Kickoffs within the NFL are going to look very completely different in 2024. And perhaps past.
League homeowners authorised a rule change that may massively change the kick that begins each recreation and follows each scoring play. This reform, slated for a one-year pilot program subsequent fall, would add a number of new wrinkles to free kicks, ideally permitting for larger returns whereas rewarding kickers for accuracy. It might additionally, in principle, cut back accidents associated to one of the crucial harmful phases of the sport.
So what’s new? Nicely, the ball will nonetheless be positioned on the kicking crew’s 35-yard line, everybody however the kicker will line up 25 yards upfield on the receiving crew’s 40. 5 yards away from them could be the primary line of blocking protection forward of a most of two returners — a line that may’t go deeper than the 30-yard line.
It’s a setup that appears like this.
There’s greater than only a funky formation that leaves much less room for defenders to construct up momentum earlier than crashing into returners. The area from the receiving crew’s 20-yard line to the objective line is the touchdown zone. Nobody from the kicking crew can cross the 40 till the ball both lands or is fielded there.
There aren’t any honest catches. If the ball fails to make it to the touchdown zone, the receiving crew takes over at its personal 40-yard line. If the ball flies into the tip zone, the receiving crew takes over on the 35 — a 10-yard enhance from the earlier touchback spot. If the ball hits the touchdown zone on the fly, then rolls into the tip zone and is downed, the receiving crew takes over at its 20.
However wait, there’s extra! If the wind knocks the ball off the tee twice, a kicker can choose to carry it in place with a kicking stick — the tripod kickers use in follow — quite than making a teammate maintain the ball on the tee. Onside kicks are nonetheless allowed, however need to be declared earlier than the kickoff. From there, regular onside kick guidelines would apply (and, in honesty, be very lame and doubtless reconsidered after 2024’s proposed trial interval).
To handle the bottom kickoff return charge in @NFL historical past in the course of the 2023 season and concern for participant well being and security, the NFL Competitors Committee has proposed a brand new kickoff rule.
If adopted by NFL golf equipment, the brand new rule will maintain the joy of kickoff returns within the… pic.twitter.com/0ltQpSrAvC
— NFL Soccer Operations (@NFLFootballOps) March 22, 2024
It is a very seen reform that can be the very first thing we discover in relation to this 12 months’s rule modifications. It received’t be the final, nonetheless — particularly now that hip-drop tackles have been deemed a 15-yard penalty with some very subjective language connected.
