Kickoff change has been approved by the competition committee

[Mr. Scot]

One other rule change (per Florio). The league established that green is the official color of all NFL football fields.

No Boise State type blue fields, and no painting the field some other color for marketing purposes.

[Sword]

might not always be touchbacks..if you have a strong kicker you can kick a really high kick to the 1 or the 2 yard line so your kickoff team can get there and pin them back even further..adds more options for the kickoff teams but severely limits return teams.

[Sam Mills Fan]

If they can think of a way for teams to still perform onside kicks, I bet they'll ban the kickoff completely within 5 years because of "safety concerns". After the other team scores, you'll get it on your own 25 and be done with it.

[Lumps]

but this wil1 corrupt the rec0rd boooks!! What about all the guys that got within 5 yrds of a TD and were tackled?? Whos the voice for them??

[Mr. Scot]

Marvin Lewis had hinted that there was talk of doing away with kickoff returns entirely.

I'd like to hope the NFL isn't that stupid, but some evidence points to the contrary :(

[chef17]

idk why people are so angry about this. yes kickoffs are an exciting part of the game, but lets be honest, as panthers fans, it is never exciting for us. Its sad when our most exciting special teams moment is Baker making an ankle slapping tackle to save a touchdown. do we have a person who can kickoff and kick field goals at the same time? no do we have someone who scares people on returns? no. even if they reverse the rule in a few years, it will give kasey enough time to retire and we can have a kicker that can do both.

ps. I think people are forgetting that Baker has done kickoffs before and he would probably be doing it if we didnt have lloyd.

So because kickoffs aren't super exciting for us we shouldn't hate the rule? I'm pretty sure most here watch more than just Panther's games. So taking away exciting plays from other teams still effects us as fans. Not to mention Goodson had a return that was exciting until the flag was thrown.

[chef17]

Marvin Lewis had hinted that there was talk of doing away with kickoff returns entirely.

I'd like to hope the NFL isn't that stupid, but some evidence points to the contrary :(

I agree. They will say it's for safety but getting rid of kick returns makes the offense and defense play more plays. Doesn't that increase their risk of injury?

[Panthers128]

players complain about the game being dangerous and in return want to be paid a fortune but when the owners try to make the game less dangerous they still complain.

clearly kickoff returns are some of the most dangerous plays in football. thomas davis nearly killed some guy on the packers with a ridiculously unnecessary hit

[Jangler]

Owners have also voted to make all scoring plays subject to booth review. Coaches will no longer need to use challenges on these plays.

They have also, for the moment, set aside proposed expansions of the "defenseless receiver" rule.

(no problem for me with either of these things)

That's a good thing IMO. But if they don't speed it up like it is in college. An 80 point game will take an extra hour...

[dimbee]

Garbage

[Chaos]

Let's just put the flags around their waists, start them at the 20, give em four downs to do something, then switch it up.

[pantherclaw]

Way to take the "special" out of special teams.

Why not just elinimate kick offs all together, and have the offenses always start at the 20.

[pantherclaw]

Nobody is looking at to draft a Kick returner number one.

Especially one that has said he doesn't have a great desire to return KO's from the beginning.

He won't lose any value.

He has openly stated he would like to play/make impacts anywhere he can, including kickoff. This is fairly common information from the interviews nfln did during the combine.

[pantherclaw]

Peterson was on Total Access on NFLN last night. He said that he's been asked by teams about the return game during interviews at the combine. He prefers to do punt returns and not kick returns.

I watched, and didn't hear that. I've also seen him in multiple interview with nfln during the combine, that he wanted and would play anywhere the team wants him to, including returning.