Detroit Lions' Dave Fipp expects new kickoff rule to produce 'volatile' returns

The NFL consulted with special teams coaches across the league before reinventing the kickoff this offseason, and Detroit Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp said the new rules align with his most important criteria for the change.

“I think the thing that was important from my standpoint is that the play is a play that both looks good and it gives both sides of the football a chance to compete,” Fipp said Thursday before the Lions’ third organized team activity practice of the offseason in Allen Park. “We don’t want a dirty play, meaning the ball’s all over the ground, it’s hard to field and it turns into a scrum. Returners are trying to catch it. Like the XFL, they had one returner back there deep. They could only have one guy. And we felt like teams were just going to try to put the ball on the ground, which I think they’ll still try to do in some way. But at least we’re going to have two guys back there so that’ll talk some of the teams out of some of that stuff.

“But my biggest thing was, ‘Hey, let’s give both sides the chance to play the play and make it competitive and compete against each other, and then we’ll find out who does a good job coaching, who does a good job playing and it’ll be a nice, clean play for everybody to see.’”

TRENDING: Detroit Lions observations: Jameson Williams their 'most improved player,' has mixed day

Fipp called himself “a traditionalist” when it comes to special teams play, but said the new kickoff will look more “similar to what we’ve had in the past” than some realize.

Under the new rules, teams still will kick off from their own 35-yard line, but the coverage unit will line up in a stationary position at the receiving team's 40-yard line.

Return teams must align at least nine men in the setup zone between the 30- and 35-yard lines, with up to two returners in the landing zone between the goal line and 20-yard line.

Touchbacks now will be marked at the 30-yard line, fair catches are not allowed in the field of play and no one other than the kicker and return men can move until the ball is fielded or hits the ground.

“The truth is if you just took (at) our kickoff from a year ago and you’re watching on film and you hit start and the ball’s kicked and the cover team starts running down the field, if you pause the film (when the coverage team is running downfield) it’s pretty close to (where players will be under the new rule),” Fipp said. “So what the league’s done in essence to a large degree is just taken out the 40-yard free run that you used to have.”

The change was made for myriad reasons.

The NFL wanted to remove some violent collisions from the game by reducing the speed of the play. Historically, kickoffs produce a concussion rate four times that of a run or pass play, and a missed-time injury rate of double a typical play from scrimmage.

The league wanted to encourage more returns. Since 2010, touchbacks have more than quadrupled, from 416 to 1,970, and not a single kick was returned in last season’s Super Bowl.

And the league wanted to inject more offense into the game after scoring declined last season for the third straight year. Teams averaged 21.8 points per game in 2023, down from 21.9 ppg in 2022 and an all-time high of 24.8 ppg during the COVID-plagued season of 2020.

“I do believe the kickoff proposal this year will impact scoring because I think it will impact field position by 3 to 5 yards and in doing that, you definitely impact scoring, so that’s one thing we definitely looked at,” Atlanta Falcons CEO Rich McKay, the chairman of the NFL’s competition committee, said this spring.

Fipp said he expects scoring to tick up this year, too, not just because of better field position but because the new rules will make the kickoff “a volatile play.”

“There can be some explosive plays, really for the kickoff return team more so than the coverage team,” Fipp said. “As a coverage group you only have 20 yards, 25 yards to stop the guy, but the return team’s got 75 yards to go the other way, so there’s more opportunity for the return team I think to have more explosive plays. I think those things will show up. They’ve spread the field with our alignment so that it’s hard to get an overloaded number of players at the point of attack. If you kick the ball away in the left corner, there’s a couple of guys out there that are 50 yards away from the ball laterally and it just takes too long to get over the top of the ball so some of those guys can’t show up. By the time the returner goes 35 yards, they have to go 50. You can’t get there unless you’re just faster.”

The Lions dedicated their special teams period at practice Thursday to working on the new kickoff rule, and Fipp said he plans to split his practice time evenly between working the punt and kick games for now.

The Lions still are experimenting “as much as we can obviously and putting our guys in a bunch of different situations, both in schemes, positionally on the field, alignments, how we’re trying to play the play, mindset, mentality. Kind of all of the above and just trying to figure out a lot of things,” Fipp said.

And they’re trying their best to avoid making rash judgments on what happens in practice, and instead use the time to collect information and see where it leads them.

“I’m thrilled to death, I’ll say that for sure,” Fipp said. “I think it’s going to be great. Great for the game, great for players. I think one thing I’ve already noticed, players coming into my office and they’re excited, they’re like, ‘Hey, tell me about the rule.’ And it’s some of the down-the-line players that it’s going to matter to. I think it gives those guys more importance, the guys who can contribute on special teams.

“Not that we were one of them, but I think that a handful of teams around the league started to devalue the back end of the roster just a little bit there and some of these guys’ skill sets on special teams and the importance of it, and I think that’s going to come back into play a little bit more here. So I really like it. I like what the league’s done. I know everybody’s worked really hard to to try to make sure that it goes well and we’ll see. There’s a lot everybody’s got to learn, but definitely exciting.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions' Dave Fipp 'thrilled to death' with new kickoff rule