2014 NFL Season
From Iwe
| 2014 National Football League season | ||||
| Regular season | ||||
| Duration | September 4-December 28, 2014 | |||
| Playoffs | ||||
| Start date | January 3, 2015 | |||
| AFC Champions | ||||
| NFC Champions | ||||
| Super Bowl XLIX | ||||
| Date | February 1, 2015 | |||
| Site | University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona | |||
| Pro Brawl | ||||
| Date | January 25, 2015 | |||
| Site | Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii | |||
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The 2014 NFL season, the 95th regular season of the National Football League is tentatively set to begin Thursday, September 4, 2014, with the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks hosting in the annual kickoff game. The season will end with Super Bowl XLIX, the league's championship game, on Sunday, February 1, 2015, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
Player movement
The 2014 league year began at 4 pm EST on March 11, which marked the start of the league's free agency period. The per-team salary cap was set at US$Template:Format Price, a $10 million increase from the previous year. The so-called "legal tampering" period during which time agents representing prospective unrestricted free agent players (though not the players themselves) were allowed to have contact with team representatives with the purpose of determining a player's market value and to begin contract negotiations, began at noon (EST) on March 8.
Free agency
A total of 471 players were eligible for some form of free agency at the beginning of the free agency period. In addition, a number of highly paid players were released after the start of the league year to allow their teams to regain space under the salary cap. Among the high profile players who changed teams via free agency were cornerbacks Darrelle Revis (left the Buccaneers, joined the Patriots), Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (from Broncos to Giants), Aqib Talib (from Patriots to Broncos) and Alterraun Verner (from Titans to Buccaneers); safeties Jairus Byrd (from Bills to Saints) and T. J. Ward (from Browns to Broncos); defensive ends DeMarcus Ware (from Cowboys to Broncos), Lamarr Houston (from Raiders to Bears), Willie Young (from Lions to Bears) and Michael Johnson (from Bengals to Buccaneers); offensive tackles Jared Veldheer (from Raiders to Cardinals) and Brandon Albert (from Chiefs to Dolphins); defensive tackle Jason Hatcher (from Cowboys to Redskins); wide receivers DeSean Jackson (Eagles to Redskins), Steve Smith (Panthers to Ravens) and Eric Decker (from Broncos to Jets); and linebacker Karlos Dansby (from Cardinals to Browns).
Four players were assigned the non-exclusive franchise tag by their teams, which ensured that the team would receive compensation were the player to sign a contract with another team. These players were defensive end Greg Hardy (Panthers), tight end Jimmy Graham (Saints), placekicker Nick Folk (Jets) and linebacker Brian Orakpo (Redskins). Two other teams used the transition tag, which offers the player's current team a chance to match offers from other franchises and also guarantees draft pick compensation (at a lesser level than the franchise tag) if a tagged player signs elsewhere. Players given the transition tag were Jason Worilds (Steelers) and Alex Mack (Browns). Mack signed a five year, $42 million offer sheet with the Jacksonville Jaguars which included $26 million in guaranteed money and a player option to void the contract after two seasons. The Browns matched the offer and retained Mack who became the league's highest paid center.
One restricted free agent switched teams in 2014: wide receiver Andrew Hawkins of the Bengals was signed by the Browns. Restricted free agents are players with three or fewer seasons in the league whose contracts have expired. Teams may tender contract offers which allow them to match offers from other teams (i.e. the player's current team gets "right of first refusal") and may trigger draft pick compensation to be received from the signing team. Hawkins was tendered at the minimum level, which means the Bengals would not receive any draft compensation. The Browns signed him to a $13.6 million, four-year offer, which the Bengals declined to match. Saints safety Rafael Bush signed an offer from the Falcons, but the Saints retained Bush by matching the offer.
Draft
- Details: 2014 NFL Draft
The 2014 NFL Draft was held May 8–10, 2014, in New York City. The draft process began with the NFL Scouting Combine, where draft-eligible players were evaluated by team personnel, which was held in Indianapolis on February 19–25. This year's draft included a record number of 98 non-seniors. The event was delayed roughly two weeks compared to its traditional position on the NFL calendar in late April due to a scheduling conflict at Radio City Music Hall, which has been the draft venue since 2006. In the draft the Houston Texans made University of South Carolina defensive end, now outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney the first overall selection.
