The NFL's New Kickoff Rule: What you need to know!

all right well we're going to Pivot to a very important topic that I think we all maybe some of you do maybe some of don't but the NFL kickoff rule you heard about it you heard about the changes um first time you saw it was this uh pass game with Texans and the Bears that's very interesting I'm excited about it I know some people aren't I am I think it adds in a whole new dimension um brings that kickoff back into something that could is is important again um so this is why let me read this real quick to address the lowest kickoff return rate in NFL history during the 2023 season and an unacceptable injury rate on kickoffs prior to that NFL clubs have approved the new kickoff rule for the 2024 season which most of you have heard a little bit about the new rule will keep the excitement of kickoff returns in the game while returning the injury ret uh rate closer to a traditional scrimmage play which is all good right we want to see that kickoff mean something and I think before we get into we're going to go to the Whiteboard and we're going to explain it and hopefully by the end of this we'll all be ready to start the season we'll have a good idea but Jake I did a lot of research on this they don't have it all laid out you can't go to one place and get every little detail so I'm G to share with you what I found out there's a couple questions I have at the end maybe you know maybe you don't but um before I get into to that the XFL has had something similar I think one of the only differences is they can't start moving until a player touches the ball whereas with this new rule um it's whether the player touches the ball or it hits the ground in the landing Zone we're talk about that in a second but is it the XFL that's had this now for a few years yeah and it's funny because now so the UFL because they've since merged so they had this Rule and now they're reverting back to the old kickoff rule so they kind of switched yeah yeah super weird any reason that so they they like the test was failed I don't know and I think what they did with the old well with I guess now you call it the old kickoff rule is they actually moved it back so there weren't as many touchbacks so it was still that old kickoff rule but it wasn't going out of the end zone every time which I thought maybe was a viable option for the NFL it probably would make sense right because you want more returns but the biggest thing they're avoiding is that full speed Collision from so far apart right so it does make sense kind of like the layout for it so yeah I'm G to dive into it Mike oh let's get into it here all right let's start with these zones that uh we're going to be talking about here um as you can see here we got the Whiteboard Jake it's kind of cool right I love this we can draw things we can uh remove it so again this should help us all out so the kickoff is going to start the kicker is going to be kicking from the 35 yard line right which that has not changed that's that's where it has been yes yep 100% so no change there the kickoff start line that's the 40 yard line of the receiving team and all 10 players have to have a foot on the 40 yard line okay so again this is the kickoff team they have to have all 10 other players with a foot on the 40 yard line the setup zone is the receiving team they are um a minimum of nine players have to be in the setup Zone a minimum of seven of those have to have their foot on the 35 yard line and you're going to see another slide here that'll kind of you know bring it all together for you but um and then you have the option of having two kickoff return returners right and you could decide I don't know why you ever would to only have one and then you would bring 10 into that setup Zone and if you do that eight players eight minimum players have to have their foot on the 35 yard line now those two those two the setup Zone and the kickoff start line they cannot move until the ball let me just go through this real quick boom I'm give you my best kick you hear that boom there a high one right love it yeah now I want you to know the kicker can start the run but the kicker has to stay at the 50 yard line until it hits the landing zone or the player touches the ball so again he can get a little running start stop at the 50 yard line honestly I think the kicker's going to stay there anyway cuz's he's trying to prevent if anything gets through he's the last chance uh to prevent a big um a touchdown so anyhow he kicks the ball he can run up to the 50 he has to wait everybody there and the kickoff start line in the setup zone is standing still they're just looking and waiting for something to happen here now real quick I'm gonna tell you something here if the ball lands short of the 20 yard line it's immediately blown dead and the receiving team takes the ball at the 40 yard line exactly as if it went out of bounds you had that last year had that for years ball goes out of bounds it goes to the 40 yard line so think of it as another out of bounds right before the 20 it's blown dead these guys hadn't moved on the kickoff start line in the setup Zone they don't have to move play playover um interesting there right Jake I love that I love that it's gonna yeah yeah it's going to bring uh the accuracy on these kickers are going to be important absolutely it's almost like gon are the old pooch kick you know the old pooch kick and squib kicks yeah right right I mean I guess you could still do it right you just got to make sure it lands it touches the ground in that Landing zone so yeah yeah so again if the kicker kicks off he's he's aiming for that Landing Zone he hits that Landing Zone this is The Sweet Spot once it's in the landing Zone you the rule is you have to return it you have to return it I mean I one of the questions are like well can they still fair catch it no if they fair catch it or give thems up you're going to be wherever you caught that ball wherever you gave yourself up right so that's going to happen there but if it hits that Landing Zone you have to return it um let's go back here a little bit so we talked about that 40 yard line remember it's if it goes out of bounds if this guy booms the ball hits in the landing Zone goes out of bounds guess what they get the ball at the 40 yard line now something else is coming to