6 votes

With the successful onside kick now a relic, the NFL will reconsider the fourth-and-15 proposal

1 comment

  1. tunneljumper
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    The kickoff really hasn't been made "safer." The rules were changed such that a touchback (where the receiving team kneels in the end zone without an attempt to run it) brought the ball out the...

    A team could have punted the ball away or tried for the first down. But now that the kickoff has been made safer, the talk of eliminating it from the sport has dissipated.

    The kickoff really hasn't been made "safer." The rules were changed such that a touchback (where the receiving team kneels in the end zone without an attempt to run it) brought the ball out the the 25-yard-line instead of the 20. The logic follows that there's a bigger incentive to take the touchback and get 25 free yards, instead of attempting to run it out and get less than that and also potentially risk injury.

    The problem is that the biggest risk of injury isn't in returning the ball, but rather that all of the body blows come from the coverage unit running downfield. It doesn't matter where the ball is spotted in a touchback -- 20, 25, 30, whatever -- because the kicking team is still running downfield full-force and hitting the receiving team, even if the receiver elects to take a touchback.

    Here's an example. The Falcons (kicking team in red) kick to #33 on the Patriots, who kneels in the endzone for a touchback, but there are still Falcons players running through the endzone to the whistle because they don't know if he's going to return it or not. Likewise, players setting up downfield (off-screen) don't know if the Pats receiver is going to touchback or not, so they play through the whistle as if he's returning it, including high-speed tackling and blocking. I am aware that there were other rule changes (no running start to the kicking team for example) but it feels like a band-aid on a bullet wound.

    With that out of the way, I really like this proposal ever since I heard Greg Schiano discuss it. It offers a lot more nuance and subtlety than an onside kick when everyone expects it.

    5 votes