NFL meetings to focus on change to kickoffs; Steelers propose pushing back trade deadline

If the NFL competition committee has its way, a radical approach to kickoffs will take place next season, and a controversial tackling technique will be outlawed.

And if the Pittsburgh Steelers get enough support for their proposal, the league’s trading deadline will be pushed back a week.

Such topics — and several more — will be debated beginning Sunday when the NFL holds its annual meeting at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Fla.

Over a three-day period, owners will hear 10 playing rules proposals, seven potential changes to the league’s bylaws and three resolution propositions. Any change will require approval from 24 of the 32 owners.

The playing rules proposal that figures to generate the most discussion is the change to the kickoff. It is a hybrid of the setup used by the XFL the past two seasons and is designed to end violent collisions on returns that often result in injury.

It is proposed by the NFL competition committee, of which Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is a member.

“The configuration is too dangerous,” said committee chairman Rich McKay of the Atlanta Falcons. “We have to figure ways to make it safer. We just haven’t been able to make the player safer. We’ve been able to make it more of a non-event, i.e. touchbacks, but we have not made it safer.”

Under the proposal, the kicker would continue to tee up the ball at the 35 yard-line, but the other 10 players would set up at the opposing 40. For the returning team, nine players would be stationed between the 30 and 35. Two return men would line up in the “landing zone” between the goal line and the 20.

No blockers or defenders would be permitted to move until the ball is touched by a returning player or hits the ground. A touchback on a ball that lands in play and goes into the end zone would give the receiving team possession at its 20. A touchback on a ball that lands in the end zone or is kicked through the end zone would provide possession at the 35.

“We like the formation because we have to reduce space and speed that this play was … it created an injury factor that we have to change,” McKay said.

The proposal, which is for one year, would eliminate the surprise onside kick and restrict the use of any onside kick until the fourth quarter. It was adopted after consultation with the league’s special teams coaches at the NFL Combine.

“There are always consequences when you try to make change,” McKay said.

McKay admitted that though the NFL has tried to make the play safer in the past, the result has been a historically high number of touchbacks.

In 2010, the league recorded 416 touchbacks and 45,000 return yards. By 2023, the touchbacks increased to 1,970 and the return yardage dropped to 13,000.

In the Super Bowl last month, all 13 kickoffs resulted in touchbacks with 12 not landing in the field of play or the end zone.

“The kickoff proposal will impact scoring,” he said. “It will impact field position by 3-5 yards.”

Scoring has dropped from a combined 49 points per game during the 2020 covid-19 season to 43.5 points in 2023.

The proposal to eliminate the hip-drop tackle also figures to be debated at length. The hip-drop tackle involves a defender wrapping up a player, then using his hips to lower his weight onto the player’s legs while driving him to the ground.

“It’s something the committee wants to get out of the game,” said former player Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations.

Vincent already has gotten pushback from the NFL Players Association, which is opposed to eliminating the tackle. His response is to point to an alarming rise in injuries as a result of the tackle.

“The biggest asset for any athlete is durability and availability,” Vincent said. “When you have a play that has a 20-25x injury rate, it doesn’t allow you to fulfill your dreams.”

The Steelers submitted one of the seven bylaw proposals, encouraging the NFL trading deadline to be pushed back to Tuesday following the ninth week of games. It currently is the Tuesday after the eighth week. Six other clubs endorse a proposal to have the deadline delayed until the 10th week.

Other items up for discussion:

• Eliminating the requirement that a player must spend one day on the active roster at the start of the season before being designated to return from injured reserve. Currently, a player must be on the initial 53-man roster before he can be placed on IR with a chance to return during the season.

• Allowing a practice squad quarterback to serve as the emergency No. 3 quarterback on game days. Currently, the third quarterback must be on the 53-man roster.

One play that won’t be discussed at the annual meeting is the “tush push” quarterback sneak that the Philadelphia Eagles have brought to prominence the past two seasons. The competition committee didn’t see enough data about injuries on the play try to regulate it.

“It was best to say leave it alone,” Vincent said. “The Eagles do it well.”