Tag: kickoff rule

Chiefs Dave Toub details plans for the new kickoff rule utilizing Harrison Butker

Kansas City #Chiefs Dave Toub details plans for the new kickoff rule utilizing Harrison Butker | @EdEastonJr

The Kansas City Chiefs are preparing for the new season at training camp with various new procedures and personnel.

Chiefs Special Teams Coordinator Dave Toub spoke with reporters after Saturday’s practice. He focused on the new kickoff rules this season and broke down his plans for the Chiefs, including personnel and hitting the target zone.

“(Harrison) Butker’s gonna be our main kickoff guy, I mean, hands down. Because he can move the ball and do a lot of different things, he’s our most talented kickoff guy,” said Toub. “Other guys that can kick off, Justin (Reid) and Louis (Rees-Zammit), he’ll be able to kick off and be able to cover, so you just want them to get the ball into the target zone, where you’re trying to pin them down there, just with a good kick, and you’ve actually got eleven guys covering instead of ten.”

The change in kickoff rules will require the kicker to be more involved in coverage and get physical. The other change will be the location of the kick, which will hit a specific target zone.

“We’ve learned that you want to try to kick the ball without a lot of hang time. (It’s) a low ball that probably goes inside the 10, but maybe skips into the end zone,” said Toub. “A ball that they can’t get to right away. If they catch a ball on a line drive at the 10-yard line, it’s gonna be easy for them to get it out to the 30 like that, so you have to try to kick it away from the returners if you can. Hit it into the target zone and skip it into the end zone, possibly for a touchback where you get the ball at the 20. That’s the ultimate goal on the kickoff.”

The process of adjusting to the new rules will be ongoing, and there are expected to be more penalties during the preseason and early weeks of the regular season.

Chiefs HC Andy Reid warns NFL’s new kickoff rule could be a slippery slope

#Chiefs HC Andy Reid issued a warning about the NFL’s new fair catch rule on kickoffs: “You don’t want to take too many pieces away or you’re going to be playing flag football.”

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It seems that Tommy Townsend isn’t the only member of the Kansas City Chiefs’ organization to have some concerns about the NFL’s new fair catch rule on kickoffs.

Chiefs HC Andy Reid was asked about the rule change during his media availability on Wednesday. He doesn’t quite know what to expect from it, but he’s not too keen on modifying the game in that way. He feels it could be a slippery slope that eventually leads to the NFL becoming an entirely different game.

“I don’t know, we’ll have to go through all that,” Reid said of the rule change. “My thing is, where does it stop? I mean, you start taking pieces and you know, we’ll see how this goes but you don’t want to take too many pieces away or you’re going to be playing flag football.”

The most awkward part about all of this is that the Chiefs were one of the 26 teams to vote to approve the one-year trial run of this new rule. So, there seems to be some friction between ownership, coaches and players as it relates to this particular change.

Ownership is clearly looking out for the NFL seeing this as an opportunity to potentially lower concussion and injury rates. Meanwhile, players and coaches are more concerned about the integrity of the game they know and love. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle, but right now there doesn’t appear to be much of an agreeable middle ground.

If this rule is adopted beyond the one-year trial run in 2023, it could cause some more strife at the expense of the special teams phase.

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Patriots reportedly one of five teams that vetoed new kickoff rule

The Patriots were reportedly one of five teams that said “no” to new NFL kickoff rule.

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The New England Patriots were one of five teams that voted against a new touchback rule, which will allow the receiving team to start automatically at the 25-yard line after a fair catch, according to SI.com’s Albert Breer.

The Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions were the other teams that reportedly voted against the proposed rule change.

The interesting thing about this rule is that it was only approved for the 2023 season. That would have given it a chance to be re-evaluated in 2024, according to a report from NESN’s Zack Cox.

This rule could be a major shift in the special teams aspect of the game as we know it. One has to wonder if the Patriots will shift their line of thinking for 2024.

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