I have heard over the grapevine that the LB out of the box is going away. Anybody else heard that? Just trying to confirm what I think is a bad move for our league. The scoring will go why down and the int's will go why up.

It's been "altered". In the past the box was defined as five yards off the line of scrimage and to the widest part of how the offensive linemen lined up. Now it's just five yards off the line. The jackback is free to roam sideline to sideline and can cut loose if the QB pumps the ball. That part is going to be highly subjective though and will differ from ref to ref.

There will be two primary effects these rule changes will have. One is it will allow the secondary to really jam up the recievers at the line. Most likely it'll be applied to the side where there are at least two receivers lined up. The second effect is sacks will increase slightly as it will increase the amount of time the QB will have to hold onto the ball b/c it takes longer for the receivers to get open. We will see more injured QB's now so depth at that position will be critical to all teams.

The lesser effects will be stopping the outside run as the jackback can line up to the outside of the side the D thinks the run will be and if the jackback is out of position then the run will become more effective.

I think they should have made one more amendment and that is if the jackback does go outside the standard width, as defined in past years, then the mackback should be made to stay home and not rush. This would reduce the number of injured QB's while still allowing a better secondary presence.