NFL officials in town to brief Seattle Seahawks on new rule changes
INGLEWOOD, CA - NOVEMBER 19: Seattle Seahawks place kicker Jason Myers (5) kicks the ball in the first quarter during an NFL regular season game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams on November 19, 2023, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, (Brandon Sloter / Icon Sportswire)
RENTON, Wash. - The NFL will have one of the biggest rule changes in recent memory with the introduction of a new kickoff format for teams this season.
In fact, it's such a big shift that veteran NFL referee Carl Cheffers can't recall another rule change as monumental in his 25 years working for the league as an official.
"We certainly have had some fairly significant rule changes, but this is a very fundamental rule change," Cheffers said in a briefing with reporters on Thursday. "Obviously, we're changing the whole setup and everything else of the kickoff as we have known it, so probably nothing of this magnitude. So that's why we're anxious to get some reps and see what it's going to look like and make sure we can get it covered."
Cheffers and his officiating crew are in town to work with the Seahawks through their practice at Lumen Field on Saturday afternoon. It gives the officials a chance to speak with players about what to expect from them with some of the new rules this season, and it gives the officials a chance to see what these new kickoffs could look like in a practice setting.
"We’ll talk about the kickoff rule, they'll watch the reps, they'll give us feedback on what they see. So it's great to have them in town," head coach Mike Macdonald said.
The changes to the kickoff have come about due to a significantly decreased number of returns amid tweaks to the prior rules that had been put in place to reduce injuries. Now the NFL has taken inspiration from different kickoff formats in leagues such as the XFL and the USFL to develop a new style of play. It's created a whole new play that is a vastly different structure from anything seen in the NFL before.
"We'll be with the team over the course of the next three days working on this kind of stuff just making sure we're all in-sync, and we need some reps, too, right?" Cheffers said. "With the new kickoff rule, we're definitely looking forward to the new dynamic kickoff as they're calling it. So we're looking forward to seeing some reps and seeing what that's going to look like.
"The biggest challenge is that none of us have seen it yet. Honestly, that's the biggest challenge. We saw a few things just in the walkthrough that was great for us to see. And we've looked at video and looked at some of these other leagues, but we have not officiated that play yet. The teams are still figuring out what they're going to do, right?"
An explainer of the new kickoff rules follows below:
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NFL's new kickoff rule explained, plus other changes in 2024
Owners also approved other rule changes, including banning the use of the "swivel hip-drop" tackle that had led to several injuries and in an increase in the use of instant replay.
Cheffers noted there wasn't a single kickoff returned out of 13 kickoffs between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers in last year's Super Bowl.
"It's going to revitalize this play a little bit," Cheffers said. "I think it kind of died off with the lack of returns and lack of incentive for returns, so now there's an incentive to return the ball. With it being live in the end zone instead of dead if it rolls into the end zone, they've got to cover it, maybe run with it. There's a lot of incentive for them to return it and I think it's really going to put a breath of life back into the kickoffs so we're looking forward to having an exciting play."
Another area that has changed is that officials can get help from the replay booth upstairs to help them overturn errant calls on the field. The replay booth can't call for a flag to be thrown from visuals they've seen upstairs, but if a call was made and an objective area of the penalty wasn't actually in place, the booth can lend a hand.
These will show up on plays such as blows to the head and neck if impact to those areas wasn't actually present on a collision, intentional grounding calls if a quarterback is outside the pocket or not under pressure, or late hits out-of-bounds if the player hasn't yet reached the sidelines when a hit occurred.
For instance, last year in Detroit, Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith was flagged for intentional grounding when he and receiver Tyler Lockett mis-communicated on a play. Lockett broke on an out route while Smith had expected him to go deep down field. Smith was flagged for intentional grounding for not having a receiver in the area of his throw, but Smith had a clean pocket and wasn't under pressure on the play, so a penalty shouldn't have been called.
"If the quarterback is clearly not under pressure and we put down a flag for intentional grounding, then replay can come down and give us information on that," Cheffers said.
The NFL has also outlawed the so-called "hip-drop" tackle, which has led to several injuries in games in recent seasons. Much like they did by banning the "horse-collar tackle," the NFL wanted to get rid of a dangerous play. The tackle in question involves three separate aspects that officials will need to see met to make a call on the field. A player must grab their opponent, swivels their hips around and leaves their feet, and land on their opponent's legs.
Officials have been instructed not to call the penalty unless they are sure that all three conditions are met.
"We are probably going to miss some of those on the field and we want to make sure that all three of those aspects are in place before we throw a penalty," Cheffers said.
"Our players always adjust. We see all of these examples of hip-drop tackles, but they were not illegal. They were perfectly legal to make that sort of tackle. Now that they're illegal, our players always adjust, right? They're going to do a great job of adjusting. We're definitely going to see a few of them probably early on in the season. We're going to be very careful when we call it, make sure all three aspects are present before we put a flag down on the field."