Chiefs, NFL refs continue to prepare for new kickoff rules

Kansas City Chiefs and the remaining NFL teams are also equally unfamiliar with the NFL’s new kickoff rules.

The new rule which is common among colleges means all the 10 players in the kicking team excluding the kicker all stand with one foot on the 40-yard line of the receiving team. No less that 7 receiving players have to have one foot on the 35-yard line. Guys not on the 35 have to be in the set-up zone which is from five yards behind the thirty-five yard line to five yard ahead of the thirty yard line off the hash marks.

Basically, each team’s players are in parallel formation across the 35 and 40-yard lines opposing the other team.

Lining up of max two returners is permitted in the landing zone, which is the 20-yards line till the goal line and can move before and during the kick.

Any player in the setup zone cannot move until the kick has touched the ground, a player in the landing zone or the end zone.

Any ball that is kicked and falls into the opposing team’s landing area must be gotten back. A downed kick in the endzone and a kick through the back of the endzone is advanced to the 30-yard line.

But when explaining the new rules in one of the games, John Hessy, a professional referee, informed the gathering that in fact one could have a 12th man if the kicking team required it due to the weather. The only option which this player is permitted to was to hold the ball and be substituted out of the game.

“They can’t do anything,” Sidney Henderson’s proxy, Hussey, reminded the other group of people.

“Oh, it’d be such a great fan experience , Sheeran shrugs, ‘I don’t know, it’s going to be weird counting to 12. ”

Hussey insisted that current NFL referees as well are learning the new rules and it will take them some time to adapt.

Also, any player in the receiving team who keeps his feet on the ground also touches the ball before the ball lands then the play is most importantly blown dead and the ball is put at the 40-yard line of the receiving team.

The NFL, for instance, in the rules change video that NFL produced and presented to the members of the media, the NFL EVP football operations, Troy Vincent made a statement to the effect that NFL had a 21. This bowl saw a record-breaking 8 percent kickoff return rate which is shocking for a sports fan. Returns in the Super Bowl were also not evident.

Vincent said the league would prefer the kick off return rate to be above thirty percent.

It matters that the false start was called because penalties will in all probability occur as every player begins to understand this new world in the NFL that kickoffs create.

“It’s a whole new play,” Hussey said this only a few minutes before him and his crew headed to a rules meeting with special teams coordinator Dave Toub.

The crew, which is at Chiefs training camp since Friday, will also be able to whistle the kick-off for the first time since the new rule change during the Sunday practice by the Chiefs. Hussey and his crew will also be the officials in the NFL’s Hall of Fame Game on Thursday, Aug 1 between Chicago bears and Texans.

“I was surprised to hear Doug say that about this play over the airways, and our approach this play is we’re gonna do everything we can to protect and preserve this play so it works,” he said.

“We’re conversely not gonna attempt to over-coach that but we have to allow it to run its course. Its really still a work in progress really. ”

Even Toub agreed with all of that by saying, the main thing that league needs to ensure is that the new kickoff is successful.

“I think challenges are going to be if they call a lot of penalties right off the bat,” Toub said after practice on Saturday.

“It is contractual for just one year – for the season, and so it has to be quite clean; therefore we need to be meeting with the officials sometime and trying to work how things are going to be done slight little matters of prerequisite organisation and things like that will sort themselves out – offsides may be a bone of contention or holding or if there are so many holding calls then you’re going to have a very sloppy play. ”

Chiefs kickoff personnel

Toub made a lot of talk when the offseason workouts were going in regard to the new rule when he made suggestions that it was possible to have kicker Harrison Butker replaced on kickoffs with the rule. Kickers would need to be able to tackle even more so than in the past as they used to be the last line of defense on kickoff.

Safety Justin Reid, and rugby-converting-running back Louis Rees Zammit has performed the kick-offs in the practice. Toub is still experimenting with other kickers but Butker is still the first choice.

One of them, according to him, is going to be prominently used as the main kicker by Butker.

“Without a doubt. Because he is able to move the ball and do a lot of different things. He is our most skilled kickoff specialist. Others that can kick off Justin, and then Louis, they are able to kick off and be able to bust it. So all you want to do is just get the ball into the target area when you are attempting to pin them down there simply with a good kick and then you have an extra eleven men

Thus, Rees-Zammit can join the sides and enter the most active list better if he concentrates on strong performances in special games. This is how formers on the roster bubble can stay on through special teams versatility.

“I want to see him being tackled and how he tackles,” the director of the Cleveland team Toub pointed out.

“I like him as a person I appreciate his working style and so as a fan I wish him to perform well, so I am eager to meet him. ”

Toub said he was excited to see wide receiver/returner Nikko Remigio back as a special teamer and third-round rookie linebacker Swayze Bozeman from Southern Mississippi as well.

Another exciting player he is interested in is Bozeman and Curtis Jacobs, linebackers out of Penn State and safeties; Tyree Gillespie and rookie Jaden Hicks, who Toub is acquainted with.

“He’s a no-brainer,” Toub said about Hicks.

“He is, for the present, a four-phase starter. ”

The Chiefs currently have a gang of players that are currently working as returners in the 90-man training camp but it is Toub who identified Remigio, Hollywood Brown, Mecole Hardman, Kadarius Toney, and first-round rookie Xavier Worthy who he could work at the position.