Maybe one of the finer points of the game, I’ve been watching since the late 80’s and I’m not sure if I’m correct here.
I noticed in the last game the PA announcer was saying that the bills had reported #76 as elegible.
So #76 is David Edwards who is a Guard.
Do the bills just report him as an elegible receiver to avoid an illegal man downfield penalty in case josh scrambles or extends the play?
I see a lot of illegal man downfield calls though the league especially this year. What is the competitive advantage in a lineman being a yard downfield? Is it that they could catch a pass?
Is the team only allowed to report one lineman per play as elegible to receive a pass?
Why wouldn’t the team just report every lineman as elegible to avoid the lineman downfield penalty?
I watch all the games, and I see a lot of big offensive gains taken back due to a lineman being two yards or a yard downfield, but I’m not sure why that really matters.
All 5 offensive linemen are ineligible. Some plays, you need a 6th OL (goalline situations, stuff like that), Edwards is that guy for us, he’s eligible because he’s basically playing as a TE but he still has to report it to the officials to avoid confusions (as in, the other team has a right to know who out of the 6 linemen is eligible) which is why you hear his number so often.
The real reason is that NFL rules prohibit an ineligible number (50-99) from occupying a spot that requires an eligible number (0-49)