NFL Kickoffs Are About to Get Weird

No, the kicker didn't stumble. That kick was supposed to be terrible. In the NFL, ugly kickoffs are a strategy now. Instead of just one straight into the end zone, teams have used this preseason to experiment with low, bouncing squib kicks that wobble and veer like knuckleballs. The shift comes after the league tweaked its rules again this offseason, reports the Wall Street Journal. Now, a touchback gives the receiving team the ball at the 35-yard line—which is just a few plays from field-goal range—which means kicking it deep is suddenly costly. "There's a real strong penalty with how the rules are putting the ball in the end zone," said Tracy Smith, special teams coordinator for the Carolina Panthers—one of the teams trying the new strategy.

Last year, when the league first tried to revitalize kickoffs, the change barely moved the needle. But giving opponents the ball at the 35 may be too much of a freebie for some teams, so there's a strong incentive to aim for the the designated "landing zone" between the goal line and the 20. That's where the "dynamic kickoff" comes in: If the ball bounces, the coverage team can sprint immediately, often reaching the returner before he's sure where the ball is. "So naturally, I would think that is a really smart thing to at least try out," said Shawn Syed, football integration lead at sports analytics startup SumerSports.

However, it was actually the league's intention for the rule change to promote more kickoff returns. According to the AP (via the NFL), the goal was to improve on last season's 32.8% kick return rate. "By moving the touchback to the 35, the league projects that the return rate will rise to somewhere between 60% and 70%, with a similar increase in long returns, adding more excitement to the game." But the early returns (no punt intended) show great results for the teams that have played around with short, bouncing kicks. Coverage units are pinning returners inside the 25 with surprising ease, so analysts expect more copycats once the regular season begins. Return teams will surely adapt, but there's no clean counter as of yet. "I can't say this is definitely going to be the best," Syed said, "But I think at least trying it is pretty fun."