No changes to kickoffs planned

Posted by Michael David Smith on March 21, 2015, 12:46 PM EDT
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A couple years ago, the kickoff looked like an endangered species in the NFL. The league moved kickoffs from the 30-yard line to the 35 in an attempt to encourage touchbacks, and Commissioner Roger Goodell was talking about potentially more radical changes to kickoffs in the future.

But a funny thing happened when the Competition Committee unveiled its new rules proposals for 2015: No changes to kickoffs have been proposed. Competition Committee Co-Chair Jeff Fisher said there haven’t been any discussions about further changes to kickoffs because the changes the league already made have resulted in kickoffs getting safer.

“There was no discussion,” Fisher said. “The numbers are down, the injury numbers are down, the concussion numbers are down. But no presentation or discussion from the standpoint of eliminating that [the kickoff].”

That’s a far cry from the attitude around the NFL a couple years ago, when Goodell was floating an idea to replace kickoffs with fourth-and-15 situations so that teams would punt rather than kicking off, or go for it on fourth-and-15 in place of an onside kick. That would have been a major change to the game, one that is no longer on the table in the NFL.

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14 responses to “No changes to kickoffs planned”

  2. No changes? Well, that must mean John Harbaugh already knows how to defend the kickoff.

  3. Change one thing… A ball downed in the end zone is placed at the 20. A kick that goes through the end zone, in the air, is placed at the 30. This at least makes the kickers put the ball in play for the possibility of a return.

  4. Of course the amount of injuries on kickoffs are down- half of kickoffs end up as touchbacks. Absolute numbers are meaningless here, and these NFL shysters know it. They must really not think much of the typical fan’s intelligence. What matters is percentages. I.e. has the percent of kickoff plays resulting in injuries increased or decreased.

  5. The Kicking team should get 1 point if the KO goes through the uprights and the recieving team gets the ball at the 35 or 40…that would add to some strategy, a possible point for field position.

  6. mshawn75’s idea appeals to me as a fan, but sadly, I think it’s counter to what would appeal to the NFL and their risk management people. I think they give a little cheer to themselves every time the ball is kicked out of play.

    Finding a good compromise between what us fans want to see and what the risk management types want to see requires focus on their primary concern–i.e., the full-gallop collision. One has to come up with a mechanism that eliminates those, without imposing in any substantive way on the occasional strategic onside kick.

    Do these three things, and imo, virtually all of the full-gallop collisions are eliminated… and yet, the kickoff/punt action that has always appealed to fans is mostly restored.

    1. Accept the fact that you can’t resolve this without some degree of change. For this, there is one fairly major change, and one relatively minor one.

    2. The “fairly major” change is this: For any returner… which I would define as any player on the receiving team that is more than 25 yards away from the line of scrimmage on a kickoff or a punt… the kicking team has the right, prior to the kick, to position one player up to 5 yards within that returner’s position without being considered offsides.

    2. The “relatively minor” change is this: Eliminate the currently required 10-yard gulf on kickoffs between kicking and receiving teams; though, the requirement remains that a kick must travel 10 yards before it is a live ball. Therefore, it is reasonable that receiving team blockers are commonly going to engage kicking team blockers at the line of scrimmage, unless an obvious onside kick situation arises.

  9. Kickoffs should be moved back to the 30 yard line, like it was for years, so there will be more returns. The one result from moving it to the 35 was that more kickoffs deep into the end zone are run back now, so the risk for injury still exists. Without knowing the stats on this, I’d bet that the average starting point for receiving teams is a lot lower than it was before the rules were changed to move the kickoff to the 35. The reason being that more returners are stopped short of the 20, since kickoffs are being returned from 8 and 9 yards deep in the end zone, whereas it used to be that returners would take a touchback if it was more than 2 or 3 yards deep.

    The kickoff is (or used to be) one of the most exciting plays in football, as not only could there be a big return, resulting in points or great field position, but they could result in turnovers as well. In other words, kickoff returns can be game changing plays. I’m all for reducing injuries, but not at the expense of watering down the game.

  10. Now that Devin Hester is past it the rest of the league can go back to the old rules after whining to the league since they could not stop him.

    No team got screwed more by that unnecessary rule change than the Bears.

  12. Go back to Rugby roots. Do a drop kick from the 50. A live ball after 10 yards. If it goes straight out, untouched by receiving team, they get the ball at the 40. No tackles of a player in the air allowed.

  13. =====================

    “Finding a good compromise between what us fans want to see and what the risk management types want to see requires focus on their primary concern–i.e., the full-gallop collision. One has to come up with a mechanism that eliminates those, without imposing in any substantive way on the occasional strategic onside kick.”

    =====================

    Yep.

  14. ==========================

    “The “fairly major” change is this: For any returner… which I would define as any player on the receiving team that is more than 25 yards away from the line of scrimmage on a kickoff or a punt… the kicking team has the right, prior to the kick, to position one player up to 5 yards within that returner’s position without being considered offsides. ”

    ==========================

    I’m not dismissing it, but indeed this would strike a whole new paradigm in football. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is how I understand the idea.

    Basically, you’re proposing that, whereas the offense currently has their side of the field, and the defense has their side of the field, with a demarcation we call the line of scrimmage, under this new paradigm there is a *third* section of the field demarcated 25 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

    And so, at the defensive/receiving team’s discretion, if they have someone in that section of the field as the play starts (the kickoff or the snap of the ball on a punt), then for every player they put back there, the offense/kicking team must have an opportunity to position one of their players also in what amounts now to a neutral section of the field.

    Right?

    So, theoretically, there’s a new version of the offsides penalty if the return guys are across that 25-yard threshold, but the offense/kicking team has not had the opportunity to man-up with whoever is back there. Still right?

    I’ll tell you what I like about this idea that you may not have thought of yet.

    I like the idea that the defense would have a disincentive for putting safeties all the way back on the goal line for last second hail mary attempts. Sure, they still get a mammoth head start on the receivers sprinting down the field, but it at least creates some better intrigue since they can’t just sit back and have the entire play in front of them.

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