NFL To Experiment With Longer Extra Point?

People have complained that the extra point is "automatic," and for the most part, it is. Last year, kickers in the National Football League attempted 1,267 extra points. They missed five.

The NFL has apparently taken notice of this, and it appears they might be considering doing something about it.

The NFL Competition Committee has discussed experimenting this preseason with a longer -- much longer -- extra-point try. According to one member, the committee's meetings this weekend included preliminary talks about placing the ball at the 25-yard line for the extra-point kick -- which would make it a 43-yard attempt -- rather than the 2-yard line, where it is currently placed.

. . .

"There is no consensus yet," said the committee member. "We could experiment in preseason, but we are not there yet."

Two-point conversion tries would still, apparently, be spotted at the two-yard line.

For teams with kickers like Blair Walsh, who is 12-of-15 in his career from 40-49 yards and 12-of-15 from over 50, this wouldn't be such a big deal, I wouldn't think. Yes, a 43-yard kick is markedly harder to make than a 19-yard extra point, but a team with a solid kicker would benefit from something like this.

If the NFL really wanted to add some variety, they could go the route of the XFL. Yes, the XFL, the football league run by WWE owner Vince McMahon that lasted all of one season. Rather than have kickers attempt extra points, teams could go for a 1-point conversion from the 2-yard line, a 2-point conversion from the 5-yard line, or a 3-point conversion from the 10-yard line. (I may have the yardages wrong, but that was the basic idea.) I know it would never happen, but if the extra point is moving back to the 25-yard line, it's not really that ludicrous, is it?