The National Football League changed the kickoff rules to reward teams with an extra five yards of field position for taking a knee in the end zone. It may be a small sample size, but with two games still to play it would appear the new kickoff incentives are not playing out the NFL may have expected or hoped.
Starting this season, a touchback automatically places the football at the 25-yard line, as opposed to the 20-yard line that was used since the dawn of time. The idea is to encourage kick returners to not return the football as often in an effort to make the game safer.Of course, NFL coaches are paid big bucks to devise strategies to help their teams win, so avoiding the touchback on special teams when kicking away was likely to be an area of focus for special teams coordinators.
According to a statistical breakdown from ESPN, a total of 61.8 percent of all kickoffs resulted in a touchback and just 81.9 percent of the kicks traveled as far as the end zone. This would suggest kickers are attempting to avoid letting a kick go down for a touchback. For the sake of comparison, 68.9 percent of kicks resulted in a touchback last season, and 90.7 percent of the kicks reached the end zone. I find it difficult to believe kickers all of a sudden got weaker legs across the league in one season.
The trend over the past three seasons would suggest special teams efforts have already been trending toward not getting a ball into the end zone. In 2014, 96.2 percent of kicks traveled into the end zone. Again, small sample size for 2016, but that is a significant drop since the 2014 season. What is interesting, however, is the average starting field position has gone up. In 2014, the average starting field position off a kick was the 19.8-yard line. It jumped to 21.1 in 2015. The start of the 2016 season has seen teams take over on average at the 24-yard line.
The trick is to get the return man to make a hasty decision. All too often, the return man can be suckered into making the wrong decision, and this happens at the pro and college level far too often every weekend. There are times, yes, when taking the ball out of the endzone can be called for when you need a spark and you have the right blocking in front of you and the speed to make it happen. As a special teams coordinator, however, you need to make sure your return man knows exactly what he needs to do and make sure he understands the situation. If you are going to take a touchback, take the touchback. If a kicker can make sure the ball is fielded right at the edge of the goal line, they are doing the best job possible because this is when the heat of the moment decision can so often be a casualty for the returning team.
Nevada experienced this on Saturday on the road against Notre Dame. Ahki Muhammad got caught in the worst possible way. At first, he decided to try and return the football from the goal line, so he took a step forward. He quickly changed his mind, took a knee and gave Notre Dame two free points. This is why getting a return man to make a quick decision right on the line is key, as it creates a high-pressure situation that younger players will get sucked into because they want to make a big play happen and may lack the foresight to understand the reality of the situation they just got duped into. Instead of getting the ball at the 25-yard line, Nevada gave two free points (and the ball) to the Irish.
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The game of football has changed the rules to give you decent field position. There will be times when you need to try and make a return from the end zone, although the odds now will favor you if you simply take a knee or let the ball go in the end zone. Timing is also essential. Too often teams are wasting time on special teams returns trying to generate a spark when those precious seconds could simply be used to set up for an offensive play or two (or more). Take the Indianapolis Colts for example.
Down 39-35 to the Detroit Lions with four seconds to spare, the Colts received the kickoff from Detroit just inside the end zone. Rather than give Andrew Luck and the Colts offense one last try to run a play from the 25-yard line, the Colts took the ball out of the end zone and attempted to lateral their way to a victory. There is certainly no guarantee the Colts would have stunned the Lions, but maybe giving your franchise quarterback a chance to work some magic on one final play 75-yards away from the end zone would have had a better chance against a tiring Lions defense than a gimmick special teams return 100 yards away. The ball never got past the 15-yard line on the special teams return.
“Colts: that was a full F-minus” @KyleBrandt on #GMFB https://t.co/YLwtNV7sWO
— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) September 12, 2016
You may not like it, but it is time to embrace the touchback in football. It is OK to accept the free 25 yards, football players. Take what they are giving you.
