Seeing a recent NBA rule change inspired Peyton Manning to propose some new rules for the NFL to adopt during Week 3’s ManningCast. Fortunately for those who have had their fill of Tush Push discourse, it did not come up.

Manning was inspired by the NBA’s new rule, saying that a player’s shooting percentage will not be hurt by cross-court shots taken in the final seconds of the first three quarters. He wants the same luxury for quarterbacks on Hail Mary passes at the end of the first half.

“Rule number one,” Manning said. “Intercepted Hail Marys shouldn’t count against quarterbacks at the end of the half. Hail Mary throws at the end of the first half should be a team interception. They shouldn’t be a quarterback’s interception. They won’t count against the quarterback.

Manning’s brother and co-host, Eli Manning, had a natural question, which made us wonder if he’s been talking with Richard Jefferson, who does not like the NBA’s new rule.

“What if you complete the Hail Mary?” Eli asked. “Does it count for a touchdown throw?”

“Yeah, absolutely. That’s a stupid question. Of course it does” Peyton responded, in true older brother form.

Peyton Manning gives five rule changes he believes need to happen in the NFL ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/BLYvJjSu6e

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 23, 2025

While the next idea was also logical, it was an oddly specific occurrence that rarely happens. Inside the 10-yard line, if an offense commits a false start, it’s a full five-yard penalty. If the defense jumps offsides, it’s half the distance to the goal. So in situations where those penalties occur consecutively, Manning (Peyton) wants the offense to get the full five yards back.

“That rule makes no sense,” he said. “Offensive dumb-dumb, five yards back. Defensive dumb-dumb, I want those five yards back.”

“It’s only two in a row,” Eli clarified. “It’s a very precise, specific situation.”

The next proposal was that targets should not be a statistic.

“Targets are one of the biggest reasons wide receivers get angry with quarterbacks,” Peyton said. “They should be outlawed. How do people know who I was throwing to when the ball was batted? Or when I was throwing it away? How does some statistician know who the quarterback was targeting? They don’t. Let’s get rid of targets.”

Next up? “Batted balls should be illegal.”

“Nobody comes to a football game hoping to see someone bat down a pass,” he said. “It’s lazy by the defensive lineman. It means his pass rush didn’t work. It should be an automatic replay the down.”

“So linemen can’t put their hands up?” Eli asked. “They just gotta keep their hands down?”

“If they’re close to the quarterback, they can bat it,” Peyton conceded. “But when they’re stonewalled at the line of scrimmage, they can’t bat it.”

The final proposal was, “When a hit on a quarterback is going to result in a fine for the defensive player, there should be a cash payment on the field. The defensive player has to go get the actual cash from the sideline in a briefcase and physically hand it to the quarterback. It would eliminate those type of plays because of the public embarrassment by the defensive player. Right now, Eli, it’s kind of a payroll deduct type thing. It doesn’t have the effect that a public payment would have.”

“So instead of the player getting fined and it going to wherever, now it just goes to the quarterback? The quarterback gets the fine money?” Eli inquired.

“No, no,” Peyton said. “The fine money goes to a great fund. It helps retired players. I like that. But the defensive lineman gets the write-off. We pay the quarterback, the quarterback makes the payment to that same charity, helps the retired players. But the quarterback gets the write-off.”

And as we all know, if there’s one thing the NFL needs to do more of, it’s look out for quarterbacks.