WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – As teams across the NFL enter the midway point of the 2024 season, they have taken a comprehensive inventory of the risks and rewards associated with the league’s hybrid kickoff format.
One game that provided examples in both cases was the Week 7 Thursday Night Football game between the Seahawks and the 49ers. It worked in Seattle’s favor when it resulted in a touchdown on a return, but similarly, San Francisco had two kickers get hurt on kickoff returns in five days.
“If you just look at the pure numbers, you think: oh, well, it’s easier to hang up the ball, you gain a meter, or two, you know, actually half a meter, maybe on average. But then you bring putting yourself in harm’s way,” Rams special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn explained Thursday as the team prepared for Sunday’s road game against the Seahawks in Week 9. “And there’s been a few kicker injuries that have happened this year. Look to San Fran, there’s already two, and you’re like, OK, what’s the risk-reward on that? What are the penalties? Are they being called? not get called? The illegal doubles, the holdings, the blocks in the backs, the blindsides, all that kind of stuff. They’re not as widespread as you would think, with those kinds of spaces so if that stuff doesn’t get called, and you don’t get the penalty, the sustain things, and the turnover versus the big returns, the explosives, the game changers, the three touchdowns…
“Even Seattle against San Fran, San Fran controls the game pretty well, and Seattle scores one for a touchdown, and really has a chance to climb back into the game and gives them a little bit of life. And that situation is it risk worth the reward? Yeah, the other one, you cause a turnover early in the game. Great. You go out and tackle them on the 24, the 26, but then it goes for a 100-yard touchdown like… was it right? Or is it, was it, you know, so I just think it depends on the head coach’s philosophy, depends on the special teams coordinator, the player’s situation in the game, a little bit. of. everything.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last week that more than 30 percent of kickoffs have been returned this year, compared to 22 percent last season. The league average for kickoff return yards of 26.5 is also nearly three yards more than the league bests of 23.8 in 2011 and 2014. This hybrid format has also contributed to an average starting field position from the 29-yard line, versus the 24 yard line. line in 2023.
Given these benefits, not to mention the momentum swings and potential negative consequences, why not just adopt the philosophy of kicking the ball out of the end zone every time?
Punter Ethan Evans has had 33 of his 34 kickoffs (97%) result from touchbacks. Blackburn acknowledged that there are several teams that have taken this approach — he estimated five-seven — and that the Rams “for the most part fall into that category.” Yet it is not that simple.
“Some teams bring it back from the end zone and then you say, ‘Okay, they’re minus seven,’ you already get seven yards of field position by the time they catch it, because it’s no longer the hang. The moment when everyone leaves the field steps in, that’s what counts, it’s where the ball is caught,” Blackburn said. “So if they are seven or six yards in the end zone, everyone leaves when the ball is caught, the kickoff team and the kickoff return. So all the timing and spacing is now out of the game for the return unit. So if they If you want to get it from five, six or seven yards deep, you have the opportunity to avoid and create those tackles inside that 25-yard line if they want to take the risk of taking it outside.
Then there are a handful of teams like the Saints and Browns that “put everything on the ground” and force teams to return every punt to become better at covering punts than the teams that don’t return them often. Blackburn said he sees the benefits of both philosophies, considering the philosophy of each special teams coordinator, what each has in terms of personnel and the opponent they face that week as influential factors.
“If you just look at it from the isolated perspective of just special teams, you’re doing your team a disservice,” Blackburn said. “I think the most important job of a coordinator is to say, ‘Hey, what is our team, what are we, do we need two yards, do we need to gain two yards and put them on the 28 or the 27?’ versus thirty and is the risk worth the reward for what we are?’ For some teams that might be the case and for some teams that might not be the case. Some teams might say, ‘Hey, our offense isn’t getting it going, I want to run it from three or four deep.’ I’m fine with the drive starting at the 23 or the 24 (yard line), at the penalty, but we have an opportunity for an explosive, we have a really explosive returner X, Y and Z. That’s up for debate for everyone. “
Blackburn finds that the league seems to be achieving what it wants, with higher starting efficiency and better starting position on every drive for offenses.
“Some of that is because obviously the touchback has gone to the 30 and you get a few more explosives past that 40-yard line and more touchdowns,” Blackburn said. “So I think a lot of those boxes are being checked for what the league was looking for. Maybe not quite what they expected, but definitely trending in the right way.”