Chiefs may take Harrison Butker off of kickoffs

The most significant rules change to the NFL will be seen the moment the new season begins.

In March, the league announced a sweeping change to kickoffs for the 2024 season aimed at significantly increasing the number of returns. We covered the specifics of the radical difference from the old rules.

After the Kansas City Chiefs concluded their organized-team-activity (OTA) session on Thursday, assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Dave Toub discussed how the team is preparing for the change.

Saying one of the league’s longest-tenured special-teams minds is excited would be an understatement. It is almost as if Toub has rediscovered a lost friend in kickoff formations.

“I didn’t work on kickoffs,” he stated of recent seasons, “because we were just going to kick a touchback. All of my time was spent on punts, punt returns, field goals, and field goal blocks. This is huge. It’s going to create jobs for returners…Last year, there were 1970 touchbacks throughout a 17-game season. Now, we think there’s going to be 1600 more actual football plays…It’s going to be exciting for the fans and the players — they’re excited about it too.”

As the Chiefs prepare for the season, the new rule — modified from last year’s XFL season — heavily drives Toub’s section of practices.

“Without giving everything away,” he explained, “we’re trying to get the ball on the ground away from the returners as quick as possible because that’s when the kickoff team and the kickoff return team can go: as soon as the ball hits the ground in the target zone, not when it’s touched. Unlike the XFL — they waited until the ball was touched before they went. That’s a major difference between our rule and the XFL rule.”

An effect of the new formation that disallows most movement until a kickoff is fielded will be an increase of kickers having to make a tackle as the last line of defense. Toub discussed what could be a major advantage for the Chiefs this season: the ability of safety Justin Reid to rotate in on kicking duties. Don’t be surprised if Reid is frequently a preferred option to longtime placekicker Harrison Butker on most kickoffs.

“I’d like to have somebody who can go back and is able to make a tackle,” the coach confirmed. “Butker is able to make a tackle, but I really don’t want him making tackles all year long. If you watch the XFL — we watched every play — I’ll bet kickers were involved in at least 25 to 40 percent of the tackles: either trying to make a guy bounce back or making the tackle itself or just missing the tackle.”

The Chiefs are discovering they may have yet another option for kickoffs: former rugby star Louis Rees-Zammit, who joined the club earlier this offseason via the International Player Pathway.

While the Welsh-born Rees-Zammit is clearly raw compared to his seasoned peers, Toub praised his efforts both on kickoffs and return reps.

“Louis has done above and beyond what I expected,” said Toub. “He can kick field goals. He can be a kickoff guy for us. He’s every bit as good as Justin is moving the football on kickoffs. He’s really working hard at the returner job. I’ve got him in there as a starter now, so he gets as many reps as he can.”

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Still, there will be situations where Butker’s reliability will be prioritized.

“He’s got a lot of ability to move the ball,” Toub observed, “whereas the other guys may not be as apt to doing that. He can still kick a touchback if we need it.”

Touchbacks now begin an opponent possession at the 30-yard line, which Toub estimates makes teams three percent more likely to score. The always-thorough coach, however, knows the situation that would still call for putting the ball into the end zone.

“If you’re trying to get out of a game,” he explained. “You’re up [and] you don’t want to give up the possibility of a big return against you. You just say, ‘Hey, we’re going to give up the five yards and give them the ball at the 30.’”

Fans will have a major adjustment to a new kickoff that sees hangtime rendered meaningless. Toub elaborated on some of the new considerations that could see opponent drives starting at the 40-yard line if not practiced.

“Now,” he noted, “it’s about accuracy, seeing what you are getting and how the returners are lined up, and trying to kick away from them in the corners. You can’t take too much of a risk because if you hit it out of bounds, now you are giving the ball up at the 40. If you hit short of the target zone, you’re giving to ball up at the 40.”

As the season draws nearer, it will be important to consider that players and even experienced coaches are getting a crash course on the new rule.

“Every time we practice, we learn something new,” Toub revealed. “I drew up a play — and it looks great on paper — and you can’t do it. You can’t get certain blocks you think you can get to. So you throw it out, and it’s the next thing. I’ve been doing this for a long time with the old kickoff return stuff for a period of years. Now we’re putting in this whole kickoff system in an offseason.

“The team that figures it out — kickoff-wise and kickoff return-wise — is going to really excel early. We want to be that team.”