NFL: Still trying to figure out what catch is

The NFL’s catch rule would get less complicated if team owners approve recommendations from the competition committee.

One of the first orders of business when the league’s annual meetings begin Monday in Orlando, Fla., will be a proposal by the committee to clarify what is a catch. Commissioner Roger Goodell said during the week of the Super Bowl he would urge simplification of the rules.

“Catch/no catch is at the top of everyone’s minds,” Troy Vincent, the NFL’s football operations chief, said Wednesday before outlining the committee’s recommendations.

The owners will be asked to vote on clarifications that eliminate parts of the rule involving a receiver going to the ground, and that also eliminate negating a catch for slight movement of the ball while it is in the receiver’s possession. No calls in the last few years have caused more consternation than overturned catches in key situations, including those by Dez Bryant, Jesse James and Austin Seferian-Jenkins.

Here’s what would constitute a catch if the owners approve the competition committee’s alterations: control of the ball; getting two feet down; performing a football act or; performing a third step.

The stipulation that slight movement of the ball while the receiver still has control no longer would result in an incompletion.

Vincent pointed to the touchdown catch by the Philadelphia Eagles’ Corey Clement in the Super Bowl as an example of a player never losing possession of the ball despite slight movement.

Zay Jones update

Zay Jones is with family and is going to be fine, the Buffalo Bills receiver’s father said Wednesday, two days after his son was arrested following a naked, bloody argument with his brother.

Robert Jones posted a note on his Twitter account saying Jones “is with me and his mom,” while adding “he’s going to be fine!”

Online jail records also showed the player, whose legal name is Isaiah Avery Jones, had been released.

The 22-year-old Jones was arrested after officers were called to a disturbance in downtown Los Angeles, said police spokesman Luis Garcia. Jones was found “breaking glass doors and windows” and arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism, Garcia said.

Prosecutors did not immediately file a case against Jones and have asked police to further investigate the matter, district attorney’s office spokesman Paul Eakins said.

Robert Jones, who lives in Texas, is a former NFL linebacker, and won three Super Bowl championships with the Dallas Cowboys during his 10-year career.

Networking draft

Every round of the NFL draft will air on network television next month for the first time as Fox will simulcast the NFL Network’s coverage of Days 1 and 2 and ESPN’s coverage of Day 3 will be shown on ABC.

The first round of the draft airs in prime time on April 26. Rounds 2 and 3 are held April 27. The draft concludes with Rounds 4 through 7 on April 28.