How many eligible receivers in football

Running backs must wear numbers between 20 and 49, tight ends must wear numbers between 80 and 89 and 40 and 49, and wide receivers must wear numbers between 10 and 19 and 80 and To be an eligible receiver, a player must be wearing an eligible jersey number. There are no exceptions unless a player reports to a referee that they will be lining up in an eligible position with the intent to catch a forward pass. In the NFL, players behind the line of scrimmage may only move parallel to the line of scrimmage.

If any forward movement occurs, the player must stand still for a full second before the snap to be considered eligible. When eligible receivers step out of bounds , that player loses eligibility to catch a pass unless they take three steps in-bounds to regain eligibility. All ineligible players must wear numbers between 50 and 69; all other numbers may be worn by eligible receivers. Also, players behind the line of scrimmage may move in any direction prior to the snap and do not have to be motionless when the ball is snapped.

Eligible receiver rules have been manipulated in multiple ways to give a team an edge over their opponent. In , William "The Refrigerator" Perry famously caught a touchdown pass after being made an eligible receiver. Perry, normally a defensive lineman and wearing the jersey number 72, lined up in an eligible position after notifying the referees of the team's intent.

Too easy. Brady took two sacks in the second quarter to knock the Patriots out of field goal range, one of which was definitely on Brady to get the ball out quicker. Melvin consistently played 8 yards off the line of scrimmage to prevent from getting burned, but Brady attacked him underneath all day.

The Patriots threw at Melvin 15 times, completing 12 of those passes for yards and two touchdowns. Melvin bit badly on the Edelman-to-Amendola yard touchdown pass, and the one time Melvin played press coverage, LaFell beat him for the winning yard touchdown.

The Patriots targeted Melvin eight times in the second half, completing seven passes for yards and two touchdowns. Melvin also whiffed on Amendola when the receiver did a great job of stretching for the first-down sticks. Wendell got beaten badly by Timmy Jernigan for a sack late in the second quarter, and Solder got beaten a couple of times by Suggs around the edge.

But overall, the offensive line had a championship effort. A handoff or a pass was too risky, taking the safety would have cut their lead from 4 to 2, and even having Brady run around to milk some clock would have pinned the Patriots too close to their goal line for the punt situation, and leave Brady open for a big hit. Executing a punt and defending a Hail Mary seemed like the safest option. I imagine he was quite sore on Saturday night. Kyle Arrington made a fantastic play to shed his receiver and fill the lane to tackle Forsett after 2 yards, while Patrick Chung and Tavon Wilson made nice stops in the run game as well.

The Ravens did a good job of creating separation for their receivers with legal picks and crossing routes. The offense on every play is required to have a minimum of seven players lined up on the line of scrimmage — the two players on either end must be eligible receivers, and the interior lineman must all be ineligible. In offensive formations, eligibility is determined by uniform number, as illustrated below. The old numbering ranges are listed at the bottom of this post.

Quarterbacks in shotgun formation are eligible. Eligibility reporting All coaches have a few plays that require extra blocking protection, which is typically accomplished by having one of the linemen outside of the interior line position where an eligible receiver is required. Less common is the need for a player to report in eligible, but Belichick caught the Ravens off guard by putting running back Shane Vereen in as an interior lineman.

Vereen reported properly, but it did have it its intended effect to confuse the Ravens defense. In the Titans play illustrated above, numbers 20, 86, 44, and 29 had to report ineligible. They could not catch a pass, but they were able to be on the receiving end of a lateral, or backward pass. As a matter of efficiency, both teams let the officials know before the game which players line up out of position in their standard punt and field-goal attempt formations.

The Patriots scored in the AFC Championship Game against the Colts when offensive tackle Nate Solder reported in an eligible position and caught the pass for a touchdown video. Rule 8 Section 4 Articles Rule 12 Section 1 Article 6. Rule 12 Section 2 Article 5. Rule 12 Section 2 Article 4. Rule 3 Section 4 Article 2. Rule 7 Section 4 Article 4. Rule 12 Section 2 Article 9. Rule 12 Section 2 Article 2. Rule 8 Section 2.