NFL Approves New Kickoff Rule
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">����������������: The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NFL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NFL</a> has approved the new kickoff rule change, per <a href="https://twitter.com/jjones9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jjones9</a> <br><br>Owners voted in favor of it 29-3. <a href="https://t.co/fhlNNT25q1">pic.twitter.com/fhlNNT25q1</a></p>&mdash; JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/jasrifootball/status/1772611974750241026?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">New NFL kickoffs will look like this. <a href="https://t.co/1fl16KSi4E">pic.twitter.com/1fl16KSi4E</a></p>&mdash; Adam Schelfer (@AdamSche1fer) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamSche1fer/status/1772616615365906548?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Thats going to be very odd to see. Not sure if I like it or hate it.

Arena football....

Definitely looks interesting. Not sure how it will impact returns overall compared to what they had before.

Won't that completely eliminate onside kick opportunities?

much improvement IMO especially since the overwhelming % of kickoffs were touch backs.

Having returners who can hold onto the ball just became even more valuable.

Lol,
An onside kick can occur, under the new rule, only during the fourth quarter and only by the trailing team. That team must declare its intention, and the alignment will revert to the traditional kickoff setup."

These rules man.

NFL Players will soon be carrying rule books in their pockets

The rule book is already like 100 pages long. If you asked players to take a test on the intricacies of the rules, I'd bet the average score would be like a 70%. (See the 49ers lack of knowledge of the playoff OT rules in the Super Bowl.)

Nice I like the theory of the new rule. It literally can't be any worse than the non event the kickoff has turned into

Entirely eliminates that element of surprise from the game. :shake:

This sounds/looks kinda fun. I guess how much fun will depend on how good we are at taking advantage of it. I have generally been happiest with boring touchbacks that just put the ball in the hands of Mahomes.

I'll take whole games filled with exciting kickoffs over the surprise onside that happen like once or twice a season.

Sounds like Patrick retires we won't have a lot to keep us interested.

I am extremely skeptical that this will reduce injuries. The kickoff in the NFL in recent years is basically a non-play. I'm not sure how you can even get hurt most of the time as the ball isn't even returned. How is a kickoff that puts the ball in play virtually every time going to lead to fewer injuries?

I don't think that's the point, is it? Seems to me that all of the other recent changes were meant to reduce injuries, but it came at the cost of basically eliminating kickoffs from the game. This is meant to be a compromise that makes the play relevant again but hopefully still keeps the injury level low, albeit not as low as straight touchbacks.

Because they don't want a non play. They want a play that is safer than traditional kickoffs but is also worth watching. They're trying to fix their overcorrection.

I'll say this, I now hope more than I ever have that Hardman does not return to the Chiefs.

I was having a conversation with a non-sports-fan, woman coworker a while back about football. She noted how complicated all the rules are compared to other sports, and it occurred to me that you almost have to treat "competitions" on a spectrum of "pure athleticism" on one end (e.g., olympic sports) and "purely made up rules" (e.g., board games) on the other end.

We like to pretend that football is closer to the olympics than board games, but there's no question that the rules of football are a lot closer to board games than we'd like to admit. They're made up. They're complicated. It takes a long time to understand what's going on if you aren't already familiar with it. But if you just accept that the game is driven by a series of arbitrary rules designed to just make it fun to watch, it kind of clicks. My coworker actually seemed to "get it" more after explaining it that way.

This seems to be yet another piece that pushes the game toward the "board game" end of the spectrum. It's weird, but there's no question it'll be more entertaining.

The onside kick is basically being killed.

As if it wasn't hard enough to achieve, now you can only use it in the 4th quarter when losing, and you have to announce that you're doing it.

It's just a dead play now.

I like it. I remember watching the XFL and thinking that they should adopt this. Though i do wish someone had a mashup video of numerous XFL kickoffs, just to get a real idea of what we're expecting.

So this eliminated like 0.3% of all onside kicks? I don't understand why people act like surprise onside kicks happen so often.

And didn't they also bring back being able to overload one side of the field on onside kicks with this rule?

Worth a shot. What they were doing was straight trash

It feels like the NFL is slowly morphing into the XFL

Good luck explaining football rules already to a casual fan.

Not a Fan of this new rule

What do you expect? As society becomes softer, the NFL follows suit.

We have Toub and I think this will become an advantage for us. The kickoff rules before today were just painful and ceremonial most of the time. I like this because we will master it earlier and be a big part of our 3-peat!

No fair catches on kickoff's either so this should be fun

This is great. More opportunities for our return men to fumble instead of just giving the ball back to Mahomes.

I can see Andy creating some really interesting stuff for this

I'll admit to preferring the kickoff be a "non-event." With our defense and Pat, I'd rather not have the opportunity to 1) give up a kickoff score and/or 2) Fumble a kickoff ourselves. Give me Pat and our D against the other team's offense/defense and I like our chances.

If we were a shitty team, I'd welcome more kickoffs. Since we're really, really good, I'd prefer less variability.

I’d rather see Butker just kick it through the end zone.

It would be interesting to see a bunch of random dudes on Chiefs Planet take that test and also see how the players would do.

