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A year after resuscitating the kickoff, the NFL wants to breathe new life into the onside kick. And sources believe it could look fairly similar to the old onside kick.
The NFL’s football operations team and competition committee plan to convene this offseason to discuss changes to the onside kick that will increase the odds of a recovery. This season, only three of the 41 onside kick attempts have been recovered by the kicking team.
“We need to look at that. That’s a dead play,” NFL EVP of football operations Troy Vincent said this week at league meetings. “That is a ceremonial play. Very low recovery rate. When we look at the kickoff and maybe where the touchback area should be during the offseason, we need to revisit the onside kick.”
The NFL spent the majority of its offseason kicking energy last year on the so-called dynamic kickoff, opting against pursuing any real changes to the onside that would help recovery rates. In fact, the dynamic kickoff likely hurt the onside kick because it forced teams to both declare the kick — eliminating the surprise onside kick — and allowing it only in the fourth quarter.
Vincent said all options are on the table where it concerns the play. The league has flirted with alternatives like the fourth-and-long model, but it has never gotten any legs.
Years ago the Broncos proposed a fourth-and-15 alternative. Last year, the Eagles proposed a fourth-and-20 alternative that was similar to Denver’s proposal. The idea is to get an offensive play that has a similar success rate to the old onside recovery rate.
Another noted the potential for a defensive pass interference within the fourth-and-long alternative ultimately giving a team possession. DPI is already the biggest penalty on the league’s books, and through 14 weeks the NFL has seen 240 DPI penalties accepted. It’s the second-most at this point of the season in the last decade. Only 2020, which…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/thats-a-dead-play-onside-kicks-need-to-be-revitalized-and-the-nfl-plans-to-discuss-changes-this-offseason/
Author : Jonathan Jones
Publish date : 2024-12-13 18:25:00
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