play here is the 30 yard line what what you what are you talking mik what are you talking about right so the initial submission for the rule was the 35 yard line now let me tell you when that happens so if guy kicks the ball off and he just overshoots the landing Zone goes into the end zone if they don't return it and they kneel down or fair catch it or it goes out of the end zone guess what it's coming to the 30 yard line the initial submission said 35 yard line and we'll talk about that in a little bit I I like that I like that the penalty would be more severe 35 yard line um reason I like that is because again imagine you know teams late in the game that might be behind are gonna put a special player out there like Tyreek Hill comes to mind I'm gonna hit you up with a scenario later on but 30 yard line Tyreek Hills out there I'm probably saying kick the ball at the endzone so I don't want you to answer that I'm going to say let them go let them start at the 30 if they see that the normal return is averaging around 28 29 yard line just kick it out of the end zone let's not even risk it right so that's where it goes to the 30 yard line again they miss the landing Zone it goes into the end zone They don't return it they down it or they fair catch it or just goes out of the end zone 30 yard line um let me stop real there I'm going quick Jake you F me am I explaining okay any questions you have or any insight you want to add um the only Insight I want to add is if on the off chance which we did see on Thursday if there's some inclement weather and the wind is blowing like crazy you know back before there would always be one of the players from the kickoff team that was aligned next to the kicker they would come over and hold the football now in this case because the players are starting farther up and the kicker is by himself we saw on Thursday the Bears Cairo Santos who was kicking the ball off their kicker they actually had Tory Taylor their punter come in as a basically a 12th man and then he ran off the field as soon as the ball was kicked so they are not considered an active player they are just simply there to hold the ball and once that ball is kicked off they have to run off the field to the sideline they're not allowed to participate in that play but like I said if there is some wind uh it would call for that 12th player to come out onto the field and hold the football yeah so you actually saw that right that happened in that game and it was hilarious to see because Cairo Santos is 5 foot eight Tory Taylor's 6'4 so he's just towering he looks like this massive giant compared to Cairo Santos and it's funny because we're talking kickers and punters here right T Taylor's a big dude though but yeah so that that's exactly what would happen yeah so um the other one is now there's a 20 yard line comes into play let me tell you what that is so if kicker Nails it hits the landing spot and somehow it gets to the end zone and they down it or even if it goes out of the end zone um they're gonna have to take it at the 20 yard line Jake so last year the starting what was 25 yard line um so we have 20 yard line in play 30 yard line in play 40 yard line in play very very interesting the only thing I and we'll talk about a later is that 30 yard I like the initial submission where they were saying it should have been a 35 yard line and I already said a reason why but we'll get into it deeper so those are the different zones uh again remember the kicker cannot run past the 50 yard line until that ball hits the ground or a player touches it so he's stuck at the 50 yard line everyone else it's interesting and let me bring it up real quick let me bring up the next uh little thing here we're going to use all right so this is from the actual game right this is the first one first kickoff ever done with the new rule you can see all 10 from the kickoff team were lined up on the 40 yard line they have to have one foot um there's a second guy uh returning he's off to the left you can't see it on this view but trust me there's two returners back there and as you can see if you count the the the receiving teams players that have their foot on the 35 there's seven of them right four five six seven and then the two that are off the line of 35 they have to be outside um the hash marks have to be on the outside they can't be in the middle you have to be on the outside and again if for whatever reason now they can be there's no rule that says they can't come up on the 35 yard line as well but I'm not sure why they would do that so again they want somebody to be a little bit back they're the only two there's only two that can actually be off that line if you bring in the if you decide to have one kick returner like I said now an eighth person eighth person has to put his foot on that 35 yard line and then the other two can do what they're doing here that make sense y explain I'm G to go slow as as we can to kind of answer any questions and I'll go um I'll go over here to the channel real quick because I want to make sure I'm answering some questions yeah Keith saying I love the squib kick it's gone it's gone my friend thought I saw someone I don't think the Dolphins uh would risk their player they are paying second most on a kickoff well maybe not but I don't know if it's the end of the game and uh you know I want mention a 13- second game maybe the whole point of this is there's less less risk of injury right it's supposed to be um pretty much like a scrimmage play a regular play the the risk of injury now there is there's a big risk but I don't know Tyreek kills back there it really makes the other team have to make some important decisions would scare the heck out out of me and I doubted Jessica that anyone would be daring enough to kick him the ball I really do yeah yeah CU I mean speed speed kills first off and all you have to do is get through that first line of defense and then he's gone you know they're all bunched up they're all bunched up and uh yeah he sees the seam now you know there's talks of running backs you know put a running back back there who just has that vision and is able to see that seam hits that seam good night I doubt that the kicker is going to make a play there but um yeah this was the first one point too Mike real quick talking about special players that you could