Raiders ready to tackle new kickoff: ‘We think we have an advantage here’

The NFL season will officially get underway with a kickoff Thursday night at Kansas City.

That first play will actually matter if the NFL has its way.

A dramatic reshaping of the league’s kickoff rules took place this offseason. The goal was to make a play that had become largely obsolete in the modern game relevant again.

Just 22 percent of kickoffs were returned in 2023, a record low. A staggering 88 percent of drives started between the 21- and 30-yard lines. That means fans could pretty much skip the play and know exactly where the offense was going to take over.

The NFL thus tried to formulate a way to increase the number of kickoffs while not raising injury rates on a play the league knows to be dangerous.

It ended up just borrowing one from the XFL.

The idea looks odd at first but is simpler than it looks on paper. A kicker lines up on his own on one side of the field. Two returners line up on the opposite side in the landing zone, a rectangle that extends from the goal line to the 20-yard line.

The rest of the coverage and return teams line up five yards apart from one another on the receiving team’s side of the field and can’t move until the ball hits the ground or is picked up by a returner.

The penalty for landing a kick short of the landing zone or out of bounds is severe. The ball is also live even if it lands in the end zone, so returns are encouraged.

The rules got the results the NFL was hoping for in the preseason. Kickoffs were returned 70.5 percent of the time. Drives started around the 28.8-yard line on average, up 4.6 yards from last season. There were also 18 returns of more than 40 yards, the most in the preseason in at least a decade.

One other notable number: Kickers were involved in 11.5 tackles in the preseason. No longer could they just boot the ball and wait for the play to be over.

Some teams could elect to have position players handle kickoff duties for that reason. But it’s not an easy decision, because placing kicks in the right spot is crucial for the kicking team to have a chance of pinning its opponent back.

Those are the positives so far, but it remains to be seen if they’ll carry over to the regular season.

The percentage of kicks returned went from 82 percent the first week of the preseason to 74 percent in the second and 57 percent in the third. Teams decided to kick the ball into the end zone, knowing a touchback would give their opponent the ball at the 30-yard line.

Coaches seemed to think giving up an extra 1.2 yards of field position compared to average starting point of the 28.8-yard line was worth it if it eliminated the possibility of a game-changing return.

Time will tell if that becomes the norm for most teams. The Raiders, for one, believe in their special-teams group, from coordinator Tom McMahon to kicker Daniel Carlson to punter AJ Cole. Coach Antonio Pierce said he’ll give them leeway to try a few things.

“I like our kickoff coverage team,” Pierce said. “We did that last year when I took over, if you remember. We covered kicks, we returned punts, we returned kickoffs. I think that’s an advantage where we spend so much time in practice. We have four periods a day on special teams. We really like the guys that we have covering and we think we have an advantage here, especially with our kicker.

“We figure, look, you’re talking about the 30-yard line, but if we get those guys in between the 20-25, that’s a win for us, especially with our defense.”

The Raiders have reason to be confident in their return game.

Second-year wide receiver Tre Tucker is a speedster, while wide receiver Tyreik McAllister led the Canadian Football League in average kickoff return last season. Rival teams may decide a touchback is better than trying their luck against those two.

No matter what happens, the uncertainty of what kickoffs will look like this season is better than the tedium of the past. Fans should be in their seats when the ball goes up in the air Thursday night.

The NFL made sure to give them a reason to be.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.