Friday, December 07, 2012
New kickoff rules?
Intriguing to say the least. Kickoff replaced by punts at yard X. And onside kicks replaced by 4th-and-Y yards.
The article is saying that X=30 and Y=15. The key of course is to determine what X and Y should be, to keep everything in balance. It sure seems to me that if you have the option to punt from your own 30, or go for it on 4th and 15, that you’d almost always punt. At least with the onside kick, the opposing team will recover it at say the 45 yard line. On a failed 4th and 15, the turnover is the line of scrimmage! Then again, they can make it that the turnover occurs at the Z yardline, to more mimic the onside kick, essentially guaranteeing a “minimum punt zone” (Z minus X) of, in this case, 20 yards.
Anyway, that’s what I’d like to see, how X, Y, and Z have to be set to more mimic what we have with the kickoff, and then how adjusting any or all of those numbers would affect the play.