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NFL refs are throwing flags at a historic clip so far this season
If you feel like there’s been more flags than ever in the NFL this season, you aren’t imagining it. 17 touchdowns have already been nullified by penalties, versus just five last season.
Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis crunched the numbers on the amount of penalty flags fans have seen four weeks into the NFL season, and the data is eye-opening.
Penalties are up across the NFL, with more flags being thrown in the first four weeks than there have been in a decade
Let’s look at just Week 4 of the 2026 season, for example, which had an average of 17 penalties per game — the most in any NFL week since 2015.
Sharp also found offensive red-zone penalties are at a record 0.61 per team per game; more than 56% of red-zone flags are now on offense, up from 48%, and there have been the most penalties on third and fourth downs in the second half of games since 2000.
The touchdown metrics are even more shocking. Through four weeks, 17 have been wiped off the board by penalties, compared to five at this point in 2025 and four in 2024 — Sharp put the average over the prior decade at 8.3.
Offenses seem to be bearing the brunt of the penalization uptick. Per Sharp, “offenses are getting flagged at the highest per-snap rate of any Week 1 through 4 stretch since 2000: 6.18 per 100 snaps, and red-zone offensive penalties are at a record (0.61 per team per game, up 48%).” Excluding garbage time data, this season has been the most-penalized offensive season in the data: 3.76 flags per team per game.
In the Jaguars vs. Bengals game over the weekend, multiple touchdowns were negated via penalty, while Jacksonville was flagged 13 times for 125 yards, and Cincinnati was flagged 11 times for 108 yards.
Given that it’s early in the season, one explanation could be that the refs are executing whatever mandates the league gave them before the season. Whether due to an overzealous attitude from the refs or a lack of foresight from the league, the result has been far more detrimental than they likely imagined.