With the league’s annual meeting currently taking place, it means that potential rule changes are being voted on, with two of the more eye-catching options surrounding the kickoff.
The Philadelphia Eagles put forward a proposal that teams who have scored a touchdown or field goal could have the option of taking the ball on their own 20-yard line and facing a fourth-and-20. Should they convert this play, they would keep the ball and continue to drive.
With rule changes making offside kicks harder than ever to recover, plenty of onside kick alternatives have been mooted in recent years and more are likely to follow.
While this proposal has failed, there could still be a change coming to the regular kickoff.
Competition Committee chairman Rich McKay is hopeful that a vote on an XFL-style kickoff could take place on Tuesday.
“Do I think we could vote on it tomorrow? Yes, it’s possible,” McKay said on Monday, as per NBC. “Or we could wait and vote on it in May. I like voting on it sooner rather than later because there’s no question that the play, by bringing the play back in — we had 1,970 touchbacks last season — so if you bring the play back in, let’s just say 1,200 [of those] become returns.
“The person you are going to have as your returner is going to matter, and we do have the draft coming up and we do have college free agency coming up. So, I think personnel people need to know is this play going to be in or out. That would lead me to want to have the vote sooner, but we’ll wait and see.”
The proposed new kickoff would see everyone except the kicker line up in the receiving team’s half in order to prevent the play’s usual high-speed collisions and reduce injury.
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