Vikings embrace the challenge of new kickoff rules — behind closed doors

The NFL’s new kickoff rules — adapted from the ones the XFL used the past three years — have created a play with so much variety and such little precedent that Vikings special teams coordinator Matt Daniels believes it could shape the start of the 2024 season.

”Within the first three weeks, I think this play is going to win and lose a lot of teams’ games,” he said. “Eventually, this league does a great job of adapting and picking up what’s really going on. That’s what makes us kind of elite, is being able to adapt and pick up on things. But I do see it being a heavy impact.”

It’s why, Daniels said Wednesday, the Vikings have spent so much time working on different variations of kickoffs early in training camp. It might also be why they’ve done none of that work in front of fans or reporters.

Such is life on the NFL’s newest competitive frontier: the revamped kickoff, which is getting a one-year trial run after owners approved a revised version of the XFL’s kickoff at the NFL owners’ meetings in March. The new play, designed to reduce both injuries and touchbacks, will put kicking and receiving team players within 5-10 yards of each other, with the kicker at his own 35-yard line and either one or two returners in a landing zone that extends 20 yards from the goal line.

Each member of the kicking team, other than the kicker, will line up at the receiving team’s 40-yard line, unable to move until the ball touches the ground or hits a player in the landing zone or end zone. The kicker cannot pass the 50-yard line until the ball makes contact in the landing zone. The receiving team gets a 5-yard “setup area,” with at least seven players on the receiving team’s 35 and two more within the 30 to 35. Those players are also unable to move until the ball hits the ground or a player in the landing area; the returners stationed between the receiving team’s goal line and the 20 can move at any time.

Only 22% of NFL kickoffs were returned last season; even if that rate goes to 50 or 60% this season, it would bring back about 1,000 plays leaguewide throughout the course of the season, Saints special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi said at the owners‘ meetings in March. ”It’s going to be must-see TV,” he said.

For now, there’s not much to see. With everything from special teams lineup construction to kickoff types a matter of strategy, teams have little incentive to broadcast their plans this early in the season. The Vikings play their first exhibition game a week from Saturday against the Raiders; it remains to be seen if they’ll use the preseason as an opportunity to work on the new kickoff or allow opponents to start at 30 after kicking touchbacks to avoid showing their hand.

The fact kickoffs no longer begin with a downfield sprint and violent collision could mean teams use more starters on special teams, like a linebacker with better tackling skills or a lineman whose run blocking could translate to the play. Daniels named Kene Nwangwu and Brandon Powell as his two early return candidates, while mentioning he had a third player he did not want to name. Though the straight-line speed of a player like Nwangwu might not be as big a factor with the new rules, Daniels said it could still matter, especially if teams counter with bigger players in coverage units.

Even the role of the kicker, who’s more likely to be involved as a last line of defense, seems set for reinterpretation. Daniels said a number of Vikings players volunteered their interest in kicking off, though he cautioned those players would have to master a proper kicking warmup to avoid soft-tissue injuries. But if the Vikings can find a player who might be a better open-field tackler than a traditional kicker and “can consistently put it in play, or put it in the end zone, or put it within the landing zone,” Daniels said, “we’ll definitely do that because it’s an advantage. If you add a guy who’s unaccounted for from a [kickoff return] standpoint, it’s an advantage, because he’s a free hitter.”

Nearly everything about the kickoff, it seems, can vary from team to team. It will change everything from the Vikings’ strategy to their scouting work. And if teams keep their plans secretive until the start of the regular season, it could make for some chaos in September.

Daniels, for his part, seemed to embrace the unknown.