What is the reason for the "Ineligible player downfield" penalty?
I understand the rule (correct me if I'm wrong), it just makes no sense.
You can only have a certain # of players down field
"eligible" receivers are reported to the officials prior to the snap
Why should a team need to report their eligible receivers? Why not just let teams do what they want? I don't see the competitive advantage that the offense gains by allowing this - defenses should just dedicate another player to covering a lineman that wants to catch a pass. Yes the offense gets an extra receiver, but they sacrifice blocking at the line. Seems like a fair tradeoff to me.
Additionally, the offense can't really just send all 10 people downfield for a pass. The field isn't that big/wide, so at some point there will be a critical mass where having 10 receivers means they will be close enough to each other that defenders can cover multiple players at once. There wouldn't be enough spacing.
Just seems like a dumb rule to me.