By Matt Stuart | Published | No Comments
This past week at the NFL’s owners meeting in Orlando, the league announced that it will be making the first major overhaul to its traditional kickoff since pre snap motion of the kicking team was eliminated in 2018.
While it’s just a one year experiment at the moment, it’s likely that the NFL’s newly modified kickoff will become a permanent change to the game.
The new kickoff was adopted from the XFL, which recently merged with the UFL. Ironically, the new UFL/XFL spring football league has chosen not to use the XFL’s innovative kickoff, and have opted for the more traditional kickoff.
In any event, fans who have not watched the XFL will no doubt be in for a surprise when they tune in next season for the first NFL game of the season.
So here is an explanation for exactly what the NFL’s new kickoff will look like.
Instead of the kicking teams coverage running down the field once the ball is kicked off, the 10 players who make up the coverage team, will already be down the field near where the ball is expected to be received.
The kicker is the only player who will be near the ball before it is kicked off, which will occur at the 30-yard line.
The coverage team, meanwhile, will be all the way down the field at the opposing 35-yard line, while the 10 players that make up the receiving teams line will be at the opposing 30-yard line. Confused yet?
The kickoff returner will be positioned around the 20-yard line awaiting to receive the ball. The kickoff returner will be the only player, other than the kicker, allowed to move while the ball is in the air. If and when the kickoff returner catches the ball, then the rest of the players can move and the coverage team can try and make a tackle.
And that is the major change to the rule. The league is trying to do away with the concept of having 20 players running up and down the field at each other at top speed. The NFL has long been concerned about injuries during this very chaotic period of the game.
This should eliminate much of those injury concerns.
Also a change is how a touchback can be called. The kickoff returner still has the same opportunity to catch the ball and immediately call for a fair catch. If he does, then the ball will be placed at the 30-yard line. The returner can chose simply not to catch the ball or call for a touchback at all, and as soon as the ball hits the ground, regardless of where the ball hits the ground, the play will be deemed over at that point and again the ball will be placed at the 30-yard line.
This means that squib kicks will no longer be effective. It also means that on-side kicks will now no longer have the element of surprise. The kicking team will have to alert the officials that they plan to attempt an on-sides kick which means that the receiving team will gain the advantage of knowing that an onside kick is coming.
Here is a look at how the NFL’s new kickoff will look, courtesy of the XFL.
