Jaguars' Doug Pederson and Heath Farwell React to New NFL Kickoff Rule
To the dismay of many coaches and coordinators across the NFL, the league opted to institute a new rule on kickoffs for the 2023 season, allowing teams to signal a fair catch behind their own 25-yard-line to have the ball placed at the 25.
While the enaction of this policy has many speculating that kickoffs could have a drastically different look next season, Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson offered a different point of view regarding the change in strategy from a play-calling and return perspective.
“I don’t think it’s going to change a ton,” Pederson said when asked how the new fair catch rule changes the idea of strategy. “I believe that it could be a possibility if it’s maybe a bad weather game, the wind’s blowing, rainy, snowy. Fourth quarter and maybe, you know, you take an opportunity, you take the ball to the 25 as opposed to trying to run. There are some strategy things. I don’t know if it’s going to change a whole lot.
"Teams that have dynamic returners like we do, that’s something that Heath [Jaguars special teams coach Heath Farwell] and I as a game plan goes each week we have to decide. Do we want to let Agnew [Jaguars wide receiver/kick returner Jamal Agnew] run ‘em out like he did towards the end of the season last year and try to get out? I think our kickoff return average was just north of the 25 yard line a little bit anyway last year. So, if you can do that with a dynamic guy, I don’t think it’ll change too much around the league other than maybe some weather or some strategic situations that could pop up.”
While Jaguars special team’s coordinator Heath Farwell acknowledged that the rule change was a less than ideal solution, but that he and other coordinators will need to embrace it as the NFL continues to evolve.
“Yeah, it’s going to be interesting to see how this works out,” Farwell said when asked about the fair catch rule. “Obviously, as the special teams coaches got together, it wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, but as the game evolves we got to evolve right there with it. So, it’s something that my assistant and I, Luke Thompson [Jaguars assistant special teams coach Luke Thompson, have really looked into this off-season and we’ll continue to look throughout training camp.
"What are the keys to it? We’re going to have to study all the college tape. That’s what they’ve been doing for a couple years and reaching out to those buddies that are in that game to kind of figure out the tricks to it. It’s going to be all new to us. Is it going to change a ton? Possibly not. Like coach [Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson] mentioned, we got Jamal Agnew. We’re going to want to return so we’re going to try to return as much as we can. Are we going to fair catch at times? Potentially, but I think if you have a returner like we do, you still want that as a big part of the game. It’s a big part of momentum. It was a big part of our season last year down the stretch of flipping the field, giving the ball to the offense on the other side of the 50. It was a huge part of what we did.”
While implementing such a drastic rule can be seen as a means to eliminate the kickoff game, Farwell made clear that he thinks that is far from the case, instead reinforcing the importance of player safety.
“I don’t look at it that way,” Farwell said when asked if the NFL’s newest rule implies that they want to get rid of the kicking game.
“I look at it more as a safety issue. They’re trying to figure out another way to prevent one less concussion. I think it is valuable and I think as a coach, as a former player, we don’t want those as well. We want it safe for the players. We love to keep the traditional aspect of the game as much as we can, but we have to look at safety and I agree with that one hundred percent. If we can help the game we’ll do it.”
