Roger Goodell: League won't alter kickoff rules mid-season | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

Roger Goodell the commissioner of the NFL if you haven't heard was on with Pat McAfee yesterday and he was asked this basic question if teams are just going to bang it through the end zone and give up the 30 will the NFL change the rules move the Touchback maybe to the 35 at some point during the season well I think what would happen no not before the regular season the competition committee met last week they made some very minor adjustments they were really uh very minor uh I think what we're going to do Pat is what we always do we we put this in for a year we valuator for the entire year if we see that type of circumstance come out probably evaluate where the ball goes out to the 35 next year and try that I think it depends on sort of the outcome and and what it is we think we can tweak they're not going to change during the season you undermine the Integrity of the season if you play half the year with it being the 30 is the Touchback point then all of a sudden oh we're changing 35 that that dramatically adjusts everything it does as you've already got your plans in place for the year you've been practicing things a certain way wait a minute you're going to move that's a significant change if it happens they had a chance to do it before the season they didn't they met last Tuesday the owners did on this private Equity rule there was no discussion of moving it from the 30 to 35 my theory is that the NFL is content if it is a rash of touchbacks because number one fewer kick returns definitely means fewer injuries that's what they've been trying to do the last 15 years it's the most dangerous play the game let's just do it less frequently right number two better field position means more scoring all the drives start at the 30 instead of the 25 we're going to have more points number three they can at least say we tried we tried we tried to change this rule we've tried to resurrect the kickoff the coaches weren't willing to play ball with us they're the ones that chose to kick it out of the end zone cuz either way they're going to get improved field position and they're going to get more scoring yeah I I mean I'm with you I'm with a lot of people that I think are you know in the NFL and and have thought about this the logic of it I I think there's going to be still a great number of touchbacks especially early on in the football season I will say though I think there's some teams that will be bold and try to gain an advantage I do one thing I've had had come up current a few times with with people in the NFL over the last you know few months since is let's just take a a matchup this weekend hey it's the Patriots and the Bengals right we know the Bengals are clearly the favorite right this is a way a team like a desperate team like the the Patriots this the kickoff is I think on angle where teams are looking at the Lesser teams especially going hey we can maybe gain an advantage doing this those are the teams that I think I would be scared of if I was a head coach right I think the really good football teams are going to go wait we're good on offense and defense just like you talked about and we'll play special we'll just play defense and offense and do that and we're not going to let this play ruin our football game but I do think we'll see some teams that maybe feel like Hey we're Underdog we're over matched this week we're going to Tinker with some things here and try to gain an advantage that's where I think it could be exciting uh this this early part of the season for tonight's pregame show I got in touch with as many people as I possibly could directly and indirectly get a Vibe on we're going to talk about and risk reward is the key term you do an analysis just like anything else the problem is there isn't a pool of information we can draw upon exact we have 49 preseason games and based on the 49 preseason games the average starting field position is the 28.8 so you give up the extra yard you take away the risk of the long return but there will be situations where teams will welcome the risk of the long return in exchange for the reward of pinning the team at or inside the 20 the average starting field position for the returns that begin in the end zone is the 23.3 so you can get some field position that way and I'll give you an example of when I think we're going to see this cuz I think you're on on the money if a team's got nothing to lose they're more dangerous more likely to a punt they more likely to f a field goal they're more likely to go for it on fourth down and they're more likely to try to put the ball between the 20 and the goal line teams I think not all of them but they've been practicing with their kicker the line drive that lands inside the 20 skitters to the end zone we saw that a couple times in the preseason the 49 Saints game they did it right before halftime which was like why are you doing that but it shows you can you put it inside the 20 it gets to the end zone if it hits and this is something that I think the fans don't understand if it hits inside the 20 and goes to the end zone and isn't returned it's the 20 not the 30 if the ball hits in the landing Zone and then goes out of the end zone it's still the 20 if you put it in Play Between the 20 and the goal line that's an advantage especially if the line drive isn't caught yes and this is where and I remember sea pyton talked about this months ago you want to have a guy who's almost like an outfielder who can get to the ball and that's the other risk you get a running start to that ball that line drive you catch it and off you go because the other thing to remember the moment the ball hits the ground is when the Electric football players can start going it sets up better field position for the defense if you can pull it off and I think there's teams who believe their kickers can do it and they've been hiding that there's no reason I don't think don't need to practice that in the preseason I don't think there's any doubt that and the high Chip Shot that's going to like the kicker is going to kick a high popup that's going to land at like the four yd line right I think those are definitely things that teams are toying with and I I listen I I look at it I know I said hey I think I think a lot of teams will'll be the lesser team that takes the chance give themselves an advantage an extra position possession whatever you know field position all that but like these two teams tonight do I think they're bold to try one or two things here on this kick yes John Harbaugh ex special teams coach that you alluded to to start the show and Andy Reid he's got a a a special teams coach and Dave tab who's always kind of been aggressive and a Cutting Edge there I do think the special team coaches are excited to show some of their tricks and wrinkles now whether the head coaches let