The NFL Finally Killed the Kick Off

The New Kick Off rules are terrible, but here's what you should expect with them and my honest and fair criticism's of the scheme.

[julesjames]

Thanks for the breakdown. I can see a bunch of coach-scheme innovations coming. And anything is better than the commercial-extra point-commercials-kick off into the endzone-commercial interludes between plays worth watching.

[seanblake]

The touchback goes to the 30 yard line, the original adaptation was for 35 but changed it during the meetings

[JamesDavidWalley]

I'm surprised they didn’t change the rules to allow the receiving team put a baserunner on 2nd.

[Phartmonster]

And now you can't tackle. NFL wants games to be shootouts. Say goodbye to those chess match defensive games

[duncanluciak]

No kickoffs returned in the latest SB -It was already a dead play!
(Edited for clarity. This past SB.)

[venomgames]

A few corrections regarding the rules, since you showed the XFL style kickoff, which is slightly different from the newly approved rules.
1) A ball kicked directly into the endzone is a touchback to the 30 yard line, not 35.
2) The return team will line up with 7 men on the 30, 2 on the 25, and 2 returners back deep. This will allow for more layered blocking schemes, and make the line drive kick less effective.
3) Players on each team (besides returners) will be able to move once the ball makes contact with the ground or a player.
4) The football must be downed by a player if it lands or rolls into the endzone. No more immediate touchback if the ball directly impacts the endzone.

[Legault]

They should just do what Jon Bois suggested and give the team that just scored the ball at their own 30/35 on a 4th and 15. In most situations, you're going to punt, but if you're trying to make a comeback, you can still go for it. 4th and 15 or even 4th and 20 have a *much* higher conversion rate than onside kicks ever did so two or even three score games would be much more interesting when the clock got below 5 minutes

[retyboi]

It’s so funny how everyone was praying for the NFL to change the kick to the XFL version, and when they do everyone says how this is the end of the world as we know it 🤣

[kurtwicklund]

Kickers will learn how to kick line drive knuckleballs that max out maybe 20 feet high. Just high enough to clear the lines then bounce and skip off randomly at speed. Good luck fielding that cleanly.

This system will last one year is my call.

[dylanbeasley]

Do what the cfl does. No touchbacks. Just catch the ball and run wherever you are on the field.

[darcywalker]

Why doesn’t the NFL just does what the CFL does. The CFL kicks off the ball at the 35 yd line. Remember the field is 10 yds longer in the CFL. This means no touchbacks. Also as soon as the ball is kicked, players can still move but have to give 5yds to the returner to catch the ball. So the returner is protected as well. Pretty simple change for the NFL and the kickoff will not be ruined. In fact it would be better as there will be way more returns then touchbacks meaning more importance of returners and more play for special teams. NFL needs to learn from their northern neighbours.

[wompa]

Been waiting on this since hearing the news this morning.
I think it might be pretty cool. It's for sure going to take some time for the teams to figure out good strategies. But it's better than just booting it through the end zone and starting on the 25 or wherever it is now.

[nautifella]

Touchbacks should be at the 15 to give the receiving team an incentive to bring it out.

[ominaroust]

i literally had to check to see if it was april 1st. are you serious?

[Justin_Watson]

I got on the field as a "big skill" body type in college by getting really good at beating double teams as the kick side contain guy. I made my bones as a special teams coach at the HS level by innovating with a "diamond" return formation & having 6 KOR TD's in '14, & another 4 in '15.

I hope this is roundly rejected, bc just as I suspected, it's all skill guys bc of the spacing. No room to innovate, I hate it sooo damn much, & feel sorry for the high iq/effort guys, bc they have no shot at making rosters/breaking through via special teams even more now.

[triplec]

So, if kickers start trying to kick the low, hard to field knuckleball, what happens if they kick it too low and it bounces off of someone's helmet on the line? If it's low enough can a line defender reach up an swat it without moving their feet? Can they jump and try to block it as long as they don't move forward? If any of that happened would it be a live ball or dead at the point of contact?

[Michael--]

Without having to worry about hangtime, kickers (at least the good ones) will learn to kick a low flying, skidding type ball which will make it difficult to collect. I can also see for the receivers, having two back there might open up some lateral passing plays.

[johnsonmce]

I can see Butker, my favorite player, not want to kick these because it’s gonna change his mechanics and give him bad reps.

Is this a potential concern for kickers in your opinion?

[jeremyarcus-goldberg]

You showed about 20 clips of kickoffs. There is nothing interesting about any of them. If this is the change, then might as well just give the ball to to the receiving team somewhere at 20-30 and just not even do it. What has been interesting about this example of kickoff besides protecting the receiver from huge hits?

[America-First]

Overthinking…. Go back to kicking the ball from the 20 yard line.

And leather helmets