One of the NFL’s mysteries entering the 2024 season is how teams will handle the new kickoff.
Asked about it in his Monday press conference, Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said he and his staff are going to monitor teams around the league for the next month. But he doesn’t think teams are going to reveal much before the games count in September.
“I don’t know if we’ll gain a lot from it because I don’t think teams are going to do a lot with it,” Pederson said. “I think you’re going to see, hopefully, we as coaches that are watching it, some different types of kickoffs, whether they want to missile a kick down there, put it on the ground, put it in the corners, down it, or whatever, maybe some of that. But I don’t think, from a scheme standpoint, we’ll see a whole lot, not right now in preseason anyway.
“I’m sure they will [play it safe] because it’s all new and you don’t want to, I don’t think, tip your hand right now, and let teams, especially teams early in the season that we play that can scheme you up.”
Still, Pederson said the preseason kickoffs will tell a little bit about how coaches are thinking about strategy and approach because it’s different for everybody.
“People are going to look up, and if they haven’t been following it, it’s going to be like, ‘Woah, what are we doing?’” Pederson said. “I think each week, as we watch all the games, I think we’ll just continue to learn and grow, and really, I think it comes down to maybe even the types of players that you use on your kickoff team, your kickoff return team. Who’s back there returning the kick? All kinds of things can take place now.”
