One aspect of the NFL game will look vastly different in 2024 thanks to an offseason rule change and Sean McVay is fascinated to see how it plays out.
The kickoff has undergone a face lift with the NFL adopting the XFL style where it’s more like a traditional play than a special teams operation. The goal is to increase the number of kick returns because in 2023, there was the lowest rate of kickoff returns in NFL history so the league is trying to change that trend.
Teams will likely approach the new kickoff in different ways because there’s much more strategy involved, so it will be interesting to see how the play differs from team to team. Because OTAs don’t allow for full contact, the Rams haven’t had a chance to really experiment with the new kickoff, but McVay is excited to see it come to life in camp.
“We’ll see what the hell’s going on with this kickoff and kickoff return,” McVay said when asked what he’s excited to see in training camp. “I don’t know, it’s going to be wild.”
McVay elaborated on the dramatic change made by the NFL, sharing his honest assessment of how different it will be. In his mind, he can’t remember a bigger change made by the league from one year to the next – and that’s coming from a coach who can remember what play he called in Week 2 with 1:43 left in the third quarter seven years ago.
“I can’t remember a time that there’s been a more significant change in regards to how drastic it is than what the previous year entailed as what this is,” he said. “What’s the intent behind it? Get the foot back in the game. there wasn’t a lot of kickoff returns last year. You look in the Super Bowl, there wasn’t one kickoff return. So it’s get the foot back in the game, try to still maintain the health and safety parameters and that’s the goal and that’s the intent. We’ll see and hopefully it accommodates that.”
The Rams have really struggled to find any sort of consistency or impact from the return game in recent years, but that could change in 2024. They brought in Boston Scott, who’s a candidate to return kickoffs, and with it being more like a regular play from scrimmage, perhaps either Blake Corum or Kyren Williams will get a chance to return some kicks, too.
That’ll all be sorted out in training camp and when the preseason gets underway in August, fans should be excited to see how the play looks in a game.