potentially use there you know Lis Luis ree zamit is a former rugby player and I think this is set up perfectly for a former rugby guy so let's call Christian wade back up to the Buffalo Bills here you know former rugby player that play with the bills maybe he could be something special on this kickoff team now right yep love it Weston yeah so imagine this guy kicks the ball right none of these guys on the 4 or the 30 now they are kind of looking back so I think Jake There's an opportunity there because I hate the fact that if I was on that 35 yard line I have to kind of look back you have to see where the ball's going you have to understand and then you guys they've called their play ahead of time if it comes over to the left we're running this if it goes to the right or Center they have their plays but they gotta wait kind of gotta look back a little bit and I I think if they can see see where the ball's going maybe there's someone on the line on the 35 who makes a signal or they're looking at the uh the kickoff team at that point they turned to the kickoff team and they're just waiting for them to make their move because those guys are going to start moving right um anyhow that's interesting I think the first one went over here to this guy over to the left and he returned it to about I think it was around the 26 yard line somewhere around there honestly if that kicker's kicking the ball short you should easily get over the 30 yard line almost every time that kicker isn't nailing it within the 10 yard line but dude that's where the that's where the beauty of this comes in that kicker now is going to have to be very accurate by the way if you imagine this you get a safety okay the safety now the kicker has to kick from the 20 yard line right um right the kickoff team has to kick from the 20 yard line everything else stays the same even with penalties they do not shift the 40 yard and the 35 yard line all that stays exactly the same the kicker is the only one who moves who changes based on the penalty based on a safety can you imagine having a you get a safety man it's going to be uh I feel right now safeties uh are kind of easy to cover but now it's not going to be they're kicking from their 20 yard line and they have to get it within the L spot or that guy's gonna get to maybe 4 yard line or to 30 that's and that's a punt too that's not a normal kickoff so that also adds to the Myster of things they can decide to choose the kickoff like a regular one right they have that option oh really I actually didn't know that yeah so they can pun or kick it on a te most of them pun I think for Hang Time right but there Hang Time doesn't matter anymore kick it as high as you want who cares I don't know all these guys are just waiting around these guys are all waiting around until that ball touches the grass or the ground or a player and they then they start moving so hang time isn't really a factor I guess it just depends on who thinks they're more accurate about hitting that Landing zone is it the punter coming out or is the kicker I don't know what I don't know it depends on your team I guess yeah and I think aesthetically right now it looks super weird to people but I think this is a really good rule because I mean this this play was essentially out of football and the whole goal of this is to keep this play in football and I mean it's poetic right Devon Hester goes into the Hall of Fame over this weekend and the first time this rule is debuted is the Thursday before he goes into the Hall so and the Bears are playing of course right so it is a a kind of cool situation and um yeah I mean we saw all returns while this happened on Thursday so I'm encouraged by it yeah I like it now one thing I again I heard from so I was watching uh re researching this Mike Florio from the Pro Football Talk he basically said one of the Special Teams coaches maybe from the Packers told them that there might be some slight changes prior to the um regular season starting might be so they're going to kind of want to see what happens here and again maybe that 30 yard line versus the 35 yard line instead of being at the 30 they take you out to the 35 if you um boot that ball into the end zone and miss the landing Zone um but they're waiting to see what's going to happen and you got to be thinking Jake that there's some Geniuses out there already figuring out what to do right what's going to take it what's going to be the biggest Advantage I think early on until players or until teams start showing their hand there I think we're going to see some big plays here that could alter the outcome of a game early on there might be a big Advantage um what's your thoughts on that 100% yeah I mean um I think it also kind of changes team's mindsets now like you have to prioritize a good returner like for roster spots too I mean I think you know we go and draft dayquon Hardy in the sixth round I don't know if he's getting drafted in the sixth round if it isn't for this rule right like maybe he's an undrafted free AG instead of a six round pick so it it really does alter a lot of strategies not just in terms of how you play guys on the field but even in drafting and offseason moves now so pretty cool stuff yeah I think too I mean I think I read too one of the things that the returners could do let's say this Ball's not as high as it should be it's coming down it's going to clear it's going to clear The Landing zone is going to land in there but it's low this returner could come up outside the 20 return it well also I think it gets blown dead I think I think it's considered as soon as it hit yeah as soon as it hits the ground I believe but if he catches he could still run up and catch it there which I think that's what you're saying right you can run up and catch it but I I think it gets called for the 40 yard line I think it gets called as it hit before the 20 so there's are some of the questions like my three big questions are for this and again we'll we'll come back again I know there might be some questions from the from the chat three questions I had as far as these lineups I was looking for alignment rules could I could I put all 10 players on the right side of the field I couldn't find anything that said what the alignment rules were could I put you know overload this side I don't know could these people could these