NFL fans like what they’ve seen from the league’s newly implemented kickoffs .
On Thursday, viewers got their first glimpse of the NFL’s dynamic kickoff - which will make its debut this season - during the 2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game between the Chicago Bears and Houston Texans . Back in March, the rule change was passed by a 29-3 vote at the annual league meeting.
Drawing inspiration from the XFL, NFL kickoffs will now have 10 players on the kicking team line up at the opponent’s 40-yard line. The return team will place a minimum of nine players in the “set up zone,” an area in between the 30- and 35-yard lines. Only two designated returners are allowed in the “landing zone,” which stretches from the 20-yard line to the goal line.
READ MORE: Baker Mayfield responds to new responsibility after Buccaneers spotted change
READ MORE: Why Caleb Williams isn't playing for Chicago Bears in Hall of Fame game
Other than the kicker and two returners, no other players are permitted to move until the ball is touched by a player inside the 20-yard line or hits the ground. If the kick lands short of the landing zone or out of bounds, the receiving team will begin the ensuing drive at their own 40-yard line. Any kick that goes through the back of the end zone will be spotted at the 30-yard line.
Once a player corrals a kick in the landing zone, they must return it. If the ball hits a player or the ground and rolls into the end zone, it must be returned or downed. If the latter occurs, a touchback would be called and the ball would be subsequently placed at the 20-yard-line.
Taking to social media, many fans admitted that the new kickoff format looked incredibly foreign. “So surreal seeing the XFL kickoff in the NFL. It's going to take a while for teams and fans to get accustomed to it,” one X user wrote, with another adding: “It's gonna be different but I think once it settles in everybody will be used to it and we won't even blink an eye at it.”
Follow us on X for the best and latest in sports news
Others welcomed the rule change with open arms, insisting that over time teams and coaches around the league will learn how to most effectively return kicks. “Glad to see this variation was adopted by the league. Excited to see how teams figure out how to return effectively,” a person wrote.
Someone else added: “I really liked how it looked! I think there's gonna be a ST genius that's gonna figure it out and break it to snap off half a dozen TDs this year. But if it stays like this, it looks REALLY good aesthetically and I didn't see a high speed collision at all.”
For now, however, most coaches appear to be keeping their return strategies close to the chest. The first batch of Thursday’s kickoffs lacked much creativity, with none of the first four returns making it past the 30-yard line.
ESPN’s Mina Kimes shared a logical theory, speculating that teams could be saving their unique kickoff methods for the regular season, writing: “Feel like most special teams coordinators will hide their more creative approaches to the new kickoff during the preseason.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0