Per- The Sports Xchange

The NFL will move back extra-point kicks this season and also allow defenses to score on failed conversion attempts.

The league owners, meeting Tuesday in San Francisco, approved the competition committee’s proposal to snap the ball on extra-point kicks from the 15-yard line. The ball previously was placed on the 2 and conversions rarely failed.

On two-point conversion attempts starting in the 2015 season, the ball will still be placed at the 2, but the defense will now be allowed to return an interception or a fumble to the other end zone for two points. A blocked point-after try also can be returned for a score. A similar rule is in place in college football.

The extra-point change is in effect for the 2015 season and could be reviewed in the future. It passed in a 30-2 vote, with the Oakland Raiders and the Washington Redskins the only teams voting against it.

Was it necessary?

I’m not sure that there was a national outcry among fans that the extra point was too easy.  The extra point is and has been in the past 20 years, little more than an afterthought.  There were more than 1100 extra points attempted last season and just eight were unsuccessful, six of those coming from blocks.

With all of the excitement that already exists in the game, I’m not sure that we absolutely needed another play with excitement….

With that said…

Why not make the game more exciting.  Was it absolutely necessary?  No.  But it adds some pressure to convert a 33-yard attempt instead of the 19-yard attempt that most people in the crowd can knock through.

Will this lead to more 2-point attempts?

Sadly, no.  Since the line of scrimmage remains at the 2-yard line for 2-point conversions and kickers being as accurate as they currently are, most head coaches will still opt to take the not-quite-as-guraranteed one instead of the riskier two.

If the line of scrimmage would have been moved to the 1-yard line, teams with bigger, mobile quarterbacks would clearly take advantage of this rule.  Teams with quarterbacks like Cam Newton, Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady, Blake Bortles, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson should still gamble on these two-point conversions because it’s likely that they would make it more than 50 percent of the time.

Sorry Timmy

Tim Tebow’s quest for an NFL roster spot took a huge hit today, as there isn’t much use for an average athlete that can’t throw the football at the quarterback position.  Chip Kelly likes to keep multiple quarterbacks on his roster, but Tim is clearly behind Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez on the depth chart and he’ll compete against Matt Barkley who appears to be a much more intelligent guy who has been in Chip Kelly’s system for two years.

Tebow is currently a 4:1 underdog to make the Eagles opening day roster according to Bovada.lv.