There was discussion leading up to the draft as to the future of the event in New York City, where it has been held since 1965. Given the increased interest in the draft over the past decade, there is a belief that the event may have outgrown Radio City Music Hall, which has been the venue for the past nine drafts. The possibility of extending the draft to four days was also being discussed. The NFL will decide in late summer where and when next year's draft will take place.
Preseason
Training camps for the 2014 season will be held in late July through August. Teams may start training camp no earlier than 15 days before the team's first scheduled preseason game.
Prior to the start of the regular season, each team will play at least four preseason exhibition games. The preseason schedule got underway with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on Sunday evening, August 3. The Hall of Fame game is a traditional part of the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame induction weekend celebrating new Hall of Fame members. It was played at Fawcett Stadium which is located adjacent to the Hall of Fame building in Canton, Ohio. The game, which was televised in the U.S. on NBC, featured the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills. Continuing the recent trend of scheduling teams that are associated with former players being inducted into the Hall, the 2014 class included former Giants defensive end Michael Strahan and former Bills wide receiver Andre Reed. The others who were inducted into the Hall of Fame are linebacker Derrick Brooks, punter Ray Guy, defensive end Claude Humphrey, offensive tackle Walter Jones, and defensive back Aeneas Williams.
Regular season
The 2014 regular season will feature 256 games to be played out over a seventeen week schedule which begins on the Thursday night following Labor Day. Each of the league's 32 teams will play a 16-game schedule with one bye week for each team scheduled between weeks four and twelve. The slate features seventeen games on Monday night including a doubleheader in the season's opening week. There will be seventeen games played on Thursday, including the National Football League Kickoff game in prime time on September 4 and three games on Thanksgiving Day. The schedule also includes two games played on Saturday, December 20, in the season's sixteenth week. The regular season concludes with a full slate of 16 games on Sunday, December 28, all of which, as it was since 2010, are intra-divisional matchups.<
- Scheduling formula
Under the NFL's current scheduling formula, each team plays each of the other three teams in their own division twice. In addition, a team plays against all four teams in one other division from each conference. The final two games on a team's schedule are against the two teams in the team's own conference in the divisions the team was not set to play who finished the previous season in the same rank in their division (e.g. the team which finished first in its division the previous season would play each other team in their conference that also finished first in its respective division). The pre-set division pairings for 2014 are as follows:
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Intra-conference |
Inter-conference |
Highlights of the 2014 schedule include:
- NFL Kickoff Game: The 2014 season will begin on Thursday, September 4, 2014, starting at 8:30 p.m. ET (5:30 p.m. PT) on NBC, at CenturyLink Field, where the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks will host the Green Bay Packers.
- International Series: Three games will be played at Wembley Stadium in London, England in 2014. The Oakland Raiders will play host to the Miami Dolphins on September 28 at 1:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. local time), the Atlanta Falcons will host the Detroit Lions on October 26 at 9:30 a.m. ET (1:30 p.m. local time), and the Jacksonville Jaguars will host the Dallas Cowboys on November 9 at 1:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. local time), in the second of four consecutive appearances for the Jaguars in the International Series. CBS will televise the Dolphins–Raiders game, while Fox will televise the Cowboys–Jaguars and Lions–Falcons contests.
- Thanksgiving Day games: These games will occur on Thursday, November 27, 2014. The Detroit Lions will host the Chicago Bears at 12:30 p.m. ET, and will air on CBS (who normally air afternoon road games of AFC teams), while the Dallas Cowboys will host the Philadelphia Eagles at 4:30 p.m. ET, and will air on Fox. The prime-time NBC game, featuring the San Francisco 49ers hosting the Seattle Seahawks in a rematch of the previous year's NFC Championship Game, will be featured at 8:30 p.m. ET.
