Yahoo Sports The new kickoff format will be the star of the NFL’s preseason opener
LATROBE, Pa. - The NFL’s new “hybrid” kickoff format will make its preseason debut Thursday night when the Chicago Bears face the Houston Texans in the Hall of Fame Game.
And as coaches and players try to figure out how to use the new rules to their advantage, Pittsburgh Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin said he believes many in the NFL will watch the broadcast of the proceedings in Canton, Ohio, to get their first glimpse of how things will play out.
“I think anybody that’s saying they’ve got a handle on it is probably lying or naive, man,” Tomlin said last weekend. “There’s no video. All we have is words on a page. I think that’s the component of it that makes it exciting. There’s going to be some anxiety among my peers regarding these concepts until we get some video on it. I’d imagine there’s a lot of guys in my position going to be watching the Hall of Fame Game to see what some of it looks like. I’ll be looking at the EA Sports [video] game when it comes out to see what it looks like.”
The NFL’s team owners in March ratified the new kickoff alignment, which was designed by the league’s competition committee with input from special teams coaches. It is among the most significant rule changes in league history and represents perhaps the NFL’s last, best attempt to keep the kickoff in the game, with hopes that it will make the play safer and boost the sagging rate of returns.
But it will be jarring to onlookers, with 21 of the 22 players lined up on the same half of the field to begin the play and only the kicker on the other side. The NFL borrowed heavily from the XFL version of the play, but that version did not feature NFL players.
“Nobody can really say because even with the spring league reps, these are different players,” Baltimore Ravens Coach John Harbaugh said on the opening day of his team’s camp. “So it’s going to be a different play. … How’s it going to affect us? I don’t know, either. I’m really hopeful. I’m hopeful that we come out here and we act and look like we know what we’re doing. We hope we coach it the right way. And we hope it’s an advantage for us the first part of the season.”
Teams and coaches studied the new kickoff throughout the spring and began to work on it during offseason practices. That preparation carries more urgency now.
“We do have a handle on the way we’re going to approach it, for sure,” Harbaugh said. “And then we’ll learn about what adjustments we’ll have to make. We also know that we’re going to learn as we go and there will be tweaks, just like there always is. But I am confident that we have a good handle on the angles of the play, the speed of the play, things like that.”
Danny Smith, the Steelers’ special teams coordinator, said he studied the XFL version of the play and visited coaches who worked in that league.
“I got a good background from them, positive and negative issues that they had, because I’m trying to get out in front of it,” Smith said. “I don’t want to have the same experiences they had in the growth aspect of it. So I think we’re a little further ahead than some from a growth and a beginning standpoint because it’s new to everybody and it’s a new beginning.”
The new play begins with 10 prospective tacklers on the kicking team lined up only five yards from the closest blockers on the receiving team. That eliminates the long run down the field for the would-be tacklers - and the accompanying high-speed collisions. The tacklers and blockers cannot move until the ball is caught by a returner or hits the ground. From there, the action is intended to resemble a play from the line of scrimmage.
“It’s a quick-hitting play,” Smith said. “And I think all these people that are predicting it haven’t seen it yet. I reserve judgment on what it’s going to look like. But it’s like an inside zone, an outside zone [running play on offense]. There’s some misdirection involved in it for some people with speed back there. … It’s going to happen a heck of a lot faster than a normal kickoff as we knew it.”
Smith said he believes the new kickoff will produce more big plays and touchdowns on returns. The Steelers added Cordarrelle Patterson, the NFL’s career leader with nine touchdowns on kickoff returns, on the day the owners approved the new format. Teams might consider putting more key offensive and defensive players on their kickoff units.
“We’ve got all cards on the table in regards to that,” said Tomlin, a competition committee member. “I think we’re all stepping into somewhat uncharted territory. And so it’s probably prudent to cast a big net in terms of personnel, whether we’re talking about return people or blockers or coverage people.”
Under the new rules, the ball will be placed at the 30-yard line on a touchback on a kickoff. NFL leaders considered making it the 35-yard line to further dissuade kickoffs being launched into the end zone - and further encourage returns. That could be tweaked later. In the meantime, some teams still might opt for a touchback rather than risk surrendering a long return. Smith said that could depend on the circumstances.
“I don’t know how you can say that today,” Smith said. “Maybe we do that in a game. What’s the score? What’s the situation? Where are we at? What’s the conditions? Is it raining? Is it snowing? Is it cold? Is it nice? … We’ll do anything we can to win that game.”
Some teams may have a non-kicker perform the kickoff, to get one more capable tackler on the field. The hang time of the kick no longer matters, given that blockers and tacklers must remain stationary until the ball hits the ground or touches a returner. But some teams still may place value on their kicker doing the kickoff, since there could be skill involved in performing a kick that is difficult to catch cleanly.
“Those are the thing - those trick balls,” Smith said. “And we’ll practice it every day. We used to mix in ‘bad ball drill,’ I call it, off of a wet game, a rainy game, an icy game. Now we’re practicing ‘bad ball drill’ every day because that’s what you’re going to get. You’re going to get line drives. You’re going to get balls on the ground. You’re going to get balls that skip. You’re going to get spinning balls. It’s like fielding it for a shortstop or second baseman in some instances.”
Smith said he is an enthusiastic supporter of the new kickoff rules. Even so, he acknowledged there will be an adjustment period for fans, players and coaches.
“I think people got what they wanted to put the kickoff back in and keep the kickoff in the game,” Smith said. “And I think it’s going to be an exciting play. Now, when people turn on the first game, they are not going to know what they’re looking at. They are not. There’s some education involved in this. … I’ve been studying it for months. And I [still] get educated every day on it.”
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