The NFL is known for constantly looking to improve their product and brand.  Well, here's a needed tweak...the kickoff.  Although it seems like there are more short kickoffs so far in the preseason, probably due to wanting thorough special teams evaluations, we all know that this won't be the case in the regular season.  Kicking in the end zone is boring for the fans and takes away from the excitement of the game.  So, here's a proposal:

- Any kick out of the end zone will be initially placed at the 35.  Only one kickoff out of the end zone allowed per half.  Any violation of this after using up the one touchback will result in cumulative penalties of 5 yards.  I.E., the 1st violation will result in the ball placed at the 40, the second at the 45 and so on.

- Kicking out of bounds, intentionally or not, will result in the ball being placed automatically either at midfield, or 5 yards beyond the current penalty point for touchbacks, whichever is greater.

I expect to get hammered for this, so flail away 

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"Remember Red, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."  - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

Starting at the 35 and adding "cumulative penalties" is a really bad idea. A team doesn't deserve to start at midfield just because the opponent's kicker has a hammer..

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Just move the kick off back to where it was, but they wont because they want to prevent injuries. The kick off is a huge part of the game in my opinion. It gives the game a nice change of pace and a wildcard. I hope they never take it out of the game.

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Why penalize the defense...AGAIN?

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Worst to 1st.  Curse Reversed!

Why do we always want to tweak the rules?

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The NFL is known for constantly looking to improve their product and brand.  Well, here's a needed tweak...the kickoff.  Although it seems like there are more short kickoffs so far in the preseason, probably due to wanting thorough special teams evaluations, we all know that this won't be the case in the regular season.  Kicking in the end zone is boring for the fans and takes away from the excitement of the game.  So, here's a proposal:

- Any kick out of the end zone will be initially placed at the 35.  Only one kickoff out of the end zone allowed per half.  Any violation of this after using up the one touchback will result in cumulative penalties of 5 yards.  I.E., the 1st violation will result in the ball placed at the 40, the second at the 45 and so on.

- Kicking out of bounds, intentionally or not, will result in the ball being placed automatically either at midfield, or 5 yards beyond the current penalty point for touchbacks, whichever is greater.

I expect to get hammered for this, so flail away 

The shield is trying to kill the return play, so I doubt this gets any legs.

I do like the idea of a touchback penalizing the kicking team, maybe leave the yardage in place, but the receiving team gets a point. Returners could then risk letting a ball bounce and carom out of the end zone, or bounce back toward the kicking team, or somewhere in between, all while the ball is live.

I think if you want to make a progressive penalty, you start with initial touchback closer to the receiving goal, say the 25 or 30, and then slowly work your way upfield.

If I were to suggest any tweak to the kickoff, it would be that receiving and kicking team players would line up at the ball, as we see with punt returns. Only the returners would be back deep. When the kicker begins his approach, the receiving team could then choose to drop back into blocking/onside coverage or block the gunners at the point. You'd see a lot less high-speed impacts like you tend to see when guys have 20-30 yards to get heads of steam going in opposing directions before laying their initial blocks.

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Why penalize the defense...AGAIN?

My supposition with OP is that the goal is to force teams to put the ball in play and utiliize the returner. Which, if you have a Devin Hester type returner on your team, Kick returns become a BIG advantage. As it is today, having a kicker with a long leg is the advantage. Not many teams are going to voluntarily kick short and rely on coverage to pin a team deep when they have a guaranteed dead ball and spot at the 25.

Returns are less exciting that way, but it's part of the chess game.

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It would be cool to see some changes to the kickoff rules. I don't have any creative idea atm but I do want to stress that kickoffs are dangerous for the players and this is my biggest concern.

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That's the reason things are the way they are. They moved the kick off up to make for mostly touchbacks to limit returns, so that there would be less injuries in their estimation.

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A kickoff return is a fun play of course, but if they are causing too many injuries, encouraging touch backs is a bad answer. It takes an exciting play and makes it the most boring play.
I would rather see them do something more radical, like the "4th and 15" option. That would replace the kickoff with a punt in most situations, but still give the kicking team a chance to get the ball back during a comeback attempt.

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

A kickoff return is a fun play of course, but if they are causing too many injuries, encouraging touch backs is a bad answer.  It takes an exciting play and makes it the most boring play.
I would rather see them do something more radical, like the "4th and 15" option.  That would replace the kickoff with a punt in most situations, but still give the kicking team a chance to get the ball back during a comeback attempt.

yes, fair catch punt returns are exhilarating.  

I could just imagine the outrage over illegal contact penalty 6 yards off the line and on the opposite side of the play, automatic first down.

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The NFL is known for constantly looking to improve their product and brand.  Well, here's a needed tweak...the kickoff.  Although it seems like there are more short kickoffs so far in the preseason, probably due to wanting thorough special teams evaluations, we all know that this won't be the case in the regular season.  Kicking in the end zone is boring for the fans and takes away from the excitement of the game.  So, here's a proposal:

- Any kick out of the end zone will be initially placed at the 35.  Only one kickoff out of the end zone allowed per half.  Any violation of this after using up the one touchback will result in cumulative penalties of 5 yards.  I.E., the 1st violation will result in the ball placed at the 40, the second at the 45 and so on.

- Kicking out of bounds, intentionally or not, will result in the ball being placed automatically either at midfield, or 5 yards beyond the current penalty point for touchbacks, whichever is greater.

I expect to get hammered for this, so flail away 

The shield is trying to kill the return play, so I doubt this gets any legs.

