New kickoff rule in action

[SlammedZero]

My initial reaction is that it sucks. I'm willing to give it a chance though. Just seems so weird, like I am not watching an NFL game. lol

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

My initial reaction is that it sucks. I'm willing to give it a chance though. Just seems so weird, like I am not watching an NFL game. lol

Pretty much how I felt lol

 

[Creeper]

This is a big change and it is going to take some time for fans to adjust to the new rules. But I prefer the old rules. I h ave no problem kicking every kickoff into the end zone for a touch back. The few kickoff returns we see every year are some of the most exciting plays in football, but that's because they are rare.

I know they changed the rule because of injuries, but I haven't seen any stats on injuries during kickoffs. Are there really that many injuries on kickoffs? And what about punts? Less injuries?

 

[DoctorChicken]

Here it is.



It looks like it’s going to result in a lot more returns. One of the commenters on instagram said Devin Hester would return 2 every game.

 

[gtb1943]

The onside kick rules are just plain bad.
this garbage about having to warn the other team is beyond bad

 

[gtb1943]

This is a big change and it is going to take some time for fans to adjust to the new rules. But I prefer the old rules. I h ave no problem kicking every kickoff into the end zone for a touch back. The few kickoff returns we see every year are some of the most exciting plays in football, but that's because they are rare.

I know they changed the rule because of injuries, but I haven't seen any stats on injuries during kickoffs. Are there really that many injuries on kickoffs? And what about punts? Less injuries?

there are not that many injuries; and the NFL claiming they care is just for PR purposes. Here is a clue: NONE of these changes were requested by the players or players union.
IT is quite true that not many onside kicks work but it does happen and games are made more exciting with that play being possible; the new changes have diminished the chances of it working to the point where only a fluke or a bad play will make it work

 

[thunderpimp91]

This is a big change and it is going to take some time for fans to adjust to the new rules. But I prefer the old rules. I h ave no problem kicking every kickoff into the end zone for a touch back. The few kickoff returns we see every year are some of the most exciting plays in football, but that's because they are rare.

I know they changed the rule because of injuries, but I haven't seen any stats on injuries during kickoffs. Are there really that many injuries on kickoffs? And what about punts? Less injuries?

Yeah kickoff had a significantly higher number of injuries. It was something around 30% of all ACL injuries happened on kickoffs and the concussions were something like 7x higher but I don't have a source to point to to confirm those numbers.

Punts are not as bad and this new kickoff is essentially set up to sort of replicate a punt return type of play

 

[MarcusRock]

Which is why I think a team should have a choice between an onside kick or a 4th and 12 conversion.

4th and 12 is too short. It has to be more difficult to mirror the almost impossible odds of an onside kick. Something like 4th and 25 or higher.

 

[gtb1943]

Yeah kickoff had a significantly higher number of injuries. It was something around 30% of all ACL injuries happened on kickoffs and the concussions were something like 7x higher but I don't have a source to point to to confirm those numbers.

Punts are not as bad and this new kickoff is essentially set up to sort of replicate a punt return type of play

percentages sound great but sometimes the actual numbers are very small and since medical science can almost alwqays fix this maybe that is why the players union has not requested any of theses rule changes
Remember the SB when the Saints did the onside kick by surprise; that opportunity is now gone

 

[America's Cowboy]

This is a big change and it is going to take some time for fans to adjust to the new rules. But I prefer the old rules. I h ave no problem kicking every kickoff into the end zone for a touch back. The few kickoff returns we see every year are some of the most exciting plays in football, but that's because they are rare.

I know they changed the rule because of injuries, but I haven't seen any stats on injuries during kickoffs. Are there really that many injuries on kickoffs? And what about punts? Less injuries?

Here is what the NFL likely found and used as its basis to change the kickoff rule...

Here is the article describing in full detail of their in-depth investigation and analysis of all NFL injuries from 2017 - 2021, the different types of injuries and which happened either during kickoff / punts or regular plays in the NFL.

https://www.sportsinfosolutions.com/2022/04/06/study-what-is-so-dangerous-about-special-teams-plays/

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

Always trying to fix what wasn't broke.

 

[thunderpimp91]

percentages sound great but sometimes the actual numbers are very small and since medical science can almost alwqays fix this maybe that is why the players union has not requested any of theses rule changes
Remember the SB when the Saints did the onside kick by surprise; that opportunity is now gone

I do hate the new rules when it comes to onside kicks and hope they figure something out there. Ultimately though you're going to get more plays that can impact games by actually have some sort of kickoff rather than having 70% go for touchbacks and 1-2 surprise onside kicks per season.

Percentages can be misleading, but they speak volumes here when you consider than kickoffs make up less than 10% of all plays, and most of those are touchbacks. Ultimately how many guys need to get their bell rung and risk their quality of life in their 50s so that we can see an occasional surprise onside kick?

In a perfect world i'd much rather have the old kickoff rules with wedge blocks and all, but its become such a non play it seems dumb to let guys destroy their bodies over it. Especially considering these ST guys are often bottom of the roster players making league minimum and are often out of the league before they get a veteran deal.

 

[fivetwos]

Which is why I think a team should have a choice between an onside kick or a 4th and 12 conversion.

Can’t agree with you on that one my good friend.

A gassed defense who just gave up a score shouldn’t be asked to make a play just to keep possession….especially with all the bogus/questionable flags that are thrown.

