AP

The Competition Committee received seven rules change proposals from teams related to expanding instant replay. But after the NFL coaches’ subcommittee recommended a video official earlier this week, the Competition Committee is leaving their discussions in Indianapolis with a mandate to study the addition of a Sky Judge to each officiating crew.

“When we walked out of the room, there wasn’t dissension,” Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, said. “It was, ‘This may have some merit.’ It had the most interest.”

The video official would become an eighth official on the each crew, correcting “clear and obvious” calls like the two missed calls in the NFC Championship Game.

“There are some things we need to adjust and fix,” Vincent said. “. . .People want [us] to get it right.”

The questions are: Where does the league get Sky Judges? Does the video official have a role only during certain parts of games or for the entire game? What set of fouls should a video official be charged with correcting? Should it be only correcting penalties that were called on the field? What are the unintended consequences?

It was clear, according to Vincent, that everyone wants the game officiated in the stadium and not from New York. A video official’s job would be to correct egregious errors in real time.

Vincent said three missed calls in particular stood out during discussions: The pass interference and/or hit on a defenseless receiver calls against Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman on Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis that officials missed in the NFC Championship Game; a helmet-to-helmet hit by Cowboys safety Xavier Woods on Washington tight end Jordan Reed that officials missed on Thanksgiving Day; and an illegal hit by Cowboys linebacker Jaylon Smith on Saints running back Alvin Kamara that officials missed in a Nov. 29 game.

“We just want to get it right,” Vincent said. “It is debating what that change is, if any. As we always say, the membership will tell us what they want to do, not the league.

“. . .The feel I get is some kind of adjustment is there. What it is, I’m not certain. But there was enough here to say there’s some kind of adjustment that we need.”

Any rules change takes 24 of 32 votes by owners to pass, but momentum seems to be building for doing something to correct the clear and obvious errors.

“This year I would just say, it was real. It was passion. It was, ‘We’ve got some things we’ve got to fix,'” Vincent said.