I do like the idea of a touchback penalizing the kicking team, maybe leave the yardage in place, but the receiving team gets a point. Returners could then risk letting a ball bounce and carom out of the end zone, or bounce back toward the kicking team, or somewhere in between, all while the ball is live.

I think if you want to make a progressive penalty, you start with initial touchback closer to the receiving goal, say the 25 or 30, and then slowly work your way upfield.

If I were to suggest any tweak to the kickoff, it would be that receiving and kicking team players would line up at the ball, as we see with punt returns. Only the returners would be back deep. When the kicker begins his approach, the receiving team could then choose to drop back into blocking/onside coverage or block the gunners at the point. You'd see a lot less high-speed impacts like you tend to see when guys have 20-30 yards to get heads of steam going in opposing directions before laying their initial blocks.

Love this idea.  Even if none of the changes I proposed in the OP get done, this should.

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"Remember Red, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."  - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

The NFL is known for constantly looking to improve their product and brand.  Well, here's a needed tweak...the kickoff.  Although it seems like there are more short kickoffs so far in the preseason, probably due to wanting thorough special teams evaluations, we all know that this won't be the case in the regular season.  Kicking in the end zone is boring for the fans and takes away from the excitement of the game.  So, here's a proposal:

- Any kick out of the end zone will be initially placed at the 35.  Only one kickoff out of the end zone allowed per half.  Any violation of this after using up the one touchback will result in cumulative penalties of 5 yards.  I.E., the 1st violation will result in the ball placed at the 40, the second at the 45 and so on.

- Kicking out of bounds, intentionally or not, will result in the ball being placed automatically either at midfield, or 5 yards beyond the current penalty point for touchbacks, whichever is greater.

I expect to get hammered for this, so flail away 

The shield is trying to kill the return play, so I doubt this gets any legs.

I do like the idea of a touchback penalizing the kicking team, maybe leave the yardage in place, but the receiving team gets a point. Returners could then risk letting a ball bounce and carom out of the end zone, or bounce back toward the kicking team, or somewhere in between, all while the ball is live.

I think if you want to make a progressive penalty, you start with initial touchback closer to the receiving goal, say the 25 or 30, and then slowly work your way upfield.

If I were to suggest any tweak to the kickoff, it would be that receiving and kicking team players would line up at the ball, as we see with punt returns. Only the returners would be back deep. When the kicker begins his approach, the receiving team could then choose to drop back into blocking/onside coverage or block the gunners at the point. You'd see a lot less high-speed impacts like you tend to see when guys have 20-30 yards to get heads of steam going in opposing directions before laying their initial blocks.

It would be probably become impossible to execute an onside kick with those rules.   If members of the receiving team are allowed to push and shove you the whole way, how do you run 10 yd in time to catch your own team's kick?

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

The shield is trying to kill the return play, so I doubt this gets any legs.

I do like the idea of a touchback penalizing the kicking team, maybe leave the yardage in place, but the receiving team gets a point. Returners could then risk letting a ball bounce and carom out of the end zone, or bounce back toward the kicking team, or somewhere in between, all while the ball is live.

I think if you want to make a progressive penalty, you start with initial touchback closer to the receiving goal, say the 25 or 30, and then slowly work your way upfield.

If I were to suggest any tweak to the kickoff, it would be that receiving and kicking team players would line up at the ball, as we see with punt returns. Only the returners would be back deep. When the kicker begins his approach, the receiving team could then choose to drop back into blocking/onside coverage or block the gunners at the point. You'd see a lot less high-speed impacts like you tend to see when guys have 20-30 yards to get heads of steam going in opposing directions before laying their initial blocks.

Love this idea.  Even if none of the changes I proposed in the OP get done, this should.

if I ever get on the Rules Committee, I will propose this change.

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The shield is trying to kill the return play, so I doubt this gets any legs.

I do like the idea of a touchback penalizing the kicking team, maybe leave the yardage in place, but the receiving team gets a point. Returners could then risk letting a ball bounce and carom out of the end zone, or bounce back toward the kicking team, or somewhere in between, all while the ball is live.

I think if you want to make a progressive penalty, you start with initial touchback closer to the receiving goal, say the 25 or 30, and then slowly work your way upfield.

If I were to suggest any tweak to the kickoff, it would be that receiving and kicking team players would line up at the ball, as we see with punt returns. Only the returners would be back deep. When the kicker begins his approach, the receiving team could then choose to drop back into blocking/onside coverage or block the gunners at the point. You'd see a lot less high-speed impacts like you tend to see when guys have 20-30 yards to get heads of steam going in opposing directions before laying their initial blocks.

It would be probably become impossible to execute an onside kick with those rules.   If members of the receiving team are allowed to push and shove you the whole way, how do you run 10 yd in time to catch your own team's kick?

@git gud@

You could scheme blocks to free one of your guys. You could line up like a regular kick to force at least one of their guys deep to even the matchups. You could kick a 'blooper' 20-some yards downfield and catch them off guard. Spread the guys across the line, and kick to a particular player/zone on the field. The rest are decoys to draw defenders away from the kick.

Seriously, watch punt coverage. gunners often have multiple guys blocking or harassing them downfield, yet they still get downfield. NFL players are capable of shedding blocks, coaches are capable of scheming plays to give their team and advantage. I'd much rather see what boils down to an Oklahoma drill to contest the onside kick recovery than two guys colliding with ten yards' worth of steam behind them.

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