them do that and they just go well we'll go situation or depending on the game or whatever that but I do think some special teams coaches are looking to be aggressive and do have some tricks up their sleeves as far as this play is concerned I had a general manager say to me the Special Teams coordinators are going to push this because it justifies their existence it protects their Turf but at the end of the day the head coach is the one that's going to make the call potentially loses his job because we got C in week one they returned it for a touchdown we lost the game by four we missed the playoffs by one game and I got fired right I'm not playing with that and coaches are so conservative small seat conservative that it's hard to sell them on something like that because they're thinking let's just put the ball in the end zone let's put it on the 30 difference between the 25 and the 30 is not all that big of a deal we'll play defense and we avoid the long return the other wrinkle that may help is you get a holding penalty and then half the distance and you you lock into good field position and that's one of the concerns too you've got typically with the kick return layers and levels of blocks you don't have that with everyone lined up on the 40 from the defense and then five yards away nine of the players from the offense A lot's happening there's an explosion activity there's concerns that guys are going to get blocked into guys legs and cause injuries that way cuz it's it's a series of phone booths all right yeah I I I hear that that's what going to be it's going to be interesting to to let this play out evaluate it see where it goes but I will say I do think it's conservative like I said but I you look tonight would I be shocked that one of these teams has something special up their sleeves on one of these returns or whatever Z flowers or a Xavier worthier back there deep that's all more reason kick it out the I I know I know but but also too I look at it and go wait with Harrison Bucker and and and uh Justin Tucker I I go these teams might also have some cool kicks whether it's the the squib like you're talking about that lands inside the 20 and rolls in the end zone or the high Chip Shot but uh I'm excited to see it play out it definitely I do think we'll get a few more returns but I don't know if it's going to be what we what we want or expected one one last issue too a GM sent me clips of kickers getting blown up yeah this play because there's been talk of hey let's use Justin Reed now the Chiefs have said it's going to be Harrison buer but that's not binding they can Trot out Justin Reed with some sort of a surprise because then you have somebody who is adept at facing blockers shedding blocks getting to the ball it's having an extra tackler but man I've seen some kickers get there's one I'll show it to you he got a kicker from the Titans got destroyed destroyed um and the other side of it too is can you really trust a guy who isn't a full-time kicker to keep the ball because it's got to hit inside the 20 and stay in bounds I hear you you put it inside the 20 that's great it bounces out of bounds that's not great the ball goes to the 40 yeah I I don't Envision a lot of non-kickers being able to pull that off I don't right you know maybe there's a guy maybe there's a two or three other Justin reeds in the league that can that can do that uh and and we'll see and I'm excited to see tonight if they throw him out there from one of these but yeah I don't think that's going to be something that you know like you said coaches small conservative are going to trust on a on a regular basis the commissioner pointed out the tweaks that the competition committee made last week and I don't understand how they can make rule changes without at least 24 owners approving it but I guess there's certain discretion that they already have the ball has to be kicked off of a te except for a declared onside kick and we've seen some of the creative ways that special teams coordinators will put the ball in play with the declared fourth quarter if you're trailing onside kick teams can tack on certain penalty yardage on fouls that end the Play Rather than re kicking so it's just another time that we don't have a kick return they want to reduce those if possible and then there was an alignment issue that needed to be clarified so the big one will happen after this year if at all if they even bring it back remember it's a one-year experiment so to even do it in its current form next year they'll need 24 owners to say yes once they make a permanent rule change you need 24 owners to get rid of it to continue something they're doing on an experimental basis you keep needing to get at least 34 to the owners to say yes and maybe next year there was a big push against 35 plenty of people wanted to do 35 cuz they they saw what what we realized just give to 30 and there you're up by seven in the fourth quarter hell yeah you're kicking it out of the end zone 100% And if you're down seven and you're not willing to do at that stage of the game the onside kick you're more willing to roll the dice because if you just give up the 30 and you're down seven with 8 minutes left in the game yeah they get to the 38 well no not even that if theyt if you hold them to a they're still kick from the 38 you're going to have shitty field position right no no doubt about it one last thing yeah it's a copycat league right everybody's going to be watching how the Ravens and the Chiefs do it tonight how the Eagles and the Packers do it tomorrow night how the teams at 1:00 do it on Sunday I guarantee you the teams that play at 4:00 are going to have someone monitoring all the One o00 games to see how they handle the kickoff and then come Monday night when 15 games have been played the 49ers in the Jets will have chance to digest all of it and adjust whatever plan they have accordingly and that will happen because if somebody gets embarrassed and it becomes a big deal oh you kicked it off and you gave up a touchdown that's going to influence what other coaches do definitely they're there's going to be weekly meetings about hey you know special teams coach head coach let's sit down let's watch the 10 or 15 or 20 best returns of the week and the 10 or 15 you know best kickoffs of the week and what they did and copycat that and add our own tweaks certainly it's going to be a gathering information and hopefully it evolves to where you know as the year goes on the play is used more and more and we don't have the Touchback there's no reliable analytics for now it's just the preseason numbers and that's all going to change and it's going to keep changing every week this is a great exercise because there isn't that base of information we're living it we're watching it play out one game at a time hi it's Mike Florio thanks for watching PFT on YouTube hit subscribe for the latest news and Analysis from pro football talk