If the TVs in coaches’ offices are tuned to Nielsen messages, Thursday night’s Hall of Fame game between Houston and Chicago will be a ratings boon.
“This will be the most-watched Hall of Fame game in NFL football history,” Steelers special coach Danny Smith predicted.
The interest has little to do with what will be carried out in the scrum plays. Instead, head coaches and those like Smith on task forces will be chanting to see the first implementation of the league’s new kickoff rules.
The Hall of Fame game marked the litmus test for one of the NFL’s biggest rules adjustments in decades. To increase the number of returns and injuries, NFL owners implemented a radical update to the game in March.
Although the ball will still be kicked from the 35-yard line, the kicker is the only player on the team who will be located on that side of the midfield.
Ten policy team players will stand with one foot on the receiving team’s 40-yard line. The receiving team will have at least players stationed in a 5-yard staging zone from the 30 to the 35. The remaining two players will line up in the landing zone, from the 20 to the goal line. aim.
Once the ball leaves the kicker’s foot, the other players in the area move until the ball lands in the 20-yard touchdown zone or is touched through one of the returners.
Beyond that, coaches are prepared to spread scenarios that an MIT mathematician couldn’t calculate.
“I think anybody who says they had it low is probably lying or naïve,” coach Mike Tomlin said earlier in education camp. “There is no video. All we have are words on a page.
That will be on Thursday. And, like his counterparts, Tomlin will be watching closely.
“I think that’s the detail that makes it exciting,” he said. “There will be some anxiety among my teammates about those concepts until we have video on it. . . I’ll be at the EA Sports game when I get outside to see what it looks like.
The rule is a hybrid of what the XFL used before its merger with the USFL and follows a season in which NFL kickoffs were returned a record 21. 8% of the time. In the Super Bowl, none of the thirteen kickoffs were returned, 12 of which were eliminated. of the finish area.
“In my 11 years, we haven’t had a rule as dynamic as this,” said Brad Allen, an NFL referee whose team presided over the Steelers’ practice this week. “If you look at the evidence we had before, very little is still there. “
To inspire backpass attempts, the receiving team will be given a box position at the 30 of the 25 on any ball kicked out of the goal zone. Kickoffs that do not reach the touchdown zone or pass out of bounds will provide the area position at the 40, however, for any kick that does not reach the touchdown zone, roll into the goal zone and be defeated, the location will be made at 20.
“It’s challenging and I love it,” Smith said. The players appreciated it. “
The Steelers waited until game officials arrived at camp this week to begin implementing the new rule. Tomlin set two special group periods Thursday before kickoff: one designed around coverage and the other around returns.
Smith experimented with defensive linemen on his kickoff units.
“We took away the distance, the speed and that total run,” he said. “In a 5-meter zone (facility), who is it that in soccer comes out of the blocks?Defensive linemen do it for a living. Linebackers Do it for a living. Closed wings do this when they pass out.
Tomlin is open to that working.
“We have all our cards on the table in this regard,” he said. “I think we’re all headed into uncharted territory, so it’s probably wise to cast a wide net in terms of personnel. “
The throwing of the ball is also the subject of debate.
In organized team activities, kicker Matthew Wright would place the ball on the ground horizontally and form a line in the touchdown zone.
Wright used the same technique Thursday in the team’s era. Veteran kicker Chris Boswell, however, adopted a more classic technique. He landed the ball on a tee and practiced throwing it inside the touchdown zone.
“It’s all about strategy with kickers and where they put the ball,” Smith said. “Now there’s an express domain that you need to enter this into. The objective has changed, but not the focus. We’ll improve it as we go along.
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