The NFL has made a revolutionary change to the kickoff rule. It could have massive changes to the game — or perhaps none at all.
Jets special-teams coordinator Brant Boyer recently added to the chorus of voices addressing a new formation and approach that, ideally, will result in many more live plays.
“It’s a big challenge with all these new rules,” Boyer said, via Brian Costello of the New York Post. “It’s kind of a wait-and-see kind of deal, and you see what fits and what works and what kicks are best and who’s doing it, all that stuff. I think there’s a huge unknown, to be honest with you. We’ve done nothing but study and study and study, and been in here almost every day, to be honest with you, trying to figure out what’s going to work best, but nobody knows until you strap it up and the preseason games start.”
It will be interesting to see the balance that teams strike between experimenting with the new rule and keeping their plans for the games that count close to the vest. The Jets, based on Boyer’s comments, apparently plan to use the three-game preseason to figure out how it will work.
“It all looks good on paper what we all have planned and what we try to do, but at the end of the day, nobody knows until we get out there in the preseason, and that’s the truth,” Boyer said.
The real question, as we’ve discussed on multiple occasions, is whether teams will put the ball in play or kick if out of the end zone and concede the 30. With the expected average field position being in the range of the 28 or 29, why not just give up the extra yard and avoid the risk of a long return or a touchdown?
All coaches will surely be asking themselves that question. Many of them might decide not to pin their careers on becoming guinea pigs for the league’s effort to resuscitate a play it had slowly suffocated.