Modified kickoff rules have now entered the culture wars. LMAO

NFL owners voted to approve changes to the league's kickoff structure for the 2024 season during their annual meeting in Orlando, introducing a system that they hope will produce more returns.

The league announced the change on Tuesday, saying the new structure would resemble a scrimmage style kickoff "by aligning players on both teams closer together and restricting movement to reduce space and speed."

For a standard kickoff, the ball would be kicked from the 35-yard line with the 10 kick coverage players lined up at the opposing 40, with five on each side of the field.

The return team would have at least nine blockers lined up in the “set up zone” between the 30- and 35-yard line with at least seven of those players touching the 35. There would be up two returners allowed inside the 20.

Only the kicker and two returners would be allowed to move until the ball hits the ground or was touched by a returner inside the 20.

Because of the reduced space and time, players won't be going at full running speed and are less likely to incur serious injury when they collide with their opponents.

It's a one-year rule change and can either be changed, kept or discarded by the start of the 2025 season. The style originated in the XFL, a competing professional football league, and has resulted in increased returns.

Slow process but it's definitely the way the league is heading.

So kickers will still be kicking off from the 35 yard line and touchbacks will give the receiving team the ball at the 30? It sounds like most kicks will still reach the end zone and teams will likely just take the touchback over attempting any kind of return.

Since we have the "Punt God", can the Kickoff be a punt rather than a kick off the tee?

Good breakdown

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/n...ic-new-change/

They just continue to trick things up… not sure I’m a fan of it, but that really doesn’t matter I suppose.

Dave Toub if I ever see one of our guys return one of these so help me

This could up the strategy to try to kick it in the landing zone at the corner.

Just like under the previous rules, I'm gonna want the Chiefs to have as few returns as possible prior to Mahomes getting the ball. Almost nothing good can come of it.

Well Reid just got a promotion lol, imagine having our kicker also be an absolute assassin as a tackler. Butler wouldn’t be last line of defense, it would be Reid

Hokey bunch of BS.

XFL= Xperimental Football League.

And it'll be the United Football League going forward as it has merged with the USFL.

This is them trying to make the kickoff still matter, we were getting to the point of that kicking off is pointless.

I love this idea.

I'll give it a chance before shitting on it.

It certainly made returns a thing again in the XFL. I'm curious how well it will work in the NFL with the slight ramp-up in overall speed on the return team.

The less special teams matters in football the better. I liked being able to take a long piss and miss every kick off.

This doesn't prevent you from doing that.

Heh-heh. We should do that if Butker's no longer allowed to kick it into the stands.

I'll bet they keep Toney around for kickoffs alone.

Do the Chiefs get new Cheerleaders with this rule change?

5th year option time.

a lot of games that normally would be won will result in losses because of this dumb new rule.

Turning the NFL into a circus, one clown move at a time. Complete silly non sense as rules now ROFL

I wont...

Bring back Dante Hall

watching the second video in the OP....not a fan

this looks wicked reeruned

This and the new tackle rules are getting out of control.

This is a cool thread discussing a ton of little nuances in how teams might change their personnel strategies for special teamers as a result of this rule.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’m privileged to have been part of XFL team, led by <a href="https://twitter.com/schwartzsteins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@schwartzsteins</a>, that created, tested, and developed the now New NFL Kickoff.<br><br>We tested it for 2+ years before we put it into a live game.<br><br>There’s some major scouting/roster-building dynamics that many may not realize yet[emoji3468] <a href="https://t.co/tsEzbUkAvS">pic.twitter.com/tsEzbUkAvS</a></p>— Eric Galko (@EricGalko) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricGalko/status/1772627029596250439?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I actually like this. Kickoffs were exciting as shit before ~70% of kickoffs were touchbacks. Sure it looks kinda weird but we will get over it.

You find a reason to complain about pretty much everything dont ya?

What's wrong with this?

This adds a lot of potentially difficult calls, non calls for the ref to make regarding where players line up and did they move early for not much upside that I can tell.

I guess we will see how it shakes out once players and refs are used to it. But I'm skeptical.

Seems laughable, but entertaining.

Kinda interested to see what we come up with. Agree with whoever said this might keep Toney around, if the idiot can hold onto the damn ball.

KT’s stock just went up if he can figure out how to hold onto the ball. Tyreek is going to kill for the Phins. Holy shit.

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Yep. Arena league gimick BS.

This new safety gimmick will ruin the game. Triple digit scores. It will be the highlight of the game now diminishing both offense and defense. This is a drastic change in how football will be played. Bad move NFL!

JFC… Calm down Francis.. This is better than watching touch backs all game long..

There will likely be an NFL record for single season kickoff TD returns.

That remains to be seen. Looks like stupid XFL bullshit to me instead of just letting guys line up and play but we shall see how it goes.

No, it's gonna be arena football. You don't want to watch touchbacks move the kickoff back 10 yards. This change isn't for safety reasons as touchbacks are pretty damn safe! This change is to increase scoring and excitement just like arena football.

You'll see it after every score. Break a couple tackles and it will be returned for a touchdown. It's going to be a bigger part of the game than people realize.

...are they not still lining up and playing?

I had no idea some people loved watching the ball sail out of the end zone so much

They are still kicking the ball from the same spot so there will still be a ton of that