BOSTON — For the final decade-plus, the NFL has tried to change the kickoff to attempt to enhance participant security with out eliminating the play altogether. Now, the league is about for its most vital change but.
House owners on Tuesday voted to approve the brand new kickoff guidelines, which implies the standard play that each soccer fan associates with the kickoff will not happen on the planet’s hottest soccer league.
The brand new rule, briefly, is near being a replica of the kickoff that is been used within the XFL. This is what it seems like:
The rule locations 10 members of the kicking group lining up on the receiving group’s 40-yard line. They can not transfer till the kick is both caught or hits the bottom.
The receiving group may have a minimum of 9 gamers lined up within the “arrange zone” between their very own 30 and 35-yard traces, with seven of these gamers having a foot on the 35-yard line, with particular alignment necessities. These gamers can also’t transfer till the ball is caught or hits the bottom.
That units nearly all of the kickoff group and the kick return group 5 yards other than one another, thus mitigating high-speed collisions.
A most of two gamers on the return group can line up within the “touchdown zone,” between the top zone and the 20-yard line. They’re free to maneuver as desired and/or wanted previous to the kick being caught or hitting the bottom.
Any kick that lands within the touchdown zone is stay, which means it needs to be returned, or else the kicking group can get well it as a unfastened ball.
Kicks that land brief of the touchdown zone are thought-about to be the identical as a kickoff out of bounds, with the receiving group gaining possession at their very own 40-yard line.
Kickoffs that journey into the top zone by the air could be downed for a touchback, with the ball going out to the 30-yard line. (The unique proposal had these going out to the 35-yard line.)
However a wrinkle exists there: If the ball lands within the touchdown zone and bounces into the top zone, then a touchback solely strikes the ball to the 20-yard line. That rule will encourage groups to return any kick that comes down in need of the aim line.
Moreover, no truthful catches can be allowed on kickoffs. And if the ball is blown off the tee by the wind, kickers can use a kicking arm to carry it in place. (Beforehand, a teammate would maintain the ball on the tee. However with the kicking group downfield, that is not an possibility.) Lastly, the setup zone and touchdown zone will not change if any penalties carry over into the kickoff. Solely the situation of the kick will change.
Whereas this rule possible means the dying of the onside kick, there’s a rule permitting onside kicks to be tried within the fourth quarter. A group trailing within the fourth quarter is allowed to aim one, although they need to announce their intentions earlier than the play. The present onside kick guidelines apply from that time ahead.
The brand new rule was accepted on a trial foundation for the 2024 season, and will probably be reevaluated subsequent offseason.