What does everyone think of the new rules from the competition committee? I think the new kickoff rule is a good one...kickoff's have slowly become throwaway nothing plays as over 80 percent of them have resulted in touchbacks. This new rule should increase the action in games, and result in more exciting plays. The downside is no more surprise onside kicks, although you rarely see those outside of end game situations where everyone knows they are coming anyway. 

The hip drop rule I'm a little more torn on. I see why the league did it...it is a dangerous play. However, it's going to be tougher to bring runners down from behind now. NFL stats say that this tackle only occurred 236 times last year across the whole league, so it's not as common a play as one would think. But it resulted in 15 serious injuries (the best example being Mark Andrews getting hurt). 

Of course on social media the complaints of "just put flags on them" are rampant. I don't see how either of these changes make the game softer and I'm constantly amazed at how much excitement and enjoyment people get from watching athletes get hurt. 

1 hour ago, rjs4470 said:

What does everyone think of the new rules from the competition committee? I think the new kickoff rule is a good one...kickoff's have slowly become throwaway nothing plays as over 80 percent of them have resulted in touchbacks. This new rule should increase the action in games, and result in more exciting plays. The downside is no more surprise onside kicks, although you rarely see those outside of end game situations where everyone knows they are coming anyway. 

The hip drop rule I'm a little more torn on. I see why the league did it...it is a dangerous play. However, it's going to be tougher to bring runners down from behind now. NFL stats say that this tackle only occurred 236 times last year across the whole league, so it's not as common a play as one would think. But it resulted in 15 serious injuries (the best example being Mark Andrews getting hurt). 

Of course on social media the complaints of "just put flags on them" are rampant. I don't see how either of these changes make the game softer and I'm constantly amazed at how much excitement and enjoyment people get from watching athletes get hurt. 

Gladiator mentality has been around for centuries.

On 3/27/2024 at 9:16 AM, rjs4470 said:

What does everyone think of the new rules from the competition committee? I think the new kickoff rule is a good one...kickoff's have slowly become throwaway nothing plays as over 80 percent of them have resulted in touchbacks. This new rule should increase the action in games, and result in more exciting plays. The downside is no more surprise onside kicks, although you rarely see those outside of end game situations where everyone knows they are coming anyway.

I'm a tiny bit bummed for the loss of surprise onside kicks, but I couldn't even guess at the last time I recall that happening in the NFL. The flip side of that is that the increase in kickoff returns is likely going to add to the number of exciting big kick returns, the number of fumbles on kickoff returns, and things like that.

This is another example of the NFL appearing to completely abandoning their concerns about concussions and CTE from 10 or 15 years ago, though. Kick returns are the singlemost likely football plays of the game for a concussion to take place....and here the NFL is, trying to encourage them to happen.

 

1 hour ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

I'm a tiny bit bummed for the loss of surprise onside kicks, but I couldn't even guess at the last time I recall that happening in the NFL. The flip side of that is that the increase in kickoff returns is likely going to add to the number of exciting big kick returns, the number of fumbles on kickoff returns, and things like that.

This is another example of the NFL appearing to completely abandoning their concerns about concussions and CTE from 10 or 15 years ago, though. Kick returns are the singlemost likely football plays of the game for a concussion to take place....and here the NFL is, trying to encourage them to happen.

They are taking the full speed, running halfway across the field collisions out of the mix by placing almost all the players only 10 yards apart. So that will help reduce concussions/injuries. I think it's a good compromise of putting action back into the game that had been removed, while keeping things on the safer side. I also will miss the surprise onside kick, but as you mentioned, it so rarely happens, I don't think it's that big of a deal.

5 minutes ago, rjs4470 said:

They are taking the full speed, running halfway across the field collisions out of the mix by placing almost all the players only 10 yards apart. So that will help reduce concussions/injuries. I think it's a good compromise of putting action back into the game that had been removed, while keeping things on the safer side. I also will miss the surprise onside kick, but as you mentioned, it so rarely happens, I don't think it's that big of a deal.

So the kickoff team is going to be lining up on the receiving team's 40 yard line, and the receiving team will have all of their blockers lined up 5 yards away on the 35 yard line, and none of the people at the 40 yard line or the 35 yard line until the ball is touched by a returner.

