will change significantly as a result of the stiffer penalties for no yards, and punts out of bounds. Also starting the offenses 5 yards further upfield, and moving all kickoffs back 5 yards provides a big advantage to the offenses.

Good to see some greater consequences -- ejections -- for multiple unnecessary roughness and objectionable conduct penalties. Kind of like the yellow card / red card rules in soccer. However, this does provide greater opportunity for abuse by the officials. (Did I really just say that?)

The change to put an official "contact" person at each bench, in an effort to speed up the game by not having the on-field officials go to the benches to explain a call, could be interesting. However, I suspect that any time savings will be offset by having automatic video review of so many more things without the need for a coach's challenge.

The two changes that I'm really on the fence about are moving the hash marks more toward the middle of the field (to reduce the difference between "field side" and "boundary side") and allowing two quarterbacks on the field for plays. Moving the hash marks seems to me to be defeating the impact from a 65 yard wide field used in the CFL, and having two quarterbacks on the field just seems strange.

All in all, it should be interesting to see how the teams respond to, and try to take advantage of, the changes. What do you think?

Fans usually want more offence and the changes will certainly accommodate them. Not sure why you would want two quarterbacks on field at same time except maybe in a dire situation in playoffs?

Or maybe a lateral to the second quarterback for a shot downfield? I agree with you though that it doesn't sound like it will be used very often.