On March 4, 2014, the Buffalo Bills' official radio flagship (WGR) confirmed that the Bills Toronto Series would not take place in 2014 and that the future of the series, which was otherwise scheduled to run through the 2017 season, was not yet certain. The series was formally terminated on December 3, 2014.
Changes to flex scheduling
In-season scheduling changes
Standings
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- Clinched the indicated playoff seed
Postseason
- Main article: 2014–15 NFL playoffs
Wild card round
The wild card round of the playoffs will feature the two wild card playoff qualifiers from each conference being hosted by the two lowest seeded divisional winners. The top two seeds in each conference will all have first-round byes. The games will be played January 3–4, 2015.
Divisional round
The divisional round games will be played on January 10–11, 2015 with the winner of each of the games in the wild card round visiting one of the top two seeded teams in each conference.
Conference championships
The conference championships will be played on Sunday, January 18, 2015, with the NFC Championship Game at 3:00 pm Eastern Time on Fox and the AFC Championship Game following at 6:30 pm Eastern on CBS.
Super Bowl XLIX
- Main article: Super Bowl XLIX
Super Bowl XLIX, the 49th contesting of the Super Bowl, will decide the 2014 NFL champion on February 1, 2015. The game will take place at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona The Super Bowl will be televised in the U.S. by NBC with kickoff around 4:30 p.m. MST.
Playoffs bracket
| Jan. 4 – Lucas Oil Stadium | Jan. 11 – Sports Authority Field | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Cincinnati | 10 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Indianapolis | 24 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Indianapolis | 26 | Jan. 18 – Gillette Stadium | |||||||||||||||
| 2 | Denver | 13 | ||||||||||||||||
| See Re-seeding below | ||||||||||||||||||
| AFC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Jan. 3 – Heinz Field | 4 | Indianapolis | 7 | |||||||||||||||
| Jan. 10 – Gillette Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | New England | 45 | ||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Baltimore | 30 | AFC Championship | |||||||||||||||
| 6 | Baltimore | 31 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Pittsburgh | 17 | Feb. 1 – University of Phoenix Stadium | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | New England | 35 | ||||||||||||||||
| Wild Card Playoffs | ||||||||||||||||||
| Divisional Playoffs | ||||||||||||||||||
| Jan. 4 – AT&T Stadium | A1 | New England | 28 | |||||||||||||||
| Jan. 11 – Lambeau Field | ||||||||||||||||||
| N1 | Seattle | 24 | ||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Detroit | 20 | Super Bowl XLIX | |||||||||||||||
| 3 | Dallas | 21 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Dallas | 24 | Jan. 18 – CenturyLink Field | |||||||||||||||
| 2 | Green Bay | 26 | ||||||||||||||||
| See Re-seeding below | ||||||||||||||||||
| NFC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Jan. 3 – Bank of America Stadium | 2 | Green Bay | 22 | |||||||||||||||
| Jan. 10 – CenturyLink Field | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Seattle | 28* | ||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Arizona | 16 | NFC Championship | |||||||||||||||
| 4 | Carolina | 17 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Carolina | 27 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Seattle | 31 | ||||||||||||||||
- * Indicates overtime victory
Pro Bowl
- Main article: 2015 Pro Bowl
The Pro Bowl is the league's all-star game. On April 9, 2014, the NFL announced that the 2015 Pro Bowl would be played the week prior to the Super Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. It will be broadcast in the U.S. by ESPN on Sunday, January 25, 2015. It was also announced that the unconferenced draft format that debuted in the 2014 Pro Bowl would be continued.
Notable events
Some NFL-related events that made headlines throughout 2014 include:
Michael Sam becomes first openly gay player drafted by NFL
Lawsuits by NFL cheerleaders
Washington Redskins name controversy
Broncos' owner Pat Bowlen relinquishes control of team
Discipline for off-field incidents
Colts' owner Jim Irsay guilty of OWI; suspended 6 games
Ray Rice domestic violence suspension
New league policy on domestic violence
Complaints against the policy
Adrian Peterson child abuse arrest and benching
Greg Hardy found guilty of domestic violence; placed on leave
Noteworthy deaths
William Clay Ford
Ralph Wilson
Malcolm Glazer
Chuck Noll
Possible relocations
- Buffalo Bills
- See also: National Football League in Toronto
- Oakland Raiders
- See also: History of the National Football League in Los Angeles
- St. Louis Rams
- Main article: Edward Jones Dome#Future
Rule changes
The following rule changes were passed for the 2014 NFL season at the owner's meeting on March 26, 2014:
- Eliminating the Referee's time out after a sack (previously the clock did not stop for a sack only after the two-minute warning).