The kick landing zone is between the goal line and the 20 yard line. So if a kick is caught by a returner at the 5 yard line and returns it straight ahead (shortest distance between two points is a straight line). And lets say that that the kickoff team manages to advance, lets call it 10 yards forward with the kick return team trying to impede their way. So that puts the tacklers from the kickoff team at the 30 yard line while the returner has had 25 yards of running to get a full head of steam when they meet. That's a lot of kinetic energy on impact.

Granted, these rules DO reduce the number of people who are have 10+ yards worth of space to run before impact on the kickoff play, but man oh man, this seems really hazardous to the kick returners' health.

As for the hip-drop tackle being banned, I think that tackling style has come into play much more these days due to the abundance of targeting "hit to the head" tackling penalties in the NFL. The problem the NFL Competition Committee saw with that hip-drop tackling form is the fact that it has fairly frequently caused the tacklers (through no fault of their own) to land on the legs of the player being tackled.

Essentially a hip-drop tackle is any time a tackler grabs the ball carrier by their torso or waist and then "drops their hips" to become dead-weight, thus pulling the ball carrier to the ground. It's definitely a response to tacklers being discouraged via penalties and fines to hit offensive players higher up on their bodies.

From an NFL standpoint, though, I guess they see banning these tackles as a way to both reduce player injuries and increase the advantage that offensive players have in the game. Increased advantage for the offense makes for more yardage and scoring. More scoring, to a lot of people, means a more exciting game, I suppose. And for the knuckle-draggers in the world who think scoring is the end-all-be-all of excitement in a football game, I guess that rule change makes for a plus for the NFL.
 

 

8 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

So the kickoff team is going to be lining up on the receiving team's 40 yard line, and the receiving team will have all of their blockers lined up 5 yards away on the 35 yard line, and none of the people at the 40 yard line or the 35 yard line until the ball is touched by a returner.

The kick landing zone is between the goal line and the 20 yard line. So if a kick is caught by a returner at the 5 yard line and returns it straight ahead (shortest distance between two points is a straight line). And let's say that that the kickoff team manages to advance, let's call it 10 yards forward with the kick return team trying to impede their way. So that puts the tacklers from the kickoff team at the 30 yard line while the returner has had 25 yards of running to get a full head of steam when they meet. That's a lot of kinetic energy on impact.

Granted, these rules DO reduce the number of people who are have 10+ yards worth of space to run before impact on the kickoff play, but man oh man, this seems really hazardous to the kick returners' health.

Which is any different than say a punt return with a punt team running full speed 50 yards down field at the punt returner?  I think you are over exaggerating this new kickoff rule anymore unsafe than any other play in a football game. The new kickoff rule allows more returns without the multiple huge collisions that caused many of the head injuries. Watching this kickoff done in the other leagues, there really wasn’t many big collisions at all between the returner and the kickoff team. 

Eliminating the hip drop tackle will be a mess in my opinion. It will probably rarely be clear cut and easy to call. That said, I expect it to be called a lot. 

I'm not sure what a smaller player is to do if he wraps up a ball carrier around the waist without using his body weight to pull him down. 

I also can see this frequently being called on sacks. Many times the QB is brought down by a defender with one arm wrapped around his waist and just pulling him to the ground. If he has QB wrapped and is off balance and going down I could easily see Ref flagging for a hip drop.

 

I didn't watch any of the game last night. However, today I watched a video of all of the kick offs. I think all but one were returned with an average tackle around the 26 yard line. Nothing about the new kickoff was off putting and I look forward to seeing how teams will develop blocking schemes as the season moves forward. I expect several long returns this season.

5 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

I didn't watch any of the game last night. However, today I watched a video of all of the kick offs. I think all but one were returned with an average tackle around the 26 yard line. Nothing about the new kickoff was off putting and I look forward to seeing how teams will develop blocking schemes as the season moves forward. I expect several long returns this season.

So I watched the first quarter and maybe a bit beyond.  I thought the new kickoff was pretty benign and no big deal other than it looks funny.  Like you, I expect some creative blocking schemes and big returns.