Maybe you should read the new rules before complaining about them?

Why? I'm not the one playing. I'll wait and see how it goes.

I'm not complaining, I'm just saying it looks stupid but I'm hopeful it will be alright

A touchback puts the ball on the 30, so there's a bigger incentive to make the other team return it.

As well as for drives started inside the opponent's 50. I could see the top-three scoring defenses with consistent averages in the low 20s going forward, whereas, in previous years, that'd typically land you around 10th-20th.

LMAOOh okay. My bad.

Don’t think it changes much for our strategy. Teams will want to make us run it back more if they can but it will be an even bigger advantage to start on the 30 than 25 for Mahomes and co. In D I still expect them to instruct Butker to wang it out of the stadium and back the D to make a stop.

I very much dislike the near total removal of the inside kick even though few coaches were brave enough to utilise it anyway.

Reid should do the kickoffs now. Having a kicker that can tackle someone as your last line of defense will have value.

Was it adjusted so touchbacks are at the 30 rather than at the 25? I had seen the 35 only.

**** it. I'd still kick it through the end zone most of the time. 5 yards is nothing.

Still feel like they should just move the spot back to where only handful of kickers can blast it out of the end zone and keep the starting spot at the 20. This rule eliminates the advantage of having a kicker with a big leg.

Yes and sounds like they are going to experiment with the 30 yd line first and if they don't get the results they want they will move it up to the 35.

Reading up on how the XFL does it the kicker does kick it from the 35 still but a touchback goes to the 35.

If the Chiefs D is a good as last year. Who cares about 5 yards against a poor offensive team. Just kick the ball into the endzone.

Superficially it looks a little goofy. However, if it brings some excitement back to the kicking game, I think I’m all for it. The endless touchbacks were pretty boring.

If they think the play is boring why not just place the ball on the 25. Also gets rid of the inside kick gimmick.

But they’re trying to balance safety with a more exciting product. Yes, your solution would produce more returns, but overall safety would decline given a reduction in touchbacks. They’re basically trying to keep safety constant while making the return game more interesting.

I think it’s a pretty solid solution to the “problem.” And if some team starts putting their version of Tyreek back there and getting ridiculous results, you just kick it through the back of the end zone like the old days and give them it on the 30 (or 35 in the future).

NFL changes kickoffs for next year
 

Looks like it’s very complicated rules but it’s pretty easy to understand. If you watched any of the USFL its based on that kick off.

Reid will be doing kickoffs. I'd bet money on it. We only have 1 kicker. He hasnt made a tackle in maybe never. You cant lose him when you already have another player that can kickoff. We need Harrison Butker uninjured for the field goals. He is such a weapon.

Changed it again from just last week?

First I've heard that it was official. I looked 3 pages back and no thread.

Reid won't be making kickoffs LMAO

The potential good news could be that our new rugby kid might make some badass plays as our kickoff returner. He certainly isn't afraid of close contact collisions and has the speed to pull away from the scrum.

Veach, man. Always thinking three moves ahead.

Now if they could get rid of that dang hip tackle

The dude is fast. Thats the #1 skill needed for a kick returner. :thumb:

pretty sure the graphic is wrong too, and you get it at the 30 for a touchback

Damm.. They change this shit every week..

They should absolutely have him do this. This kick does not require an NFL place kicker. You don't even need Justin Reid to do it. It's actually a good bet if you had open tryouts you'd probably find a few random defenders who are just as good if not better at it than Butker.

Ok see if you you're not checking this site multiple times a day, then I don't know what you're purpose in life is...

Top of Page 3 and 2nd thread listed. ;)

I bet you also missed my "Prescription Eyeglasses What a Racket" thread

Time to check your eyeballs. o:-)

we definitely don’t have a thread on this already

I wish they would leave Qickoffs alone already.

Wasn't there already a thread about the new kickoff rules?



Anyway, the strategy for this is already out there; kick the ball into one of the corners of the landing area (or whatever they're going to call it), or at least to one side, just not down the middle. For that you need accuracy, so I doubt Reid or any other non-kicker is going to be kicking these things.

Actually looks really cool, certainly much better than the sad state of affairs we’ve been watching.

Now we also have an awesome new kick returner to take advantage of it because Brett Veach is a ninja, so I like it even more.

Man they are messing with stuff way too much.

