As part of its determination to dominate sports media all year round, the NFL held one of its scheduled owners’ meetings this week and tweaked some of the rules. In order to minimize the incentive for teams kicking off to simply kick the ball out of the end zone, the league moved the starting point for offensive drives out to the 35-yardline instead of the 30-yardline. The underlying idea here is to add more kickoff returns to the game because kickoff returns can be exciting plays.
The institution of the so-called “Dynamic Kickoff” where the defenders do not get a running start for 40-50 yards before colliding with blockers and returners was done to promote more returns and to reduce player injuries. Nonetheless, special teams’ coaches and defensive coordinators seemed willing to have the offense take possession at the 30-yardline because less than a third of the kickoffs were actually returned last season. Nonetheless, the rule had some positive result because there were 300 more kickoffs returned in NFL regular season games in 2024 than there were in 2023.
According to reports, there may be some more changes to this rule after the owners meet again in late May. In the meantime, it seems to me that the rules mavens may be setting the incentives incorrectly here. Suppose the rule went like this:
- Kickoff goes out of the end zone on the fly and the ball comes out to the 35 yardline.
- Kickoff goes into the end zone and is not returned by the receiving team, and the ball only comes out to the 20-yardline. [Aside: That was the rule for decades in the NFL.]
Now, the incentive is for the receiving team to do something other than take a knee and for the kicking team to keep the ball on the field of play. If they keep the player lineups as they were in 2024, they will have more kickoff returns in a situation where it appears injuries were also reduced. Just a thought …
Another rule change for 2025 is that regular season overtime games will use the same rule for overtime as in playoff games in the sense that both teams will be guaranteed to have the ball on offense. Under this rule, it is advantageous for the team winning the overtime coin toss to choose to kick off. By doing that, the team winning the coin toss will know exactly what it needs to accomplish on its possession to win or tie the game and that is a significant advantage. On balance, I like the new rule better than the old rule for regular season overtime games.
Regular season overtime games will differ from playoff overtime games in terms of the length of the game. In the regular season, overtime is limited to 10 minutes; in playoff games, play goes on until there is a winner and a loser. Since the NFL playoffs are single elimination, such is a necessity for playoff games.
Another change for 2025 will be a new authority granted to the on-site replay official. Starting next year, the on-site replay official will be allowed to reverse penalty flags for hits on defenseless players, facemask/horse collar violations and the distinction between roughing the kicker and running into the kicker. However, this new authority only allows for reversal of penalties called on the field, the replay official cannot “discover” a new penalty while reviewing a play no matter how obvious that might be. Again, this sounds like an improvement to me.
The most revolutionary rule change for 2025 involves measuring for first downs; the chain gang will have “secondary responsibility” – – whatever that means – – and measurement will use visual technology developed by Sony. The system is called “Hawk-Eye”, and it will be operated in the Game Day facility in NY; the system does its calculating, and that result will be communicated to the officials on the field theoretically in less time than it takes for the chain gang to come onto and off the field. I guess the chain gang’s presence in “secondary responsibility” is insurance if there is a technology hiccough during the games.
Several proposed rule changes were tabled for further consideration at the meeting in May.
- Should the “tush-push” continue to be allowed as a legal offensive play? If it is deemed to be improper, then I think any and all plays where ball carriers are assisted by teammates should be outlawed.
- Should there be rule changes to increase the probability of recovery for onside kicks? I would have to see the proposed new rules to know if I like these or not.
- Should playoff seeding in each conference be based on regular season records as opposed to division championships? I would vote for this one immediately.
One proposed rule change was voted down. The Lions proposed that the automatic first down that accompanies a defensive holding call or an illegal contact call be removed as part of the penalty. I think the owners got this one right; if the automatic first down were removed, I think there would be a spike in defensive holding and illegal contact situations and that would not be a plus for the games.
Switching gears … Set yourself a reminder for tomorrow evening at 6:00 PM ET so that you do not miss the NCAA semi-finals on CBS. There are no “pretenders” left; each team in both games is worthy of winning it all; Saturday night should be great sports entertainment. I said two weeks ago that I thought Duke/Florida would be an entertaining Final Game; that matchup remains a possibility …
Finally, another gem from Al McGuire:
“I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would really be educated.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
A couple of comments today… the hypocrisy of the NFL never fails to astound me. The teams that can’t run the “brotherly shove” well complain about the injury risk. Then, even with the increase of risk of injuries in kickoff returns, they change the rule to increase the number of kickoff returns (yeah, I know that they say the risk has been lowered by the recent change in placement of the kickoff team). If they truly wanted to reduce injury risk, just put the ball at the 20 or 30 on the post-score change of possession and start drives from there.
As to the presence of the chain gang even with the technology, my first thought was that the presence of the chain gang provides the players with visual confirmation of where the line is when striving for additional yardage or choosing to go out of bounds at a specific spot. I think that’s another important aspect of keeping the gang in place.
Gary:
There are indeed counter-currents in the discussion of the rule changes for the NFL. But so always as been the case…
One point that may make you not opt to kick away the ball in OT – what if the opponent controls the ball on their drive? Takes 7 or 8 minutes? You have to rush your drive.
Ed:
If my defense is not totally gassed at the OT coin toss, I would take that gamble if I won the toss. Remember, the first offensive team tells me what I need to do with my possession meaning I have a guaranteed 4 downs on every possession until the game is over.
I find NFL kickoffs to be extremely boring.
TenaciousP:
Some folks would argue that a kickoff return is the most exciting play in football. I don’t agree with that, but I would not call them “extremely boring” either.