The cliché that special teams is one-third of football has never been truer.
Sure, the NFL rolled out new dynamic kickoff rules during the preseason, but be cautious about drawing conclusions just yet: Special teams coordinators are expected to follow the precedent established by offensive and defensive play callers and keep their best designs secret until game-critical moments.
Do you really think all kickers are going to throw balls that fly inside the five yard line and have the return unit set up to block?
“Nobody is going to say if they're going to do it until it happens because it puts them at a competitive disadvantage,” one veteran special teams coach told The Post. “The first four or five weeks are going to be tough.”
As a way to salvage the disappearing play, the NFL allowed special teams coaches to work together on a yearly basis to come up with new kickoff rules borrowed and tweaked from the XFL.
The 2023 regular season will allow fair catches inside the 25-yard line for the first time, the kickoff return rate will be a record low at 21.8 percent and all 13 Super Bowl attempts will have resulted in a touchback.
Snooze!
“I think it's going to be a much more exciting game for the fans,” Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub said.
The dual objective was to bring the action back to kickoffs while also finding a way to mitigate the high injury risks that come with full-speed collisions in the open field, particularly concussions (four times more likely than in scrimmages) and torn anterior cruciate ligaments. The result looks like a traditional running play to some and foreign to others.
“It feels weird,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said, “and it seems totally different than what I'm used to seeing in football.”
structure
Except for the kicker and one or two returners, players on each team must line up five yards apart in a “set-up zone” on the return half of the field and may not move until the ball has hit the ground or been touched. The ball must be kicked within the landing zone between the 20-yard line and the goal line, depending on the field position in the case of a touchback.
Giants special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial has created more than 50 return variations.
“They want this play to go. This play has to go, because if it doesn't go, what's left?” NFL referee Alex Kemp said, referring to the old-school yard-drive-start rule for playing the football without a kickoff.
“All that's left is the consolation match. If you put the ball on the 25-yard line, you're in the consolation match.” [down the field]”We can't do the old way of kicking off anymore because we've had too many injuries. They want to play something really dynamic and exciting. So we're going to protect the kickoff, we're going to protect our jobs, we're going to protect the excitement.”
According to NFL Research, of 420 preseason kickoffs, 70.5% were returned, including 18 returns of 40 yards or more, but only 26.4% were touchbacks. That said, last year, about 63% of kickoffs were returned during the preseason, a time when returners are making plays and trying to earn a roster spot.
Producers hope that more than half of the kickoffs will be returned during the regular season.
“We're going to see a lot more balls on the ground than we're seeing right now,” Jets special teams coordinator Brant Boyer said.
Under the new rules, there are three possible drive starts if the kick is not returned: the 40-yard line if the kicking team strikes the ball short of the landing zone, the 30-yard line if the ball lands in the end zone and is downed for a touchback or passes through the end zone, and the 20-yard line if the ball lands in the landing zone and rolls into the end zone and downed.
All balls in the end zone must be downed by the return team for a touchback; if the ball lands in the end zone and is not downed, the kickoff team can retrieve it and take a touchdown.
On one preseason play, the Chiefs had two different returners make two different mistakes: one sent a live ball flying over his head into the end zone, and the other (Super Bowl hero Mecole Hardman) took a knee in the end zone for a safety after the ball bounced over the goal line.
“It's a really good teaching opportunity,” Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said.
Other rule changes include the 12th player on the kickoff team having to immediately leave the field to act as a holder if the wind prevents the ball from staying on the tee, and the elimination of surprise onside kicks; now, only the losing team may attempt an onside kick in the fourth quarter after warning the referee.
How to use
There's a misconception that Dynamos with no return experience are suddenly volunteering to be kick returners, when in fact special teams coaches are looking for stouter returners because of the potential for big hits.
“If you've never done it, it's not easy just because everybody's lined up in one place,” said Isaiah McKenzie, who was a kick returner for the Giants during the preseason. “It's still a skill. As a returner, you have to clear your mind a little bit and be like, 'No matter what happens, even if two guys run into me, I've got to kick the ball into this hole.' A lot of guys don't do that.”
There is debate as to whether the 30-yard line, rather than the originally proposed 35-yard line, would be a sufficient deterrent to deter teams from trying to get a touchback and eliminate the risk of allowing a big-gain return. Even after the drive starting point was moved from the 20-yard line to the 25-yard line in 2016, touchbacks unexpectedly became more popular among kicking teams.
If coaches didn't care about losing five extra yards on defense back then, why should they care now?
According to NFL Research, over the past 10 seasons, scoring percentage, touchdown percentage and points per drive have all generally increased in correlation with improved starting field position, although the difference between starting at No. 25 and starting at No. 30 is minimal: scoring percentage increases from 34.6 percent to 34.9 percent, touchdown percentage drops from 21.1 percent to 20.6 percent and points per drive is 1.67 in both cases.
The concern around the league is that coaches, especially offensive-minded ones, are (literally) missing the game.
“You can start at 30, but the average starting point is 29. [after a return]”I don't think it's going to be different enough to be worth the risk,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said. “You always want to win on special teams, but the biggest thing is not to lose.”
For those who are less risk averse, what happens in this first month?
Unlike the squib kicks of old, expect two or three hoppers that allow tacklers to make a run before the ball is taken away.
“You've got to take advantage of the rectangular area,” Raiders special teams coordinator Tom McMahon said of the 20-yard landing zone.
Instead of traditional receivers, linebackers and safeties, expect to see more athletic offensive linemen and defensive ends on the field.
Loophole maneuvers are expected, such as a blocking player touching the ball before a low line drive kick reaches the 20-yard line to force a “landing zone violation.”
Expect personnel changes to occur in the huddle, with the receiving team matching up last, similar to how the home team does with a line change in hockey.
Some confusion is to be expected, as the umpires already have at least 18 different schemes in place to cover every angle of the play.
The Chiefs considered having safety Justin Reid take kickoffs to put another tackler on the field. Rugby player Louis Rees-Zammit was considered as the Chiefs' returner and Gaelic footballer Charlie Smith was considered as the Saints' kicker, but both were released at the end of pre-season.
As actual play designs are revealed in Week 1, more creativity will be required as more potential advantages will be exploited and then countered.
“The problem is, as a coverage team, the ball is on your doorstep right away,” the special teams coach said. “If the ball is kicked to the eighth yard line, you don't have to block a guy and the ball could be at the 25 with a free runner. A lot of coaches think, 'That's the first play on defense.'
