NFL Officiating Observatory
GUIDE
NFL referee and penalty statistics: methodology, glossary and FAQ
How the NFL Officiating Observatory measures penalties, crew chiefs and teams, what every term means, and answers to the most common questions, with live numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Which NFL referees call the most penalties in 2026?
Through Week 7, the most accepted penalties per game have come in games worked by Scott Novak (20.1 in 7 games); Craig Wrolstad (18.0 in 6 games); Adrian Hill (17.8 in 5 games). The league average is 14.7. Early-season samples are small. All crew chiefs.
Which NFL referees call the most penalties overall?
Across the 2015–25 regular seasons (season-adjusted): Alex Moore (16.0 per game, 16 games); Shawn Hochuli (13.6 per game, 124 games); Adrian Hill (13.4 per game, 109 games). League average: 12.6.
Which NFL referees call the most holding penalties?
Offensive holding per game in each crew chief's games, 2015–25: Shawn Hochuli (2.94, 124 games); Adrian Hill (2.83, 109 games); Carl Cheffers (2.81, 170 games). Rates are adjusted toward the league average to account for sample size.
Which NFL referees call the most pass interference?
Defensive pass interference per game, 2015–25: Shawn Smith (1.22, 125 games); Adrian Hill (1.21, 109 games); Brad Rogers (1.14, 108 games).
Do NFL referees favor the home team?
Slightly fewer flags go against home teams: across 2015–25 crews, 48.6% of accepted penalties were on the home team and 51.4% on the road team. In 2026, 50.0% are on the home team. The gap is small and can reflect crowd noise (more false starts for road offenses) as much as officiating.
Which NFL team commits the most penalties in 2026?
Green Bay Packers (9.3 per game), Cleveland Browns (9.0 per game), Los Angeles Chargers (9.0 per game) lead the league through Week 7. Fewest: Minnesota Vikings (5.7), Indianapolis Colts (5.1).
Are NFL penalties up in 2026?
Yes. 2026 games average 14.7 accepted penalties through Week 7, vs 12.7 in 2025. The biggest increases are in offensive holding, delay of game, neutral zone infraction. League trends.
Do refs call more penalties early in the season?
Usually. Since 2015, Weeks 1–4 average 13.6 flags per game and Weeks 15–18 average 11.0. The last two weeks are lowest of all, partly because of resting starters and games with nothing at stake.
How much does a penalty cost a team?
About 6.51 expected points per team per game in 2026. The most costly flags are pass interference and personal fouls that hand the offense a first down on third down. How it's measured.
How accurate are the penalty projections?
Projections published before kickoff have missed the actual flag count by 3.48 on average, and 88.6% landed inside the projected range (44 games). Guessing the league average every game would have missed by 3.60.
What is an NFL crew chief?
The referee: the white-hat official who leads a seven-person officiating crew, announces penalties and has final authority on the field. The NFL assigns crews by crew chief each week. Play-by-play doesn't record which official threw a flag, so statistics are tracked by crew chief.
Methodology
What's counted. Accepted penalties in regular-season games since 2015, from NFL play-by-play published by nflverse. Declined and offsetting penalties are not counted. Playoffs are excluded so seasons compare fairly.
Crew chiefs. Each game is credited to its referee (crew chief), using nflverse officials data, the NFL schedule, and, for the newest week, the assignments published before kickoff by Football Zebras. Crews change around the chief each year, so these are crew-chief-level patterns, not individual officials. We describe patterns, not motives.
Comparisons. Penalties are up in recent seasons and run higher early in every season, so a current season is compared with the same weeks of past seasons, and crews and teams are compared with the league in the same games.
How projections work
Before each game we project accepted penalties for each team from three things: the team's own discipline, what its opponent tends to draw, and the assigned crew chief's calling rate, each adjusted toward the league average when the sample is small. The projection includes a likely range and the chance of 15 or more flags. Every projection is saved before kickoff and graded after the game in the public track record.
How a penalty's cost is measured
When a flag erases the play, its cost is the change in expected points (nflverse's model) charged to the penalized team. When a flag is added on top of a play that counts, only the penalty yards are charged, at about 0.06 points per yard. A flag that erases a failed two-point try is worth a retry (2 × the 46.8% conversion rate).
Crew styles
Each crew chief is placed by flags per game and yards per flag against the league average: game-changers (more flags, bigger calls), stop-and-start (more flags, smaller calls), few but costly and let them play. A trait is only listed when the difference is meaningful (5% for volume, 3 percentage points for shares, 15% for a penalty type).
Glossary
- Accepted penalty
- A flag the offended team accepted; the only kind counted here.
- Flags per game
- Accepted penalties on both teams in a game, averaged.
- Penalty yards
- Yards assessed for accepted penalties.
- Pre-snap penalty
- Fouls before the snap: false start, offside, encroachment, delay of game, illegal formation and similar.
- Flags drawn
- Penalties called on a team's opponents.
- Expected points (EPA)
- How many points a play changed a team's expected scoring, from nflverse's model.
- Key first down given
- A defensive penalty that gave the offense a first down on 3rd or 4th down.
- Same-weeks comparison
- Comparing a season in progress with past seasons over the same weeks.
About
The NFL Officiating Observatory is an independent, data-driven project tracking NFL penalties and officiating patterns, updated weekly during the season. It is not affiliated with the NFL. Data is free to use with credit; see the data page. Follow @NFLObservatory.