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League feedback on kick-off proposal encourages Simmons


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League feedback on kick-off proposal encourages Simmons

Posted 57 minutes ago

hobson60x60.jpgGeoff HobsonEditorBengals.comFollow Me Blog

The Bengals’ Darrin Simmons emerged from the NFL’s safety summit Wednesday pleased with how the league responded to the coaches’ proposal to make the kickoff safer.

Things are moving rather quickly. The owners could approve the new kickoff at their meeting later this month.

“We recognized we need to make the play safer,” Simmons said. “We’re trying to take the steps as coaches to do that. I think the league will respond to that well. We had very good feedback in the meeting. I thought it was very, very productive. It was a good thing.”

Simmons, the club’s special teams coordinator, made the trip to New York along with eight other teams’ coaches that proposed the most massive changes ever to one of football’s oldest and recognizable plays. It not only changes how the play is blocked and covered, but also which players are doing it.

“We’ve made incremental changes down through the years to the play, but now we’ve made them all at once,” Simmons said.

They are:

_Changing the alignment of the return team. Only three players can be deep, including the returner. The eight players lined up at their 40 can’t leave until the ball is kicked.

_There can be no two-man wedge blocking.

_No running start for the kicking team. Cover players must line up no deeper than one yard behind the restraining line, which would be the 34 of the cover team.

“We’re trying to limit the speed and the space to reduce violent collisions,” Simmons said.

The absence of wedge blocking puts more of an emphasis on speed and less on size, meaning there could be no linemen on the field for the return team. In the past, the Bengals have protected their returners with guys like defensive end Jordan Willis, right tackle Jake Fisher and a rookie three technique named Geno Atkins

“Schemes and concepts will change,” Simmons said.

 

 

http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/League-feedback-on-kick-off-proposal-encourages-Simmons/762f335d-aed8-4110-924e-e8c9bbb9fd22

 

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18 minutes ago, Inigo Montoya said:

I don't know how the NFL can preserve the onside kick with these changes.  So basically teams who are trailing late will have even less of a chance of coming back since a successful onside kick will be nearly impossible.  

 

If an on-side is expected, how will this rule change things?  Does it not just limit potential success for "surprise" on-side kicks?

 

:shrug:

 

 

 

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13 minutes ago, Cricket said:

 

If an on-side is expected, how will this rule change things?  Does it not just limit potential success for "surprise" on-side kicks?

 

:shrug:

 

 

 

No running starts by the kicking team will make it almost impossible to recover a ball that has traveled 10 yards, IMO.

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1 hour ago, Inigo Montoya said:

No running starts by the kicking team will make it almost impossible to recover a ball that has traveled 10 yards, IMO.

Ah, yes.  I forgot about that component.

 

 

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4 hours ago, Inigo Montoya said:

No running starts by the kicking team will make it almost impossible to recover a ball that has traveled 10 yards, IMO.

The NFL doesn't give a shit if new rules screw up the game so long as they can prove due diligence in court vs. concussion lawsuits.

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