The NFL is planning to phase out chain-gang measurements this upcoming season.
NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported Wednesday that the league is slated to move to Hawk-Eye virtual technology to help with first-down calls in 2025.
The league plans to use the tech as the primary way to determine if a ball crosses the first-down line.
A chain gang will still be on the sidelines as a backup.
In a graphic shared by Garafolo, the league said the virtual measurements took 30 seconds on average to make a call compared to 75 seconds with the chains.
The NFL said that an average of 12 weekly measurements took place in 2024.
No vote on the issue is required by the owners, according to the Washington Post.
The electronic system still requires the officials on the field to manually place the ball following a play.
The Hawk-Eye virtual measurement will then assess if a ball has made it past the line to gain or not.
The NFL tested the technology during the preseason but said in August that it would not be in use for the 2024 regular season, but left the door open for it to arrive in 2025.
“The whole effort was to begin taking a look at it, to see what worked, what didn’t work,” Walt Anderson, the NFL’s officiating rules analyst and club communications liaison, said in August, according to the Washington Post.
The technology can help more accurately measure the line to gain, but it might not help prevent a similar situation from occurring like the one that happened to Josh Allen in this season’s AFC title game.
Allen seemingly picked up a first down late in the game, a crushing Bills loss, on a QB sneak but the ball was spotted short of the first down.
The Bills lost as the Chiefs held on for a win.
“This is post spotting the ball,” NFL senior vice president of football business strategy Kimberly Fields told The Washington Post on Wednesday.
“The officials on the field will still determine where forward progress ends.”