Changed it two times in one week

As a Chiefs fan with Patrick Mahomes as our quarterback this new kickoff rule is bad for us because it allows teams with bad offenses an outlet to get a lucky score.

As a football fan though it's great. Some of those kick of returns with Dante Hall, Devin Hester, Tim Dwight etc were some of the most exciting plays in the game. They kind of neutered that in the last decade due to injury concerns.

Again?

Has anyone mentioned there was a thread about this already? :D

XFL*

I think it would be funny if our season came down to some "goofy" kickoff return with our newest Chiefs member, Louis Rees-Zammit. The result is if the NFL hadn't changed the rule the Chiefs would not have won their 3rd in a row. I hope Louis Rees-Zammit is the Rookie of the Year!

Reid isn't doing kickoffs lmao, wtf?

Do what? This is stupid as shit.

Why would this allow for more kickoff returns to take place? Isn't the ball kicked from the same place as before?

Read the first point of the picture he attached.

With a caveat that they changed it to the 30 instead of 35 in the final rule.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">New kickoff rule was a trip to watch for first time. Lower kicks, returners field on a hop or two. Need some shortstop/3b ball skills. Payton: “It’s a completely different play.” Said there will be “double-digit TD returns” in league this year. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/9sports?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#9sports</a></p>&mdash; MikeKlis9NEWS (@mikeklis9news) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikeklis9news/status/1789384878678536659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 11, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It’s now a gimmick. It’s going to piss off some fans of teams that are dominating every other play in the game and yet some crap team wins because they break off two or three of these in a game that they would have lost any other season.

I would run that reverse or versions like it on every play. You just need one guy to get out of position or get blocked out of position and it’s over.

FTR I hate it.

Good to have read this thread and especially to see the video. If I understand it correctly, the huge significance I think will be that the kicking team has to wait until the ball is fielded. I hadn’t appreciated that and it’s significance before until I saw the video. I think that will be a huge game changer for good open field runners. As others observed Miami will really benefit with hill and our rugby guy could really do well here also.

So now I understand the point made on another thread about how this may really help lesser teams.

If Butker can kick it out of the end zone every time that should be our strategy and he should be our kicker. I think he should be able to do that as he has a really strong leg. But if he can’t, I agree with others that Reid or someone else should be the kicker because we need another tackler and we don’t want Butker to be injured.

This rule change will have a lot more significance than I initially thought. It’s good for making the game more exciting as I think it will add a completely new dimension. But it’s not going to be good for us as it will give all the lesser teams in the league (and that’s all of them) another way to beat us in situations where Butker can’t kick it out. having them start an extra 5 yards up the field for touchbacks is far less significant than the risks of a long run back under these new rules.

I could see LRZ excelling at these type of kickoffs.

That is why they signed him.

I thought I heard that if the ball is kicked into the end zone on the fly the ball was placed at the 40 yard line, just like if it went out of bounds.

“When a kicker boots the ball into the endzone, the opposing team's returner can choose to kneel rather than attempt a return; the result is called a touchback, and the returning team would receive the ball at the 25-yard line. (Under the new rule, touchbacks will now be placed at the 30-yard line.)“

Gives shit teams like Denver chances for fluke plays. For the good teams it's a terrible rule change. Just boot it through the end zone every time

They were tweaking some of the details until March, and the final version changed the penalty for kickoff into the end zone to the 30. It's still the 40 if the kickoff fails to get past the 20 yard line.

Again, FTR, I hope Butker kicks it thru the end zone every time. We can pretend the first play of every drive was a defensive hold.

I really hate this rule change. As the other poster above noted it will only help lesser teams get chances that they can’t earn playing the actual game that takes place between kicks. There will absolutely be games that feel like the Raiders X-Mas day game where we thoroughly outclassed the Raiders even with the worst game of the season and lost because of two flukey back-to-back defensive TDs.

That’s probably the best way to put it — games will be lost to inferior teams because of “flukey” plays. And that’s a bad thing in my book.

The entire game of football is nothing but a collection of weird, arbitrary rules meant to create excitement. I don't see how this is any worse than the rest of them.

If you want a "pure" sport that isn't flukey, track and field might be more your style.

Whaaat? ROFL it's OK to call a garbage rule change what it is

Sorry, no thanks.

