Chargers still looking at NFL’s new kickoff rules as a work in progress
EL SEGUNDO — In time, the NFL’s new kickoff rules might yield better results than just another season’s worth of touchbacks or returns for short gains. But for now, the rules are different, but not much has changed beyond the lines of attack moving closer together and the kicker standing alone.
“We need to go ahead and continue to find a way to have an impact in a positive way,” Chargers special teams coordinator Ryan Ficken said Monday, perhaps speaking for all of his colleagues around the 32-team league. “We’ve got the right guys to implement it, but I think we’re still trying to see what it can be.”
After five weeks, kickoffs generally look as they did last season, with kickers frequently playing it safe and booting the ball through the end zone for a touchback. There have been some instances in which a kicker will bounce the ball into the landing zone between the goal line and the 20-yard line.
But kickoff returns continue to be a rarity around the league.
“I think it’s still developing,” Ficken said. “I’m excited to see how it unfolds.”
Derius Davis, the Chargers’ second-year wide receiver and kickoff returner, has yet to break off a long run through four games so far this season. He is averaging 21.3 yards on four kickoff returns so far, including a season-high 35-yard return in the season opener against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Davis averaged 22 yards per return on 17 returns in 17 games last season.
“As a group, I think we still have a lot to work on with the new kickoff rules,” he said. “I feel like the whole league is still getting adjusted to it. As the year goes on, I feel like we’ll get better and better. We didn’t have many reps at it in the preseason. (But) I would say things happen much faster.”
On the occasions when Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker has dropped kickoffs short of the goal line, the coverage has been sound and returns have been kept to a minimum. Dicker hasn’t been bashful about kicking the ball as far as possible and forcing a touchback, as he often did in past seasons.
Roger Goodell, the NFL’s commissioner, acknowledged recently that the new rules haven’t exactly changed kickoffs for the better. There are still far too many touchbacks, which he suggested could lead to a tweak in the rules. Instead of placing the ball at the 30 after a touchback, the ball could go to the 35.
Only 29% of kickoffs had been returned through the first four weeks of this season, an increase of 17% from last season, according to figures compiled by the Washington Post. The league hoped the new rules, implemented on a one-year trial basis, would produce a higher return rate.
“We always said this was going to be a work in progress,” Goodell said during an interview with “Good Morning Football” on NFL Network. “I guess, if I had to grade it, I’d say it’s an incomplete right now. And only in this sense: We wanted to bring back more returns, but we wanted to do it safely.”
EXTRA POINTS
The Chargers returned to their practice field Monday, after completing their bye week. Quarterback Justin Herbert wore a black brace on his sprained right ankle, as he did during the Chargers’ loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4. He completed a series of throws during the period open to reporters. …
Outside linebacker Joey Bosa (hip), left tackle Rashawn Slater (pectoral muscle) and defensive backs Kristian Fulton (knee), Deane Leonard (hamstring) and Ja’Sir Taylor (fibula) worked out on the sideline while their teammates performed individual drills to begin a short, roughly 45-minute practice.