04-12-2024, 09:33 AM
(04-12-2024, 06:05 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Hang time might actually be worse for kickoffs in the new rules. If you loft it up high, you're giving the blockers time where nobody can move to figure out which direction the ball is heading and mentally prepare to set up the needed blocks for where the ball is going to land once it's touched. If you have the least hangtime needed to get the ball directly to the zone, you're able to give the blockers very little time to do anything other than to instinctively react.
Agreed. While the kicking team players cannot move, the receiving teams has two players who can move before the ball is touched or hits the ground. Good hang time allows them to get into position (one catching the ball and one blocking) and the rest of the receiving team to prepare for a return. I suspect the strategy will be line drives that end in the landing zone and ideally can get by the two receivers and into the end zone or just short of it.
There were times (before last year's rule about fair catching kickoffs) that Simmons had McMoney hit kickoffs deep, but not into the end zone, with the goal of stopping the returning team inside the 20. I think McMoney will be able to adjust to whatever Simmons asks of him with these new rules. Some other teams (like KC with Punt God) may find the punter better adapted to learning to hit line drives with the correct placement; I just don't see it with Robbins.
