NFL coaches changed their preseason kickoff strategy this summer in response to a rule change that moved touchbacks from the 20- to the 25-yard line. The move could be a preview of a regular-season approach that would subvert the league's hopes of reducing the number of kickoff returns for safety purposes.
Kickoffs reached the end zone 78.5 of the time during the preseason, which ended Thursday night. That was down from 90 percent in the 2015 preseason and 85 percent in 2014. In turn, the return rate actually increased slightly from 54.9 percent of all kickoffs in 2015 to 57.2 in 2016.
Those numbers reflect a strategy, promised by some coaches during training camp, to use short "mortar" kicks that returners would be forced to field rather than take a touchback. As the theory goes, a good cover team will tackle a returner far short of the 25-yard line, providing the kicking team with a valuable gain in field position.
The results of that strategy, however, were inconclusive at best. Teams opened their average drive after kickoffs at the 24.4 yard line, according to ESPN Stats & Information, an increase of 3.1 yards over 2015. Had they simply kicked into the end zone at last season's pace, which would reduce the chances of a long return, the average start of field position wouldn't have been much higher.
Those numbers, of course, reflect coverage units staffed mainly by young players who were trying to make the team. The makeup of most special teams groups will change once the regular season begins, as will strategy, and the NFL plans to make no judgment about the new rule any time soon.
"Preseason kick return numbers do not translate to the regular season," NFL senior vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said on a video distributed Friday morning. "Coaches are evaluating players. They want to see their kick return teams. They want to see their cover team. You will see more kick returns in the preseason than you will in the regular season."