Well, football fans, it looks like we’re going to have to wait for the 4th-and-15 idea to make the wretched onside kick obsolete in the NFL.
NFL owners were mulling over a bunch of potential rule changes and creating an untimed 4th-and-15 down from the kicking team’s 25-yard line as an alternative to the onside kick was one of them. Last week, it actually seemed possible that the league would end up doing it.
This week, apparently that has changed. At least for now. The owners are scrapping the rule change and tabling the conversation for another time, according to reports from NFL Network. Basically, close but no cigar.
NFL owners have tabled the 4th-and-15 alternative to the onside kick, I’m told. Further discussion needed.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 28, 2020
Listen, man. If anyone from the NFL is reading this: GET IT TOGETHER. This is the right thing to do. Go ahead and do it.
The league is right to consider an alternative to the onside kick. Simple math says so.
Pretty much no one recovers onside kicks these days — well, except the Falcons. Because they have Onside Kick God Younghoe Koo, but still! Everyone else struggles.
The all-time recovery rate on onside kicks is 13.2%, according to NFL Operations. But that number has dropped to around 10% since 2018 because of new kicking rules.
Meanwhile, teams have been generally better than that over the last few years at converting on fourth and long.
No more onside kick?
On 4th-and-15, @NFL teams were collectively…
2019: 2/7 (28.6%)
2015-2019: 7/29 (24.1%)
via 👉🏻 @NFLResearch
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) May 21, 2020
Come on, NFL. This is a no-brainer. We’ve got to be honest about onside kicks — they’re not fun, they’re anticlimactic and they’re dangerous. Fourth and 15 plays are not only safer, but they also bring more actual excitement to the game.
It’s really a win-win for everyone. And it’s not like the onside kick would be gone — there’d just be a new alternative to it. So, if a team wants, they could still use it. I’m speaking to you here, Falcons fans. There’s no good reason not to get this done.
This is a chance for the NFL to do something out of the box and exciting, so of course they’re going to pass on it for now. But there’s still a chance. The league just needs to stop playing around and do it.
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