- Simplify spot of enforcement on defensive fouls committed behind the line of scrimmage to enforce from the previous spot instead of the end of the run or the spot of the foul.
- Raise the height of the goal post to 35 feet from its current height of 30 feet, where it has been since the 1974 NFL Season.
- Extend the restriction on roll-up blocks to include such blocks from the side as well as from the back.
- "Dunking" the football through the goal post/crossbar (or any other means of using the goal post/crossbar as a prop in touchdown celebrations) is now considered unsportsmanlike conduct (15 yards). This rule was in response to New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham's tendency to dunk the football after scores. One of Graham's dunks during the Saints' Week 12 game against the Atlanta Falcons bent the goal posts so much that the game was delayed several minutes in order for the stadium crew to make repairs. In addition, the aforementioned rule change to extend the goal posts will add extra weight, increasing the chances that it could collapse. This celebration was previously "grandfathered" as legal much like the Lambeau Leap.
- Expand replays to cover recovery of loose balls even if the play is blown dead. This was in response to San Francisco 49ers defensive player NaVorro Bowman's clear recovery of a loose ball and downed by contact in the 2013-14 NFL playoffs but the ball was still given to the Seattle Seahawks after Seahawks running back Michael Robinson took it away from Bowman after Bowman was forced to let go of the ball due to a severe knee injury. Despite the indisputable video evidence of the recovery by Bowman, the play was not reviewable.
- Connecting the officiating command center to the field-to-booth communication relay, allowing the Referee to communicate with the command center during replay reviews. This was in response to some controversial replay reviews during the 2013 season, as well as league officials observing the NHL's command center. Unlike the NHL's replay system however, NFL referees will still make the final decisions instead of the command center.
- Make on-field taunting and use of racial/sexual slurs subject to unsportsmanlike conduct penalties (15 yards).
The league has also instructed game officials to strictly enforce offensive pass interference, defensive holding, and illegal contact.
A proposal to move the line of scrimmage on the extra point try from the 2-yard line to the 25-yard line to increase their difficulty (a 43-yard try as opposed to the more easily makable 20 yards) was tabled (as was a counterproposal from the Cincinnati Bengals to move it up to the 1-yard line, to encourage more two-point conversions), but the owners approved an experiment of kicking extra points snapping from the 20-yard line (a 38-yard try) for the first two weeks of the preseason.
New sideline technologies
Practice squads expanded
New drug policy including HGH testing
Records, milestones, and notable statistics
40th Anniversary of Super Bowl IX
90th Anniversary of the New York Giants
20th Anniversary of the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars
The Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars began play in 1995. Therefore, 2014 marks the 20th season of play for both franchises.
Head coach/front office personnel changes
Head coach
- Offseason
| Team | 2013 head coach (at start of season) | 2013 interim head coach | Reason for leaving | 2014 replacement | Story/Accomplishments |
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- In-season
| Team | 2013 head coach (at start of season) | 2013 interim head coach | Reason for leaving | 2014 replacement | Story/Accomplishments |
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Front office
- Offseason
| Team | 2013 head coach (at start of season) | 2013 interim head coach | Reason for leaving | 2014 replacement | Story/Accomplishments |
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- In-season
| Team | 2013 head coach (at start of season) | 2013 interim head coach | Reason for leaving | 2014 replacement | Story/Accomplishments |
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Awards
Players of the week/month
The following were named the top performers during the 2014 season:
| Week/ Month | Offensive Player of the Week/Month | Defensive Player of the Week/Month | Special Teams Player of the Week/Month | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AFC | NFC | AFC | NFC | AFC | NFC | |
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