I’m a football lifer.

I hope you’re right, but it will not be a good look when teams hold an opponent to 120 yards of offense and lose 21-20 because three returns that would never have happened any other season.

And yes I get that you have to stop the other team. And they may find it actually reduces injuries. But I still don’t like it.

How funny would it be on opening day on the first kickoffs to start the games we had 4-5 of them go for touchdowns?

Or what if the first three kickoffs in a game all go for touchdowns one after the other?

At what point does “an exciting rule change” become a problem?

Sure, but how is that any different than losing a game because:

-The offense fumbles the ball out of bounds through the end zone on the 1 inch line
-A key turnover is negated because a player who made no impact on the play was lined up 3" too far forward
-A key catch is overturned because the tip of the ball hit the ground and the ball wiggled a smidge as a result
-A team is awarded a 60-yard gain on a catch because the defender touched the receiver 10 milliseconds too early
-A team is given a first down because the defender hit a player 10 milliseconds after the runner's foot hits out of bounds
-A team is given a free first down because a pass rusher's finger grazes the face of the QB

You could come up with a dozen other examples without even having to think very hard. The entire game is all made-up bullshit. The bullshit creates drama and discussion, which creates more interest. It's literally why the NFL is so popular compared other sports.

Does this kickoff rule seem contrived and weird? Yep. But do I think anyone will think much of it in 5 years? Nah. It's just the continued evolution of this weird "sport" that we love.

I mean, think about it, why does football even have kickers? It's a game of 11 on 11...except for the fact that the higher-scoring player on most teams is a guy who couldn't play any of those 22 positions. The only reason we don't think that's weird is that it's always been that way.

Sorry, but I only listen to coaches with more than 1 Super Bowl

Not sure I’m gonna be a fan of the new rule, but whatever makes kickoffs more exciting than they have been for the last few years is good. An endless parade of touchbacks every game/week/season just blows.

I am going to have to watch some B league football this summer and see how this works.

I have been thinking about this a bit more. It has the potential to really make the kicking game a lot more important. Probably not as important as good offence and good defense, but a lot closer in importance than it is now.

Field goals and great field goal kickers are already underrated. Brady would not have won all those Super Bowls if it weren’t for Vinatieri and to a lessor extent Gostkowski. And we have a great advantage here already with Butker and unfortunately, the ravens do too with Tucker.

But now the kick return game will take on much more added significance.

We might also be in a great position here. Toney might even redeem himself. He is undeniably great in the open field. I’m not sure if his big problem in catching the ball ever came in to play for catching kicks like it did for catching passes. But even if it does with the new rule, the team can’t move forward until he touches the ball so he should still have time to recover if he fumbles. Also we could always put somebody close to him with blocking as the primary job, but his secondary job would be too get fumbles if Toney fumbles. Who knows, if he gains his confidence back on the kicking game, it might even help him as a receiver. I think his problem there is more in his head than just having boards for hands.

The only thing that will stop the kicking game from getting increased importance is for kickers that can punch it through the end zone, and we have a great advantage there also.

But I think that advantage will be short-lived. If the NFL doesn’t get the exciting kickoff game it is looking for I think next year they will just make the kicker move back even further so kicking it out of the end zone is very hard to do.

The more I think about this new rule, the more I think I like it, and that it will add excitement to the game. And may not even hurt us against lesser teams as much as I originally worried it would.

This makes a ton of sense.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chiefs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chiefs</a> have considered not using Harrison Butker for all kickoffs and instead using a player like safety Justin Reid.<br><br>Special teams coordinator Dave Toub said the new kickoff rule has kickers more involved in tackles, and they don&#39;t want that for Butker.<br><br>The full answer is… <a href="https://t.co/V10t0QkMFf">pic.twitter.com/V10t0QkMFf</a></p>&mdash; Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) <a href="https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1796249013563359425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It makes a lot of sense despite being called out in another thread for it. We may have a unique advantage in having guys on the roster who can kick off a tee

Yeah the whole thing is a bad rule change to begin with. I could see other teams doing the same thing to protect their Kicker. Kickers are pretty damned important in the NFL so maybe the NFL should rethink this one.

The NFL couldn't give a shit about kickers. Kickers aren't going to move the TV ratings needle. No one is going to not watch the Chiefs because Butker is hurt.