March 18, 2026, 10:29 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
As the Annual League Meeting<\/a> rapidly approaches, one proposed rule change from the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> is making a lot of noise around the league.<\/p>\n According to Bobby Kownack of NFL.com<\/a>, the Steelers submitted a huge rule change that would shake up the free agency process.<\/p>\n “The Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> proposed the other rule, which, if passed, will make permanent a change implemented during the 2025 season that allowed teams to have one video or phone call (for no longer than an hour) with up to five prospective unrestricted free agents during the two-day negotiation window that precedes the start of the new league year,” Kownack wrote. “Teams would also be permitted to make travel arrangements with those players upon agreeing to terms.<\/p>\n “Previously, contact was only permitted between teams and certified agents of free agents \u2014 or between a front office and a free agent not represented by a certified agent. An agent must still be a participant on the one allowed call with any represented players during the negotiation window, should teams pass Pittsburgh’s proposed rule.”<\/p>\n Kownack added that the Steelers’ reasoning for their permanent rule submission was that it is “competitively fairer.”<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n The Steelers were only one of two teams to have their proposed rules sent for consideration before the annual league meeting from March 29 to April 1, with their AFC North rivals, the Cleveland Browns, making the other.<\/p>\n For up-to-date\u00a0Steelers\u00a0coverage, including any offseason moves, follow us on X\u00a0@TheSteelersWire<\/a>\u00a0and give our\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0a like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 18, 2026, 10:29 p.m. ET As the Annual League Meeting rapidly approaches, one proposed rule change from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[95878,7,6,520,57,2360,96718,96719,426,95882,95893,95896,95888,95897,96720,96071,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-820595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-sstssportsnflsteelers","15":"tag-sstsnsteelers","16":"tag-steelers","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagfacebook","19":"tag-tagnational-sports","20":"tag-tagnfl","21":"tag-tagoverall-negative","22":"tag-tagpittsburgh-steelers","23":"tag-tagsmg-timely","24":"tag-tagsports-news","25":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116254118126512200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}