NFL Debuted New Kickoff & People Are Split On It | Pat McAfee Reacts

Pat McAfee reacts to the NFL Debuting New Kickoff uh I watched that first kickoff just like everybody else I put out a tweet once the NFL tweeted out the first kickoff and said thoughts uh to just you know the X verse which is a fun thing to do just kind of blanket statement thoughts how do you feel about this not leading anybody in any particular direction just would like to get natural thoughts natural reaction to the first ever time we're seeing this kickoff as the brand new kickoff for the biggest best league in the world the NFL now there was obviously a conversation about the kickoff being removed from the game completely if the Special Teams coordinators did not figure out how to save the play and if you lose the kickoff what's going to happen to punt what's going to happen to special teams that was kind of the ripple effect fear that people were having if you lost the kickoff so the Special Teams coordinators around the NFL came together watch what the XFL did kind of critiqued it a little bit made it a little bit more nfly but mostly the XFL return they changed some of the yardages on kickoff touchbacks in a landing Zone yada Yad Y and we saw for the first time last night a lot of people's thoughts were fascinating said I haven't seen enough to judge it I respected that I really appreciate I really enjoyed yeah that was good civil discourse right there there were some people said this ain't football then there were some people that were saying you know what I don't mind this I think you could see the potential last night a lot of XFL guys playing in that game so the returns and the work is going to look exactly like it did in the XFL we won't really What will the new kickoff look like know what this kickoff is going to look like until we see guys with 4 tws and 4 threes returning the kicks in the back and alongside blocking it at all now the Canton uh surface is a little slick it is a Turf obviously it's a high school field the people of Ohio are wonderful they fill that place up it is a real celebration and the game got called short so we don't know who would have ended up winning but both the teams played great but the kickoff was the story of this entire thing if you go to the first kickoff okay this is my big takeaway from this thing if we can put it on his back so and next to me here is Adam Pacman Jones 13-year NFL vet corner and all proo kickoff and punt returner Adam Pacman Pac that way if you want to say hello to anybody hey y That's Pac-Man Jones okay so this is obviously very crucial to both of our careers now one of us has tackled the other person in this shot right now okay good to know yeah you want any guesses well I'm trying to think when did Pac-Man kick off I was going to say you returned a couple kicks didn't you yeah I played wide receiver a little bit quarterback yeah running back they have me if he was playing Corner maybe when you were a quarterback yeah the thing about it was Pac-Man was about to score on us uh he was about to break through that first and I was in there and I was going for the ball too I was going for the ball too there's no way right Tavon Austin took one 98 on me okay on the same day that I was giving a Toyota to a family of a returning soldier at halftime Tavon Austin took one 98 yards that was supposed to be a pin Tavon Austin West Virginia Legend highlight Legend takes one in the house can't be having the entire West Virginia crew just take one you know on my face yeah makes sense can't have it now needing a fair catch son of a [ __ ] wouldn't fair catch ever this particular guy so you know good gamesmanship but all pro literally talked about as one of the biggest and best returners of all time so this is the first time we're seeing this kickoff okay so the big Landing Zone question with it all is there's a landing Zone here okay I don't know if you can hear me there's a landing zone right here okay ball has to go in there obviously hang time does not matter hang hang time does not matter at all because this play does not start until somebody touches the ball so how long it's up here to give your team time to get in there does not matter all this kicker who's all the way back this looks kind of weird I don't love it yeah it does I don't love the way you know this whole thing kind of looks but all this kicker is trying to do is land it here okay this is the goal Landing it in between the 5 and 10 that's Landing it not where they catch it Landing it cuz if that son of a [ __ ] lands here that Ball's coming out already to the 30 so if you're trying to cover and work you're trying to cover you're trying to Lan it in between the five and the goal line hang time does not matter so then the next question is okay with the landing zone two people back these guys aren't allowed to move who's telling these people when they're allowed to go Co cover like when are they allowed to go and we talked to Coach Riz as he was pitching this rule to the NFL they said XFL they didn't want what the XFL does the XFL would blow a whistle this play has started they touched the ball you can go blow a whistle to kick blow a whistle when Ball's touched blow a whistle when tackle happens too much three whistles One play play in between the whistles there's a lot against football in that particular series of events I know other sports have it where there's a whistle that indicates something something in the middle of a play I think the NFL people did not want to add an extra whistle so what they were going to go off of and Joe Buck pitches we'll be talking to Troy