Darrin Simmons opens up about new NFL kickoff rules

“Nobody was happy with the way the 2023 season went for the kickoff return game.”

A couple of new rules made their way into the NFL rulebook at the Annual League Meeting on March 26th.

One of them, which outlaws the controversial hip-drop tackle, is certain to cause more confusion than it eliminates. The other, which approved a new kickoff format, just might be worth the trouble.

The purpose of the new kickoff format is to eliminate the huge collisions that often lead to concussions and other injuries. Specifically, the rule eliminates the running start players got on traditional kickoffs.

The rule establishes a “landing zone,” which is between the opponent’s 20-yard line and the end zone. The ball must be returned if it is kicked into the landing zone. The ball can still be returned if it rolls into the end zone or is kicked into the end zone through the air.

If it is kicked short of the landing zone or rolls out of bounds, the ball will be placed at the opponent’s 40-yard line. If it is kicked into the landing zone, rolls into the end zone, and gets downed by the kickoff team, the ball will come out to the 20-yard line. If the ball is kicked through the air into the end zone and gets downed, it will be placed at the 30-yard line.

Every member of the kicking team, aside from the kicker, must have one foot on the 40-yard line. The coverage team cannot move until the ball is touched by the return team or hits the ground in the landing zone.

The return team can have as many as nine to 10 players blocking in the setup zone, which is between the opponent’s 30- and 35-yard-line, depending on whether it has one or two returners.

The return team can have a maximum of two returners. However, the return team must have at least seven players on the 35-yard line. The return team also cannot move until the ball is touched or hits the ground.

Sure, the rules are a little confusing. But that’s where it’s nice to have the league’s longest-tenured special teams coach in Darrin Simmons calling the shots for the Cincinnati Bengals.

“Nobody was happy with the way the 2023 season went for the kickoff return game,” Simmons said in a recent interview with Jay Morrison of the Pro Football Network. “Only 22% of kicks were returned. Nobody wants that. We’d essentially taken away – legislated, if you want to call it that – the play out of the game.

“This accomplishes a couple of things. Hopefully, the return rate will be higher. And with the reduction of speed and space, hopefully, the injury numbers will trend downward, and the injury rate will be closer to what it is for an offensive or defensive play. That’s always been the argument that there were more injuries per play on kickoffs than there were on any other play in the game.”

That’s what we know about the rule now. But it’s what we don’t know that concerns Simmons and everyone else.

“Like with anything, everybody is concerned about the unintended consequences and the unknown stuff,” he said.

As for the hip-drop tackle, the league’s competition committee defined the play as:

If the defender “grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms; and unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee.”

The penalty for such a tackle would be 15 yards and an automatic first down.

I’ll leave it to someone else to try to explain this one.