The NFL’s new and allegedly “dynamic” kickoff rules haven’t produced much excitement in the preseason, but that may be by design.
Browns special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone said he and other coaches around the league are going decidedly vanilla on their kickoffs because they don’t want to give their regular-season opponents any ideas.
“I don’t think I’ll show too much,” Ventrone said, via Cleveland.com.
Ventrone thinks that if a coach has a unique kickoff or return strategy that he’s confident will work, he’d be foolish to give it away before the games count.
“I don’t anticipate a lot of, I would say, variety and scheme showing up in these games,” he said. “I think coaches and teams are going to save a lot of their schemes, schematics for the regular season. I don’t think you’ll see a lot of variety in the preseason games.”
For that, we’ll have to wait for Week One.