“I think overall it’s just going to help the whole premise and really solidify special teams as being something that’s extremely important,” said McGaughey. “Everybody can talk about the three phases and playing complementary football – it’s a real deal now. You really have to set your personnel, you have to make sure you’re paying attention to it because if you don’t it will show up on game day.”
The league is filled with experienced and talented special teams coaches, all of whom are surely working just as hard as McGaughey and Tandy on this new puzzle they’ve been presented. Still, it stands to reason that, across the 32 teams, some will have more success in implementing return and coverage strategies than others. The new kickoff rule, in other words, is an opportunity for any particular team to have a new and sizeable advantage over an opponent.
Some teams may also do a better job of stocking the roster with the type of return men, blockers and tacklers who will excel in the new format. It’s not immediately evident who those players are (although the Steelers’ signing of Cordarrelle Patterson mere hours after the rule change was announced seems less than coincidental), but they are going to have more chances to stand out in 2024.
“I think it’s just going to be one of those deals where each week people are just trying to figure it out,” said McGaughey. “It’s going to be a little different. It’s going to be a little different but I think it’s going to be good for the game, because it makes the play relevant again. We had last year with the 1,900 plays, whatever it was, and it looked bad. It could go from three or four [touchdowns] now to 14. So it’s a real play now. And you have opportunities for the core [special teams] guys to make plays. So your guys that are running down and making tackles, instead of making eight, nine tackles in a year, they could make 25, which makes them more valuable.”
Some strategies could even backfire in spectacular ways. During his Salty Dogs interview, McGaughey was asked about the viability of trying to hit line drive kicks that hit the ground in the landing zone and then skip into the end zone, since that leads to the touchback placement at the 20. McGaughey called that option “almost impossible,” citing the potentially ugly results of the ball being mis-hit. If that’s the case, it seems certain that teams will be targeting the landing zone, which will lead to a…
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