Kyle Shanahan Discusses the NFL's New Kickoff Rule

ORLANDO -- The NFL owners voted to change the league's kickoff rule Tuesday at the annual meeting.

From now on, players from both teams will line up five yards across from each other in order to decrease the speed and violence of the collisions. And then if the kicker boots the ball into the end zone on the fly, the receiving team starts its drive at its 30-yard line. So the NFL wants more kickoffs, and they adopted this rule from the XFL, which has used it the past two years.

"I think it's interesting," Shanahan said on Tuesday. "I don't think anyone totally knows, because when you put guys in different spots that they've never been put in before, there's different timing with how it's going to play out, so I think we'll all find out about it, but I think it will be fun to watch, but your guess is as good as mine. We're all going to have to figure it out as we go, and I think that will be a fun thing in the league, but I think it's going to be a different thing each week."

This new rule should be much more exciting than the previous rule, which essentially was a ceremonial touchback, in which the kicking team would boot the ball from the 35-yard line beyond the back of the end zone. Boring.

Now, kick returner is a valuable position once again, which is what the league wants, considering it recently inducted kick returner Devin Hester into the Hall of Fame.

Now the 49ers have to decide who their kick returner will be. Will it be Deebo Samuel, or someone they draft?

You can bet the 49ers are having that conversation right now.