Inside The Eagles Preparation For The New NFL Kickoff Rules

Eagles special teams coordinator is in a wait-and-see mode with the new return rules.

Former Clemson running back Will Shipley runs in a running back drill for scouts during 2024 Clemson / Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK

PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles allowed their primary kickoff returner over the past two seasons – running back Boston Scott – to leave via free agency.

Of course, kickoffs have not been a big part of the game over that span. The popular Scott, who signed with the Los Angeles Rams on May 1, returned a total of 23 kickoffs -- 25 if you include the postseason -- over the 2022 and 2023 seasons as the play itself came closer and closer to extinction due to the perceived dangerous nature of the high-impact collisions it sometimes creates.

Rather than completely ditch what had been one of the game’s most exciting plays in a different era the league went to work and found a solution that will be tested during the 2023 season, an XFL-inspired twist on the kickoff where every player on the kicking team other than the kickoff specialist will line up with at least one foot on the returning team's 40-yard line.

At least nine members of the returning team will line up in a “setup zone” beginning five yards opposite of that on its 35-yard line (a minimum of seven players must have a foot on what is known as the “restraining line”) stretching to the returning team’s 30-yard line, with up to two returners in the “landing zone” (defined as the goal line to the 20-yard line). 

No players other than the kicker and the returners can move until the football is fielded by a returner. In theory, limiting those high-impact collisions by reducing the space in between bodies. 

Any kick that is caught or lands in the landing zone must be returned, while any kick that falls short of the landing zone will be ruled a touchback and spotted at the returning team’s 40-yard line.

If a kick hits the landing zone and then goes into the end zone, it has to be returned or downed by the receiving team. If it’s downed, it will be ruled a touchback and go to the 20-yard line.

If the ball hits the end zone and stays inbounds, it has to be returned or downed – if it’s downed, it is a touchback and moved to the 30-yard line. Similarly, if the ball goes through and out of the end zone, it will be a touchback to the 30-yard line.

The hope is to incentivize returns and bring them back to the game although the original idea of bringing out conventional touchbacks to the 40 which would have surely limited them was watered down to push the rule through.

No one seems to be quite sure what to expect.

“The great thing about it, 31 other teams are in the same boat in terms of that,” Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay said. “We have spent a good amount of time, not taking away from other aspects, because obviously it's a new rule, you have to get used to it. You have to do it more often than not. But you still don't want to take away from the other aspects of special teams.”

Clay and his two top lieutenants have been running through all the potential screnarios.

“We have put some time into it,” he said. “A lot of long conversations between myself, [Special Teams Assistant] Tyler [Brown], [Assistant Special Teams Coordinator] Joe P [Pannunzio], and even just around the league. I think that's the cool thing about the special teams community in the NFL, everyone respects each other at a high level and bounces ideas off each other. 

“... It's an exciting time. It's a lot of retraining for these veteran guys who are so used to NFL rules, that now these new rules just relearning it from the ground up.”

In a convenient coincidence, the Eagles have brought in several players with KR experience, most notably former Indianapolis cornerback Isaiah Rodgers and rookies Cooper DeJean, Will Shipley, and Ainias Smith.

Clay broke down the rookies on Thursday:

“I think they all excel in different phases. Cooper, he's just a heck of an athlete,” the STC said. “You guys have seen his basketball highlight tape surface around. This guy is a really good football player. Hard to find good football players in general. He's a smooth runner. Able to track the ball as a punt returner. You saw he has the ability to take it all the way.

“Ainias, he's splashy, explosive. When he gets the ball in his hands, it's really dynamic in terms of that. 

“... Will, you see from a running back perspective then to a kickoff returner's perspective, he's downhill. He's one cut. He's still got enough wiggle to make you miss. That was evident in the rookie mini-camp, just seeing those guys kind of move around for the first time live in person outside of the film. It's just something exciting to look forward to when they get back here and mingle in with the veterans.”

It’s even more exciting to visualize the kickoff return itself making its own return, back to relevancy. 

“It's going to be trial and error,” Clay said. “It's going to be, ‘hey, let's see what it looks like in a live setting.’ Going forward, hey, we don't like this. Let's try it again. We do like this. Let's keep this and add to this. … It's going to be interesting and fun.” 

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