Kickoffs in the NFL are going to appearance really various in2024 And possibly beyond.
League owners authorized a guideline modification that will enormously modification the kick that begins every videogame and follows every scoring play. This reform, slated for a 1year pilot program next fall, would include numerous brand-new wrinkles to totallyfree kicks, preferably enabling for higher returns while gratifying kickers for precision. It would likewise, in theory, lower injuries associated to one of the most unsafe stages of the videogame.
So what’s brand-new? Well, the ball will still be positioned at the kicking group’s 35-yard line, everybody however the kicker will line up 25 lawns upfield at the getting group’s40 Five lawns away from them would be the veryfirst line of obstructing defense ahead of a optimum of 2 returners — a line that can’t go muchdeeper than the 30-yard line.
It’s a setup that looks like this.
There’s more than simply a cool development that leaves less space for protectors to develop up momentum before crashing into returners. The area from the getting group’s 20-yard line to the objective line is the landing zone. No one from the kicking group can cross the 40 till the ball either lands or is fielded there.
There are no reasonable captures. If the ball stopsworking to make it to the landing zone, the getting group takes over at its own 40-yard line. If the ball flies into the end zone, the getting group takes over at the 35 — a 10-yard boost from the previous touchback area. If the ball strikes the landing zone on the fly, then rolls into the end zone and is downed, the getting group takes