New kickoff rule
We did that last year with Foug, but he's gone. It may or may not hurt us this year.
Can you fair catch a squib kick? If no, then we see more squib kicks.
Could also easily make a rule that doesn’t allow that in the last 5 min of a game, or give the other team one overrule if they really need to do an onside kick with like 8min left of something.
Why?
1. There is always a chance the receiving team's up-men will be hit by the ball, otherwise touch the ball or mishandle it, allowing for a recovery.
2. Screws up most efforts to set up a return.
3. Rather than booming, high arching kicks, kickers will practice line drives or hot bouncers. I'm sure they can figure this out with some practice. Might need a holder.
DUUUUUMMMMMMBBBBBB
This will have a minimal effect on player safety as long as the refs don't know what the hell they're looking at.
Is there a rule that a kickoff has to be from a tee? Put your punter in there. It telegraphs the kick, but punt returns are usually short, and with 10 "gunners" a chance for a miscue is fairly high. If this works, look for a rule change as soon as possible.
I remember last year kickoffs were high and dropped at the goal line or inside the 5. It gave the returner hope that he could get a decent return because of position, but because the ball was so high it ended up most times with a short return inside the 25.
I don't think this rule change would affect that strategy at all.
I think this will transition where teams will spend less time and effort on the kickoff return, and more on two or three guys sure-handed guys deep, and "hands" team at the front and midfield. Kickers will be expected to pooch, or line drive, or do that one bounce on-side of varying degrees of force to try to control the distance.
In the long run, I think the rules will eventually be changed so that the only time we see kickoffs will be at the start of each half, and maybe the last few (3? 5?) minutes of each half. Otherwise, the offense will take possession at the -25. I could live with that.
April 14th, 2018 at 12:10 AM ^
April 14th, 2018 at 11:07 AM ^
April 14th, 2018 at 11:02 AM ^