New kick off rule

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

From what I understand of it, it looks good.  Will make kick offs both more exciting AND less likely for serious injury.  Most rule changes are done to increase safety (not always accomplishing it) at the expense of the excitement of the game, This change appears to increase the likelihood of a dynamic play while making the game safer.

[Dave Gray]

I know that growing up, touchbacks were to the 20.  Then, these past years, they're at the 25, right?  Now, this would disincentivize by putting them at the 30?  Is that correct? 

Seems like a good change.

[Phishfan]

On the surface it should add excitement, when there is an actual return. I wonder if teams are going to stop blasting kickoffs through the end zone at the risk of returns?

[Dave Gray]

I think that balance in sports is hard.  It's possible that after this is put into place for a couple of years, a team will either discover a hack that stops everyone inside the 10 or maybe one that lets you break kicks a lot.

But until then, I wouldn't think you'd just kick the ball out of the endzone.  The 30 yard line is pretty significant starting position.

[Dave Gray]

Does this fully eliminate the onside kick?

[Spider-Dan]

Does this fully eliminate the onside kick?

No.

Due to the new kickoff format, NFL teams will be able to declare they want to pursue an onside kick in the fourth quarter of games. They can declare to do so twice.

“If you're trailing and want to kick a traditional onside kick, you have that right,” McKay said.

With the players from both sides lining up five yards apart, the idea of a surprise onside kick to catch the opposition off-guard will be a thing of the past.

But “surprise onside kicks” aren’t really part of the game much to begin with: Rizzi noted there were only two attempts in 2023, and four in the last five years. Overall, NFL teams have converted 2 of their last 15 surprise onside kick attempts.

They should just go with the 4th-and-20 at your own 20 substitute for onside kicks at this point.   Maybe next year.

[Pappy13]

I watched an XFL game with this rule and I liked it. It will take a bit of getting used to, but I think you'll actually see more returns than in the past and in fact in the game I watched the returner nearly broke one for a TD, ended up returning it to about mid field so it actually might help bring the kickoff return back into the game a bit and put an end to starting every drive from the 25. It does sort of eliminate the "flyer" role, but that's still there on punt returns and they rarely had a chance to make a play on a kickoff anyway.

[CF DolFan]

I watched an XFL game with this rule and I liked it. It will take a bit of getting used to, but I think you'll actually see more returns than in the past and in fact in the game I watched the returner nearly broke one for a TD, ended up returning it to about mid field so it actually might help bring the kickoff return back into the game a bit and put an end to starting every drive from the 25. It does sort of eliminate the "flyer" role, but that's still there on punt returns and they rarely had a chance to make a play on a kickoff anyway.

I can't remember the reason but ST Coach Darren Rizzi said it's different than the XFL. He headed up the ST committee that came up with the play and are still working out all the rules. He said returns have gone from 80% in the 80s to 20% now and they hope to get it back to 80%. With the new rules fully expect stars like Hill and Waddle to return some balls especially late in the game as they've basically made it another offensive play.

I didn't realize it but if the ball hits at the 1 (or anywhere in the landing zone) and travels into the end zone it comes back to the 20 yard line instead of the 30 so teams are being penalized if they don't return it. This also means kicks will be less about hang time and more line drives.

[Brian Fein]

i wish they would go back to haveing a live ball on the kickoff.  At some point, they made it so that if a ball crosses the goal line, its a dead ball touchback.  But if they made it a live ball, then at least the returner would be forced to catch it if it lands anywhere in the field.  That, alone, would be an improvement.