Cincinnati Bengals Special Teams Coordinator Darrin Simmons Wants Kickoff Rule Changed

INDIANAPOLIS — One month before the NFL competition committee is set to present rule change proposals to team owners for a vote, Cincinnati Bengals special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons made (some of) his feelings known on the options to alter the kickoff.

Simmons — who’s time with the Bengals dates to 2003, making him the league’s longest tenured special teams coordinator with the same team — is the committee studying the proposals before presenting the findings to the competition committee.

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“We’re in the process, right now, of trying to come up with some alternatives for that play,” Simmons said during a break at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. “There’s been a lot of press about what the expectations are, and there’s a lot of different things being discussed right now. I don’t want to get into a lot of it. But it’s obvious, something’s gotta change, right?”

In 2010, 2,033 of 2,539 (80.1%) of kickoffs were returned.

In 2011, the league moved the kickoff from the 30-yard line to the 35, and the number dropped to 1,375 of 2,572 kickoffs (53.5%) being returned.

In 2016, the league incentivized touchbacks by moving the starting position from the 20-yard line to the 25, and the return rate dipped to 1,035 of 2,632 (39.3%).

Then, last year, the league allowed players to signal for a fair catch even if a kickoff didn’t reach the end zone, and the return plummeted to another all-time low – 587 of 2,698 (21.8%).

The fair catch was a one-year trial rule, and at his annual State of the League address during Super Bowl week, commissioner Roger Goodell said the NFL needs to find a way to keep the kickoff in the game.

Simmons said he didn’t think the fair catch element played a small role in the record low.

“I don’t think that the fair catch is what affected that,” he said. “I think there were a lot deeper kicks this year. There were more balls that were hit through the back of the end zone. I think there are 92 fair catches on the season. So that’s not the whole reason there was a reduction in the number of returns.”

“I think guys are just more afraid to put the ball in play more for the risk of concussions,” he continued. “We got what the league wanted. The concussion numbers were way down. But I mean, I think the excitement and the purpose of the play was really taken out by that rule.

“I feel like there’s a there’s a common ground we’ve got to come to hear the course of the coming weeks here to get the thing figured out and make it a big part of the game because it’s an exciting play in the game. We’ve taken it out. So, hopefully, we can get something figured out here.”

One option is to adopt the XFL model in which the kicker lines up at his own 30 while the rest of his teammates are positioned at the opponent’s 35. The receiving team can position players at its own 30.

The kicker and the returner are the only players who can move until the kick is caught. Touchbacks go to the 35.

“There’s a lot of holes in that right now with the way that that league did it,” Simmons said. “There’s been much ado, and much has been made about this UFL is not going to use that rule.

“So why would we do it as the NFL? I think there’s a lot of information we’re still trying to gather (like) injury data from both leagues — from both the XFL and the USFL. I think the UFL is going to adopt what the USFL did and kick off from the 20-yard line. So they’re backing it up; they’re creating more plays.

“I think the league has always been in favor of scoring, and I think the scoring production has been down a little bit the last two years incrementally, very incrementally.”

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Simmons continued, “They always want to see it go up because they like excitement, they like scoring like points, and getting drive starts backed up a little bit I think is a big part of that is going to result of this kickoff play. In the XFL, the average drive start was a 28-yard line after kickoff.

“Ours hasn’t been that for several years because of the touchback and the ease of hitting touchbacks. So, if you went to the USFL, the drive start would certainly increase by a lot. But I don’t know if that’s quite what we want to get to. So again, there’s, like they said, there’s a lot of being talked about right now.”

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