This week, the NFL announced that in the 2025 season they will use a digital measurement system to conduct chain measurements instead of bringing the chains onto the field. This change is expected to cut over half of the time required for a measurement.
Measuring the chains is an activity that is both highly reliable and accurate, and typically pointless. Football was historically played on many irregular fields where the slope of the playing surface is inconsistent, where the field is mixed-use and may have a baseball infield overlaid with it. There are also cases where the yard lines are very poorly marked and have nearly faded, or where the markings are irregular (officials joke about the number of beers that certain ground crews had consumed before they began work).