NFL's NEW Kickoff Rules & Strategies explained

They're STILL HIDING kickoff strategy [Music] here's Brody Brazil so by now we're already complete with week one of the NFL's preseason here in 2024 and a lot of you have already witnessed the League's brand new kickoff format it's interesting right I mean you've seen it with the XFL but you've never seen it like this for the NFL at least I haven't in my lifetime and before we get into some of the details and strategies and X's and O's let me also say that anything we've seen so far from NFL teams in the preseason is probably nothing like we'll actually see when the regular season rolls around why because if they have any good strategies whether it's on the kickoff side or the return side they certainly don't want to expose that here in the preseason so we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg but even that tip of the iceberg I think is kind of interesting if you've missed what this is all about The Dynamic Kickoff setup how it looks how it goes let me explain it first and then I'll do a little drawing here on the telestrator so the the setup is this the new kickoff format is basically borrowed from the XFL they tried it the NFL liked it they wanted to implement it for a couple different reasons player safety more of a football play a lot of different reasons which I'll get into in just a second but the way it works is like this the kicker is at their own 35 the kicking team is at the other 40 the return team is at their own 35 nobody moves on either side until the football lands or is touched there's also no more fair catches the NFL wants you to return the football they want a play to actually happen here they don't want the old wave and catch and then start the play they don't want the kickoff to be a pointless procedural play they want to make it an actual action play of that which I can respect they want to keep people safer they want to make it more of a play I do think they've kind of accomplish that here Examples with Telestrator although it looks yeah quite a bit different so this was the very first time we saw it at the Hall of Fame game in Canton there's the kicker you see returners back here you see the kicking team at the 40 you see the return team right there on their own 35 now I'll give you a better perspective but this Landing Zone which is already highlighted in green I'll I'll give it another go with yellow here I'll kind of do the landing Zone that's basically from the endzone out to the 20 that Landing zone is actually kind of critical I mean there's a lot of incentive I should not have done that in I'll do purple it it gives the kicker a lot of incentive to make that ball at least get somewhere in the landing Zone there's actually kind of a huge penalty if you're short of the landing Zone and it really doesn't benefit you to kick it through the end zone so there's a lot going on here I'll get to all the wh ifs in just a second but first just look at that I mean this this just looks so different from normal and I'll tell you what when the ball is in the air and and nobody's moving here usually everybody's lined up on the same line and when the kick happens everybody moves forward that's obviously not the case here anymore the other thing I I questioned I mean I didn't see a lot of this from training camps in terms of video footage or understanding it I kind of had some question about what the return team what the receiving team of the football would be doing here in this case the Texans are all looking that way which I think is the right thing to do because they can't even move until they know the ball has been caught or it hits somewhere on the grass the ball touches something obviously the kicking team they're already going this way so they can look this way but the interesting thing is right the receiving team they're all looking this way and as soon as the ball is touched or caught or touches the ground then they have to instantly turn around the other way and start the blocking sequence of of part of their strategy right so that's interesting that this receiving team kind of really has to have their head on a swivel that way and then this way and then try and create holes for their their returner to get through and have a chance of scoring a touchdown by the way or even just racking up some yards I find this interesting are we going to see a lot of running backs returning kicks because this is kind of more like a line of scrimmage now this whole thing and also I mean are we going to see because there's only really one line of defense here it's not a layered it's not a layered uh kickoff coverage what if you get through what if you get right through that and then it's only the kicker to beat are we going to have kickers who are more trained and more disciplined and actually tackling a ball carrier right because that would seem pretty critical now the kickers actually need to be able Rules and Details of NEW NFL kickoff to make a tackle they are they've always been kind of the last line of defense but now it might be a mono imano situation and they don't want to look foolish so here's the details if the kick doesn't reach that Landing Zone if it's short the ball goes out to the 40 right so there is some incentive to get it in that land ending Zone if the kick goes through the end zone or as a Touchback the ball is at the 35 so that's also some incentive to try and kick it so that that receiving team can return it if it goes in the landing Zone buts down in the end zone the ball goes out to the 20 and there are onside kicks still allowed I should be very clear about that there's no fair catches but there are onside kicks but it has to require declaration that that's what you're going to do you have to let the other team know you're going to go for an onside kick and then you actually have to go through with it you can't fake it right so the whole Dynamics here change and I find it very interesting I Takeaways I can't play the video for you I think I'll get in trouble copyright wise but you've probably already seen the clips so let me add some thoughts to the clips you've already seen number one yeah this is just a totally different look the ball's up and everybody's paused it it almost looks like a mistake and I I know we'll get used to this Honestly by October you won't even probably think twice about this you'll have seen it so many times but it's also weird because it used to be about hangtime I mean they put a graphic on the broadcast of how long hangtime was or on a punt for example how long hang time was but it's not about that anymore it's not about getting the kick up as high as possible and giving your your kicking team the opportunity to get downfield it's kind of more like hitting a line drive so that the receiving team doesn't really know what to do it's it's not it throws the receiving team off because you're not maybe giving them the slot or the hole that they were hoping for that they were trying to create in their in their return line um I do think this format is going to save some head injuries some terrible collisions I mean when you think about it when you've got two teams running at full speed and gaining Steam for five or 10 yards before contact before a collision I mean that's obviously asking for high speed high contact uh High Velocity impact right but in in this case it's more like a line of scrimmage thing between the 35 and 40 yard line and yeah the the return player who's got the football is kind of they do have the speed they have generated that energy but I I do think it is going to cause less crazy helmet to helmet collisions I also think it's a better football play it's more interesting more things can happen you're kind of kind of bunching up both teams at the 35 and 40 yard line to start so if you can break through that I'll get to that in just a second um but the return rate is just going to go up they said last year that the return rate was only about 20% they there were a lot of fair catches or balls that just went through the end zone and it's just a boring all right they had to kick it off and that's what happened we'll we'll start at the 20 fine but I also think that you're going to want to see more running backs out there there's going to be more strategy about who's returning these kickoffs and how about this if there really is that that one line to break through and then there's a last line of defense which is the kicker are we going to see more kickoffs return for touchdowns in 20124 than in the prior year or five or whatever but I don't know if it has to be that way even if it's the exact identical amount of returns for touchdowns off kickoffs this year as last year that's fine so long as less people get hurt there's more interesting plays I think that's kind of the end game of all this make it more of a football play make it interesting and yes sometimes somebody can find a hole and go all the way to the house doesn't necessarily have to be about that but even if there was a little sprinkle of more of that then I think people would like it the bottom line is if you can get rid of something that was boring and monotonous and procedural and spice it up a little bit and keep people safe then I actually think you're on to something good here for the NFL you've made it here to the end of this video you know I really appreciate that Thumbs Up Down Below that'll greatly help me in this video and this channel I would like that but I would also love it if you just take one quick second to make sure that you're subscribed to this channel that way I definitely get to see you back here next time