If Sean McVay is having a hard time getting used to the NFL’s new kickoffs, just imagine what everyone else will think of it.
McVay, the Los Angeles Rams coach, still doesn’t know what to make of the biggest new wrinkle for the NFL’s 2024 season. The NFL completely changed its kickoffs, adopting the approach from the XFL where the kickoff team (aside from the kicker) lines up on the other side of the field, then they and the return team’s blockers can’t move until the kick hits the ground or is fielded by a returner.
It’s going to take a really long time to get used to the new kickoffs. Even McVay is having issues wrapping his head around it.
“It just feels weird,” McVay said, via Rams Wire. “It doesn’t look like anything that has been anything I’ve been familiar with football. I know the intent is right. We’ll try to figure it out. I know everybody that’s been involved in that has their intentions in the right place but it’s a very foreign-looking play.”
In the most inoffensive way possible, it seems like the Rams coach is not a fan of what the NFL is calling its “dynamic kickoff.”
The kickoffs debuted in last week’s Hall of Fame Game, and McVay is right: It looks strange.
For the first time… the Dynamic Kickoff : @ProFootballHOF Game on ESPN/ABC: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/wga0LmuvtH
NFL (@NFL) August 2, 2024
The kickoffs were changed for two main reasons: the return rate on kickoffs hit an all-time low last season, and the traditional kickoffs were found to lead to more injuries than any other play. The new kickoffs should generate more returns and the NFL believes it will bring the injury rate down to that of a normal scrimmage play.
Since the touchback changes depending on where the ball lands a kickoff that falls in the “landing zone” and is downed after going to the end zone will be a touchback to the 20-yard line, a kickoff that reaches the end zone on a fly and is downed will be a touchback to the 30-yard line and a kickoff that fails to reach the 20-yard line will be a touchback at the 40-yard line will lead every NFL team to have strategic discussions about how to approach the new kickoff.
And because teams don’t like revealing much in the preseason, McVay said any strategic wrinkles probably won’t be used in August.
“I don’t believe that the preseason is going to give us an indication of what this play looks like because I think a lot of teams that have some schematic things, they’re not going to show it just like we wouldn’t as well,” McVay said.
It’s rare that a new NFL rule makes a play look entirely different than anything we’ve seen before. That’s the new NFL kickoff rule. We’ll see if people end up liking it, once they finally get adjusted to seeing it.