I’m just not in favor of making it easier to come back after you got whipped all day, but I understand how the league thinks and they want the opposite for ratings.

Really, the kickoff would probably have already been gone entirely if not for the onside factor.

 

[jazzcat22]

4th and 12 is too short. It has to be more difficult to mirror the almost impossible odds of an onside kick. Something like 4th and 25 or higher.

I think it was Philly for the past 3 or 4 years proposed a 4th and 20 play. But can't remember from what yard line.

 

[Creeper]

Here is what the NFL likely found and used as its basis to change the kickoff rule...

Here is the article describing in full detail of their in-depth investigation and analysis of all NFL injuries from 2017 - 2021, the different types of injuries and which happened either during kickoff / punts or regular plays in the NFL.

https://www.sportsinfosolutions.com/2022/04/06/study-what-is-so-dangerous-about-special-teams-plays/

Thanks, this is interesting but note that this analysis combines kickoffs and punts when looking at specific types of injuries, including head and knee. Maybe they have more data to show kickoffs are more dangerous than punts?

Also, this study deals in percentages not numbers. So if the number of head injuries on kickoffs is hypothetically 5 in a year out of 20 total, 25% sounds bad, but if we assume 6 kickoffs per game over 17 games there are 3264 kickoffs per year. How many head injuries is significant given that number of actual plays?

Also, given the new rule incentivizes kicking teams to kick the ball in play forcing a runback, instead of kicking the ball into the end zone and spotting the ball on the 25 with no runback, will result in more injuries.

As I said, I don't like this radical rule change But I can be open minded.

 

[America's Cowboy]

Thanks, this is interesting but note that this analysis combines kickoffs and punts when looking at specific types of injuries, including head and knee. Maybe they have more data to show kickoffs are more dangerous than punts?

Also, this study deals in percentages not numbers. So if the number of head injuries on kickoffs is hypothetically 5 in a year out of 20 total, 25% sounds bad, but if we assume 6 kickoffs per game over 17 games there are 3264 kickoffs per year. How many head injuries is significant given that number of actual plays?

Also, given the new rule incentivizes kicking teams to kick the ball in play forcing a runback, instead of kicking the ball into the end zone and spotting the ball on the 25 with no runback, will result in more injuries.

As I said, I don't like this radical rule change But I can be open minded.

Correct. Excellent clarification brother.

 

[thunderpimp91]

Thanks, this is interesting but note that this analysis combines kickoffs and punts when looking at specific types of injuries, including head and knee. Maybe they have more data to show kickoffs are more dangerous than punts?

Also, this study deals in percentages not numbers. So if the number of head injuries on kickoffs is hypothetically 5 in a year out of 20 total, 25% sounds bad, but if we assume 6 kickoffs per game over 17 games there are 3264 kickoffs per year. How many head injuries is significant given that number of actual plays?

Also, given the new rule incentivizes kicking teams to kick the ball in play forcing a runback, instead of kicking the ball into the end zone and spotting the ball on the 25 with no runback, will result in more injuries.

As I said, I don't like this radical rule change But I can be open minded.

Most data points shows as percentages when dealing with injuries because so many go unreported, especially head injuries. Last year the NFL reported 219 concussions. If we use the chart AC shared we can assume roughly 17% of those happened on a punt/kickoff. My guess is that the majority of these are kickoff related, but we can just split it in half to simplify things which comes out to roughly 19 concussions. This is not a super high number that you'll be able to substantially cut into.

The real issue that you run into is that before the league started adjusting kickoff rules to promote touchbacks, eliminate wedge blocking, etc you had concussion numbers in the 250-300 range annually and this was before the league cracked down on reporting head injuries, having a designated person watch for head injuries, etc. so we would assume the true number to be even higher.

Last season we had 2615 kickoffs in the regular season, 1906 of which went for touchbacks. 709 kickoff returns with 19 concussions which is 1 every 37 plays.

That is the big issue for the NFL....how do they not have 75% of their kickoffs be non events while keeping the concussion numbers from going back up in the process. Similar to their reasoning with moving the extra point back they want to keep eyes glued to the screen during these plays, but need to do it in a way that keeps the NFLPA, media, etc from getting on them about player safety.

 

[MarcusRock]

I think it was Philly for the past 3 or 4 years proposed a 4th and 20 play. But can't remember from what yard line.

They should make it from your own 10 so if you don't make it, the other team is already in FG range or goal-to-go if they want to try for a TD. All desperate teams would try it when they have no other option but the mechanics would result in higher margins of victory so I'm not sure Vegas or the NFL would want that. The closer the game, the better for them.

 

[speedkilz88]

 

[Blackspider214]

Fixing what wasn't broke.

The kickoff in terms of garnering up returns was 100% broke. They moved up the kickoffs by 5 yards to the 35 and NFL kickers can routinely boot it out of the endzone now. This is a list of team by team and the touchback percentage.

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/kickoff-touchback-pct

I applaud the change. Kickoffs in its original form was pretty dangerous as you have players get a full head of steam running down the field and violently colliding with each other. This is why the moved the kickoffs up 5 yards, to cut down on the returns. Which has effectively taken away returns happening with any sort of regularity. Rules committee knows this and needed to make a change of some sort if they want any sort of chance to bring back the return.