folks the returning team overload one side or whatever I couldn't find anything as far as alignment rules other than the fact that they had to have their foot on the 40 yard line and the receiving team had to have a minimum of seven players on the 35 yard line and if they brought up U like I said one of the returners they'd have to have e person um with their foot on the line so that was one of the questions I had and then the other one was what if remember this is a human being making this play what if this kick the ball hits right around the 20 and everyone we can see it's in the landing Zone but no he says it's not in the landing zone so it immediately goes to the 40 yard line am I going to have to waste a challenge on this interesting yeah it's a great question Mike yeah I don't know because you know like some of those things are going to be close the tip of that ball could just hit slightly inside the 20 or hit the 20 yard line but they're saying no it didn't reach so those are the you know let's see three questions oh can I fair catch I think I answered that early no you're supposed to return it if you give yourself up on a play you make that mistake uh for instance boom I'm going to hit the landing zone right here this guy for some reason makes a fair catch or gives himself up guess what you get the ball at the five yard line right there yeah like last year what would happen right if I made a fair catch inside the 20 what happened I got to go right yeah 25 yard line right get start there no more no more so I kind of love this I see some folks out there really harping on you know Tyreek Hill not coming in just an example just an example but I'm saying the game's on the line and um you know and he's your best player and you don't have anyone else and and this is to I don't know go to the Super Bowl uh win the AFC Championship game maybe maybe otherwise you are you potentially are going to put somebody good out there I just I think that's G to be the case so I I I'm a big fan of it I think it brings back this uh this important part of the game that we've been missing and I think there's going to be so many different strategies we learn and I think earlier is where teams are going to take advantage somebody's going to have some amazing play where like oh my God again I wish I knew if anyone knows anyone out there in the chat right now or anyone knows on the rewatch can these formations be changed or are they pretty much every picture I've seen and let me bring up another one just real quick um pretty much shows that right they all have to be kind of spaced out evenly 35 yard line and then the two players here that are off the line they have to be outside the hash marks here can't be inside so I don't know Jake what do you think you think they're you think they can change where they're lining up like can I don't think so I think it they have to keep it somewhat stand standard so it's probably five and five you know on the outside of the kicker there so I I feel like as far as the kickoff team it has to be that way and then the kickoff return team I'm sure they can play with it a little bit there's a little more freedom there but yeah I think the kickoff team is pretty standard you know what excites me though Mike so you see how these guys are back you know obviously right on the uh the back heel of these other guys on the line of scrimmage for the return team I think this is really cool because you can essentially you know if you're running a return left or return right you can have one of those guys just off that guy's you know heel right you can almost have them lead like as a lead blocker kind of come off that left side or right side so and then vice versa for like the kickoff team you can have some stunts run Jessica reading my mind absolutely love it think a lot of stunts will be used to get the Gunners released absolutely I mean the creativity is really going to come into play and you're going to see some of these special teams coaches Thrive I mean this is a good example uh I think I think they did do some of that Frank Ross special teams coach shout out to Frank Ross John K guy love that dude um Frank Ross special teams coach I think it's his fourth year now with the Texans one of the better ones in the league he was trying to be a little creative um during this game and it's going to be cool to see some of these guys some of these gurus uh divy up some cool stuff yep I love it and we'll see we'll see we're gonna find out all the you know all the cool plays and I don't think anyone's going to show their hand why would you why would you show your hand because I think the biggest Advantage comes early in the season Jake um when we start to see these plays be put in place but they're going to make they're going to make a difference in a few games or a team that had no chance all of a sudden one of these plays wins the game for him it's gonna happen oh absolutely we should talk about the onside rule it has changed it has changed you cannot use the onside kick until the fourth quarter and you have to everyone has to know about it it's no secret there are no more secret onsite kicks you have to be you have to declare it everyone both teams will know and you can only use it in the fourth quarter if your team's behind J so big change there right big change yep and again I I don't mind that I hate those little sneaky little onsite kicks when you're not expecting it I don't like it especially when they burn us you know yeah you could here's the thing though I mean you go back to even uh a Super Bowl between the Colts and Saints right they did that surprise onside kick coming out of the half and uh I think it is you know great to keep the other team on their toes but I understand why you have to do it in this instance because the kicker is by himself and there's this whole Landing Zone rule so it does make sense I don't like that you have to do it or you're only allowed to do it when you're coming from behind I think you should be able to do it whenever you want but alerting the other team to do it it it does make sense yeah so they onside kick is exactly the way it was last year right they don't line up like this there's no special lineup it is the uh onside kick like it used to be right exactly other than only fourth quarter only if you're behind so interesting stuff there