The NFL’s new kickoff rules made their debut in the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday night.
The game started with Texans returner Steven Sims taking a kick 21 yards to the team’s 26-yard-line and Tyler Scott of the Bears had a return of the same length after a Houston touchdown. Scott returned another kick 19 yards later in the game and there were seven overall returns for a total of 159 yards over the course of the evening.
Numbers like that won’t make a major impact on games, but Scott said after the game that he thinks the rules will result in bigger plays as the season unfolds.
“You grew up your whole life just catching it, having different levels and things of that nature; and now, everyone is kind of stacked,” Scott said, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com. “If a kick is kind of short, guys are right up on you. You’ve got to make one cut and go. I think there’s benefits to that, because if one guy misses, then you’re good. But at the same time, if you make the wrong cut, somebody is right there. So far, I feel like it kind of protects guys a little bit more. Guys aren’t getting a full head of steam coming down the field, taking shots on people. But I think for the most part, it’ll work out pretty good. Just think we’ll have a lot of explosive plays.”
If there are a lot of explosive plays, teams are likelier to just revert to kicking the ball through the end zone and taking touchbacks rather than risking big plays. That wasn’t the case Thursday, but there’s still a lot to play out with this year’s biggest change to how the game is played.