While the owners have been in Atlanta meeting together, there were a pair of rules changes that were approved. NFL teams will be able to have one player return from injured reserve during the season and teams can make trades until Week 8, not Week 6 as it has been for a long time.
These two things are good things for teams and can help the competitiveness there is.
A later trade deadline just makes sense. Baseball and basketball usually get a lot of buzz and attention at the trade deadline. Football doesn't. The later deadline allows teams to know whether they will be sellers and which will be .
The injured reserve distinction is also one that will give teams more flexibility
Now, instead of carrying a player for weeks waiting for him to recover, but losing a roster spot, now a head coach can put him on IR and let another player that can play take the roster spot.
The Arizona Cardinals had a scenario in which this could have been better. When Kerry Rhodes went down with a broken foot, the roster remained in flux. He was able to come back late in the year, but he got to play again, and the defense was better because of it.
Both of these rules changes are net positives.
We will have to see if that will actually change anything this year, or if a Week 8 deadline comes and goes with the same silence and it did when Week 6 was the deadline.