Aman about an hour and 10 minutes so live from Canton Hall of Fame everything he's got going on on the call last night is there're expecting it to be like in baseball when somebody tags up or whatever so somebody catches a Fly ball they catch it and then the runner knows that they can go and score now that's been in baseball since the beginning of time yeah okay for kickoff coverage there's never been a time where you are because you're about to you know this is like a lot of contact a lot of running a lot of everything a lot of energy are you going to make the team you're covering kicks right now so you're at the bottom of the roster you need to know that anyways so there's a lot are you going to be able to hold your water and also get off on the right time when somebody just catches the ball and you just see them catch the ball and then you're like that's on me I'm going to I'm going to wait I think that's asking a lot of the kickoff coverage team so that was my big fears like how are we going to indicate when they can start covering and not covering cuz if you're laid off the ball and they're able to set up a return house call but on the flip side if you're early you're Making the Tackle making the tackle this the first one look who go ahead and play it guess who makes the tackle boom that guy's first one off the ball right who makes the tackle bang that guy right that's going to be an Making the Play advantage did he leave early absolutely he was the first person off the ball before the ball was caught he has a yard head start on everybody else he ends up making the tackle so naturally as somebody who's sat in special teams meetings and Pac-Man can attest to this people are going to see this film and everybody that's going to be trying to make a roster at the bottom of the thing he going to be like oh they'll give you a little bit they'll give you a little bit beforehand and if you're the first one off the ball you're going to make the play you make the play guess what you make the team yep which means what you make money which is all anybody is really looking for so I I don't think they had that figured out in the first half so then they go at halftime they come out in the second half let's go to the opening kick of the second half okay Tommy Townsen who Slaughters football had a 63 yard punt last time was his first punt he is multiple times super champion at this point just dog added to the Houston Texans which I don't like I I don't like that they just keep getting better at every [ __ ] position it seems like down there in Houston they were supposed to be terrible this team was supposed to be nonetheless let's move forward Fair brand kicking off here this is the first kickoff of the second half go ahead and run it three steps if it's windy the 12th player could come on and hold it Tommy's supposed to get the tea instead waves to his family he's going to have to get through that entire thing they have this kickoff this is the furthest return I think that there was out to like the thir 2 everything else Illegal Formation was in between the 20 and 30 from what I saw I might have missed at least one of them a lot of high scoring stuff and they called a penalty on that though they said that uh the the somebody illegal formation somebody left the line early they would run replay nobody left early but it was clear that at halftime somebody told ref Hey listen we got to call people leaving early because that can't become the thing I have no idea how they fix that I have no idea how with human instinct the Competitive Edge what's on the line for every single one of these plays how every single one could become a tou touchdown Which Pac-Man's going to talk about here in a matter of moments but like let's say it's a Super Bowl's it's a Super Bowl uh minute 15 left it's a crucial play big biggest play you're talking about biggest play and how are they going to monitor if somebody is even if you're Biggest Play one foot past that's a third of a yard here in America I know we're going off meters and [ __ ] for the Olympics but you know a yard is three feet even if you're one foot that's a one foot Advantage off early are they going to call that are they going to call that if that if that if that's tackle inside like the 15 are they going to call that back and have them redo it if it's a house call okay are they going to talk about one of the returning teams leaving a half a step early like how are they going to that's going to be in my eyes as kickoff person Returners special teams person that one's going to be the toughest to figure out that that one's going to be toughest to regulate other than that though I think there's a lot of promise for these returners legitimately I think it's going to bring some excitement if people are kicking it into the landing zone for the returners I think this is great um yeah it that is an issue with guys are leav early me personally I think it should be like a shot clock horn I guess sound for when they can go but for as returners if one of the it was the first uh kickoff return I think it was a block away from being up out of there even the last one too but so the returners are going to be happy cuz they are going to get more action with the ball I think people I think they're going to be able to have exciting returns for sure which leads me to I think Touchback take the ball at to 30 as opposed to a potential breakthrough one line yeah the original rule was if you kick the Touchback the ball would come out to a 35 that's a big deal the percentages of scoring a point whenever you're at the 35 first at the 25 vastly different because