NFL scoring was down nearly a touchdown in 2023 compared to three years prior, and most agree there are a couple of main culprits.
A ton of quarterbacks got hurt last year, and a bunch of those that didn’t weren’t particularly good. Plus, defenses are using more and more two-high safety schemes, which limit explosive plays.
There’s little the NFL can do about either issue. The league already has strong QB protection rules on the books, and there would probably be a rebellion among defensive coordinators if yet another rule change was made to make their job harder.
So, instead of making it easier to move the ball, the league’s competition committee wants to shorten the distance teams need to move it.
A Look at the NFL’s Kickoff Proposal
The competition committee wants to completely transform the kickoff and bring the return back to the game.
The proposed rule change, which needs a three-quarters vote among ownership next week at the NFL Annual Meeting, leans heavily on the XFL model, which both encourages returns and drastically lowers the risk of high-speed collisions that cause injuries.
The new kickoff, which would get a one-year trial should it pass, would completely upend our idea of how a kickoff should look and work.
And handy graphics of what the kickoff would look like under proposed rule change. Owners will consider all this at their annual meeting next week. pic.twitter.com/qYF3hnQyT1
— Judy Battista (@judybattista) March 20, 2024
The kickoff would still occur at the minus-35, but the kicking team’s other 10 players would line up at the opposing team’s 40.
Those 10 returners cannot move until the ball is either caught or hits the ground in what is known as the landing zone — which is from the goal line to the receiving team’s 20.
At least seven of the receiving team’s 11 players would line up between their own 30 and 35, with two returners deep in the landing zone. Those between the 30 to 35 have the same restriction on their movements as the kicking team.
Per the NFL, here are the additional pertinent rules:
- Kickoffs that hit the landing zone must be returned.
- Kickoffs that hit the landing zone and then go into the end zone must be returned or downed by the receiving team. If downed, the receiving team would get the ball at its own 20.
- Kickoffs that go into the end zone and stay inbounds that are downed would give the receiving team the ball at their own 35-yard line. Kickoffs that go out of the back of the end zone would also be a touchback at the receiving team’s 35-yard line.
- Kickoffs short of the landing zone would be treated like a kickoff out of bounds, and the receiving team would get the ball at its own 40-yard line.
Rich McKay, the chairman of the competition committee, estimates that the rule change will, on average, improve field position by three to five yards.
While that doesn’t sound a lot in a micro sense, it could have a significant impact when you consider the hundreds of kickoffs that occur each season. The change could be the equivalent of adding some 10,000 yards of offense to the NFL season.
Considering the league average last year was just over 15 yards per point, you could be talking about an additional point or two per team per game in aggregate.
That would be a big bump for a league displeased with its 43.5 total points-per-game average in 2023.
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“The play will feel different and radical because it doesn’t look like the typical formations we’ve had before, but this play has been used, and we’ve seen it in the XFL for two years,” McKay said Thursday. “I just wanna take this time to commend the special teams coaches because No. 1, it’s always hard to change, but No. 2, what they did is they took a play, and they made it our own.”
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