NFL owners approve wild new kickoff rule: Here’s everything you need to know about the one-year trial run

The NFL kickoff will be undergoing a dramatic change for the 2024 season.  

CBS Sport lead NFL insider Jonathan Jones has reported that the NFL’s 32 owners officially approved the new kickoff proposal at the Annual League Meeting on Tuesday. It looked like the owners were originally going to vote on the rule Monday, but several were apprehensive about making such a dramatic change to the NFL rule book. The NFL decided to hold off for 24 hours before voting on the kickoff rule and delaying the vote ended up working. 

Jones has reported that the rule has been approved on a one-year trial basis only, which means the NFL can scrap it if the rule doesn’t lead to more returns, which is what the league is hoping to see. 

The new kickoff is nothing like the old kickoff. The proposal alone was 9.5 pages long, so it’s a lot to digest. 

With that in mind, we’re going to take a look at what the new rule entails and what the kickoff look like going forward (You might want to bookmark this page in case you ever need an explainer on the new rule). 

First, the formation will be quite different from anything you’ve ever seen before on a kickoff in an NFL game. 

Of the 22 players on the field for the play, 21 of them will be in the receiving team’s territory. That number will break down like this for the kicking team: 

Kicker will be by himself. The kicker will set up the ball at his own 35-yard line and after kicking it, he won’t be able to cross midfield until the ball is in play. The ball will be considered in play if the returner catches it or if the ball hits the ground in the landing zone or if the ball gets to the end zone. Coverage team will be lined up together. The other 10 players on the kicking team will be lining up at the receiving team’s 40-yard line. Each player has to have at least one foot on the 40 before the play can start. Also, the kicking team has to have five players on…


Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-owners-approve-wild-new-kickoff-rule-heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-one-year-trial-run/

Author : John Breech

Publish date : 2024-03-26 13:40:06

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