As technology continues to grow, the NFL continues to find different ways to add to its replay system. And in the not-so-distant future, we could very see this include another angle available on some broadcasts already.
More and more NFL broadcasts have begun to use angles from the boundary camera. In particular, the angle is quite popular when it comes to looking at completed catches that are close to the sideline.
However, the angle does have one big flaw at the moment. Not every team actually has a sideline camera, which doesn’t give every game full access to the angle on replay reviews.
Fans who tuned into the Week 12 matchup between the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday learned from Fox NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira that boundary cams could not be used on coaches’ challenges because not every stadium had them.
Mike Pereira explains why officials couldn’t use the boundary cam on a review.
“If a coach is challenged, you cannot use the boundary cam. There’s not boundary cams in every stadium so there’s a question of equity.”pic.twitter.com/7i8wov4SxL
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 24, 2024
Interestingly, the angle can be used on official reviews, as the NFL allows officials every available tool to help out on official-initiated challenges, which includes expedited reviews, scoring plays, turnovers, any reviews in the final two minutes of each half, and in overtime.
It’s a rather strange and infuriating technicality that makes the sideline camera not as useful as it perhaps should be.
But, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, that’s expected to change in the 2025-26 NFL season.
“The NFL anticipates that, by the end of the calendar year, all stadiums will have them,” Florio wrote. “Even when the league-owned cameras (12 per venue) are present in all stadiums, their use will not expand to coaches’ challenges and replay assist this season. Next year, they will.”
Having all of the angles available is obviously incredibly important to getting calls right on replay reviews as quickly as possible, which has been increasingly important to the NFL since putting in the expedited review system in 2022.
Currently, only New York, L.A., Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, and Miami do not have boundary cameras.
[Pro Football Talk]