think about how many first downs you got to get to to get into scoring range like that is field POS that is literally what kickers kickoff people and punters are doing his field position and the percentages of where they start versus how many times they score is just vastly different between 35 which what used to be a Touchback 20 25 30 even 30 is a is kind of an interesting designation because couple first downs you're in maybe fi goal range 35 couple first downs definitely sending them out there so it's like uh they were going to have it be a 35 yard penalty if you kick a Touchback so forcing people to kick it in the landing Zone they moved it back to the 30 to get the ru I don't think there's going to be much change I think you're going to see a lot of touchbacks because of what Pac-Man just said all you need is one person just to Peak or be laid off the ball and we got house calls which is exactly why they wanted this to be the kickoff return I'm just not 100% sure if we'll see it or not yeah and I think that was like my my biggest takeaway I don't want to say concern because obviously that's part of it like we want more excitement from the kickoff but thinking of Tyreek Hill back there it's like I think they want more touchdowns I don't think I just I personally like it would be weird if like what if what if they they do this and they don't make many changes to it and Tyreek Hill ends up taking like 12 back this year like I don't want it to turn into a situation where it's like that' be dope almost every single every single play is a return touchdown like I I just touch back what I think is going to happen and I think that's why they're going to go to that I think there's I think the 30 isn't a big enough penalty for post Touchback personally I don't think it is just whenever you look at the percentage of scoring but I think that was the only way they were going to get it past some of the owners that were probably voting on this rule wait a minute this is going to be what our kickoff is well yeah it's going to force more returns to take it to 35 somebody said weit 30 we're just going to give up the 35 somebody kicks it too good somebody kicks it too hard we're not going to do that they move it to the 30 I'm not sure but like in theory this is awesome you know looking at it optically I think it's going to take some time for people I think it's going to take some time for CU it looks like a practice which is what it was was a practice drill for like the last 30 years in the NFL for kickoff coverage whenever you don't want to run the team as far so let's say it's um let's say it's week 15 Practice Drill Thursday practice Thursday practice we're doing kickoffs guys boys are tired like it's been we had our bi-week was early we're doing this entire thing we got to cover kicks though you don't want them running from 30 yard line 35 yard line all the way down so you just move everybody down to like 35 40 on the other side then a jugs machine hits the ball whenever it's caught everybody mov on it this is literally what the practice drill has been for 40 years the XFL instituted it into the game I thought they invented it basically did all right all right there was a little bit of a campaign by some people over there acting as if they created the entire thing but they were the first ones to Institute it so I think that is something and then they had the medical results and the health results and the injury results from it and then that obviously gets pitched and turned into it it could be more exciting the kickers having to make like 25% of the tackles is pretty cool that's pretty cool thing to think about you know cuz uh I think we're find out about some dogs they kicking balls oh yeah now on flip side I do worry yeah like the Giants had Randy Bullock starting week 15 last year he brings a heat and I I do worry about about that side like if your kicker goes down you're on a a backup free agent that you just signed kicker and then he's out there you know tackling people so the thing is cuz you don't have to hit the ball good I was going to ask you how hard you think it is to keep it out of the end zone in that Landing Zone yeah so it's like 20 yards long and with some of these guys who aren't kickers who kick off I think the Dude down in uh was it Justin Reed hit a Touchback I think he hadit a Touchback that's very abnormal normally whenever you see somebody from a position who played soccer growing up who understands how to kick linebacker or safety or Corner wide receiver whatever it is I think like Dude Perfect you know dude perfect is like all right let me throw this football as far as I can M yeah okay that's how far I can throw it let's let's put something in there wait they do that well I think that's just one of their strategies they've openly talked about that I I think that that is the thing with some of the uh positional players with the way they kick I think full kick gets them to the money in the landing Zone like I I think them just kicking it gets him in the landing Zone but if you Mish hit that because you're not a professional kicker and you accidentally squib it which certainly happens with people that Ball's out on the 40 that Ball's out on the 40 or whatever so it's like trying to manage risk reward with all of it is like ain't this the first time it's happening so many special teams coordinators were watching this last night just thinking to themselves like how can I take it advantage of this what are they trying to do and also is this even comparable because the returners are not the returners that you're probably going to see this season