During the off-season, the NFL rules committee continued their attempts to make the game safer by tinkering with kick returns rules, which have led to quite a few complaints from special teams players. A new rule the committee will implement this season and revisit after the season is over is the placement of the ball after touchbacks. While the tinkering won’t affect online NFL betting odds, it will change the way teams approach returns and according to the critics, make kickoffs less exciting.
The new rule the committee approved will move the spot of the ball after a touchback to the 25 yard line as opposed to the 20 yard line, where the ball used to be placed. The reasoning behind the new change is that it will give teams an incentive to kneel on the ball in the end zone instead of returning the kick.
By kneeling on the ball, players won’t return the kick, which will reduce the chances of injuries occurring during kickoffs, which the committee believes is the most dangerous play in all of football.
Despite the committee making these rules to try and make the game safer, teams have shown that they aren’t big fans of the changes. When the committee moved the spot of the kickoff closer to the end zone, teams started kicking the ball short so their opponents have to return the kick.
The decision to kick short isn’t an attempt by teams to stick it to the committee, it’s just that having opponents return kicks gives the kicking team a chance to cause a turnover, which can change the tide of a game.
If the teams continue kicking the ball short of the goal line, it will mean that the committee’s attempts to make the game safer failed because the people that actually play the game like the rules the way they were.
Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer and John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens, have publicly criticized the new rules because they believe teams will continue to kick the ball short to circumvent the rule.
Zimmer told reporters that he doesn’t see the rule lasting long because it will cause teams to kick short and won’t help the committee achieve what they are trying to accomplish.
Harbaugh called the effort misappropriated and said it would be more effective if the committee does away with the kickoffs than just continue to change the rules every year. Harbaugh cautioned that by trying to eliminate kickoff returns, the committee will make the games less exciting. After wondering if the goal of the committee is to make the game less exciting, Harbaugh said there are better ways to make the game safer.
The first week of the preseason showed that Harbaugh and Zimmer weren’t wrong. Teams repeatedly opted for shorter kicks than to kick into the end zone, proving that they would rather have their opponents run the kick back than get a touchback.
It will be interesting to see what the committee does after the season if teams continue kicking the ball short. The one thing everyone is sure about is that if they attempt to eliminate kickoffs entirely, they will have to deal with more than a few upset fans.
