I don't like these new kick off rules as I have yet to see the benefit. I actually used liked the guys lining up and runnng down the field gladiator style. Is it just me or these new kickoff rules good?
It looks almost like they are trying to simulate a similar dynamic to punt returns on the kickoffs, Those straight-line burner return guys became extinct in 2024. Scatback types and Deebo Samuel are now the flavor of those kickoffs. The Jets should put Braelon Allen in on those kickoffs.
I'm not sure the players have even figured this out yet--After we scored a TD and the Pats got a misconduct penalty, Greg the leg almost kicked it out of bounds apparently on purpose. If it wasn't for a bad play by the pats returner actually playing the ball, they would have had it at the 40.
Why don’t teams just squib low liners into the landing zone and make only two players try to get it? I’m shocked I haven’t seen it yet.
Not enough incentive to try and land it in the landing zone. If the penalty was pushing the ball to the 35 or 40, you would probably see way more kick returns. Most people are getting the ball around the 30 while returning it but you get the risk of giving up a long return. Not worth it IMO.
They'll probably change 15 things about it during the next rules meeting just like the XFL did every year with their kickoffs. This whole thing feels like they wanted to throw turds at a wall to see which ones stick. This is Microsoft forcing users to do their beta testing.
They started lining up the kickoff on the 35 yard line because they wanted more touchbacks to avoid injuries from high speed collisions on returns. Now they decided that kickoffs were too boring and formulaic because they accomplished their goal by creating more touchbacks. So what do they do? Create new rules which, again, discourage returns, and so we're in the same position we were in last year, but with more convoluted rules.
