The Las Vegas Raiders found a small loophole in the NFL’s rulebook that was giving them a small advantage on kickoffs. After initially allowing them to exploit it, the NFL has since reversed course and is putting a stop to it.
For a couple of weeks now the Raiders were using a holder on all of their kickoffs to place the football on top of the kicking tee, instead of having kicker Daniel Carlson place the ball inside of the tee where it would stand on its own.
The thought process here was the extra inch of elevation would allow Carlson to get under the ball and use his powerful leg to create more hangtime on the ball. He was then able to drop kickoffs inside the five-yard line, but not in the end zone for touchbacks, with enough hangtime for the coverage unit to get down field and pin opponents inside the 20-yard line.
A league source told The Football Zebras that the Raiders will no longer be allowed to utilize that kickoff strategy and must go back to placing the football inside of the tee, and may only use a holder when weather conditions call for it.
It was a great idea while it lasted, simply because any small advantage you can get over your opponent always helps.
The Football Zebras go into detail about the rule, the current style of kicking tee, and why the league felt the Raiders were ultimately violating the spirit of the rule.
But there is another theory to be explored here: The league clearly doesn’t like kickoffs as they are one of the most dangerous plays in any given game, and has made several rule changes over the years to both reduce their frequency and make them safer. Moving the kickoff to the 35-yard line from the 30-yard line has produced more touchbacks, while moving touchbacks to the 25-yard line instead of the 20 made it an incentive for teams to not run the ball out of the end zone. There have also been blocking rules changed to prevent certain wedge blocks to avoid more high speed collisions.
With what the Raiders were doing, they were guaranteeing more kickoff returns in an effort to gain a field position edge.
No matter the reason, the Raiders’ short-lived special teams advantage now appears to be gone.
