The NFL always finds new ways to tweak its rulebook from year to year. It is their way of trying to keep the game fresh. Sometimes this can be a good thing. Everybody points to the rule changes in 1978 to help open up more offense as a game-changer for the league. However, there have also been some derided changes that fans, players, and coaches alike don’t care for. The latest to earn such derision is when the league decided to implement a fair catch rule on kickoffs, allowing returners to signal fair catches and receive an immediate placement at the 25-yard line. Trenton Gill is directly affected by this.
He’s the Chicago Bears kickoff man. The former 7th round pick saw 48.1% of his kicks result in touchbacks last season. One can imagine he would have comments about this new rule. Jim Miller decided to ask him about it on Bears Weekly. Gill sees it from a pragmatic point of view. The Bears believe teams with good returners will ignore the rule. They’ll keep bringing kicks out anyway. It’s the teams that don’t have one that may try to exploit the change. That is why Gill and the special teams coaches are working on potential countermeasures.
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Trenton Gill doesn’t seem panicked by the change.
His special teams coach Richard Hightower may not feel the same. Many like him made a mass appeal to the league to not make the changes, fearing it would have the opposite of its intended effect. The league believes the change will lead to fewer concussion cases. Coaches think it will actually increase the risks. As is often the case, their pleas were ignored. Now it falls on them to find ways around the change. A widespread belief is it will lead to far more squib and pooch kicks in hopes of getting favorable field position.
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It seems Trenton Gill already has a pretty good idea of what’s coming. If an opposing team has a good kick returner, the Bears will likely decide to seek a touchback or force them to fair catch it. If they don’t have one, that is when the creativity might come out. Anything for an edge. It will be interesting to see how the new rule is implemented this year. Most believe this is yet another step in the league’s gradual mission to phase kickoffs out altogether. That feels like a short-sighted idea, given it’s one of the most exciting plays in the entire sport.
