Nyheim Hines Explains How Browns Are Preparing For New Kickoff

With the NFL changing the kickoff for 2024, Nyheim Hines looks to be a main contributor in new exciting play.

The Bills' Nyheim Hines returns this kickoff 101 yards for a touchdown against the Patriots. This / JAMIE GERMANO/ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND

New year, new rules. In the year-to-year evolution of the NFL team owners are constantly looking for ways to improve the game.

For their latest act, a new look kickoff, modeled after and tweaked from the now rebranded XFL. The thought process behind it of course is to make a play that has been reduced to a bathroom break for fans into a more exciting play with higher potential for points to be scored.

It's one of the biggest reasons new Browns running back and kick returner option Nyheim Hines is excited about the opportunity in front of him.

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"I think it's very interesting. I've been watching a lot of XFL clips and just finding stuff in different box schemes," said Hines. "Even talked to Bubba [Ventrone] about it. I think it's gonna be great because one, for me, I think, it's gonna favor running backs. Or people who are gonna hit the hole. I don't think they'll be able to just field the return and just run around the edge to the sideline like he used to. So I think personally, for me, it's really about making sure that my tracks up and hit it hard and if I hit it hard and get through an arm tackle or a tackle or two we can score it."

What doesn't change about the new setup is where the ball is being kicked off. Kickers will still kick the ball from their team's 35-yardline, with a new objective landing the ball between the opposing goal line and the 20-yardline. Between those two areas is a unique setup zone that puts the kicking team's coverage players on the returning team's 40 yard line. Then, five yards away the returning team has a five-yard area from the 35 to the 30 where they must have nine players lined up preparing to block.

The idea is that it shortens the point of contact to lesson high-speed collisions between players, but also turns the kickoff into almost a standard offensive play, where there's almost an arbitrary line of scrimmage. Teams will be able to essentially draw up blocking schemes out of this and create holes for one of two returners to try and spring free.

That's where Hines comes in, and why he thinks running backs have an advantage on the play.

"I hope to be one of the main contributors to that [play]," said Hines. I think just obviously, people not running full speed and then having that short run up, they can't just counter back and make the play. There's gonna be more like a run block as opposed to somebody just making a double move and whiffing and you can't get your hands on them. Everybody's gonna have hands on, there'll be opportunities to score. I think he's gonna be more more holding calls. too, though. I think Bubba is gonna coach it right and I think we're gonna figure it out."

The Browns aren't alone in their quest to "figure it out," All 32 teams are currently racing to come up with the best game plan for the new play, hoping to be ahead of the curve come Week 1 of the season.

Fortunately, the presence of special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone gives Hines and the Browns confidence that they'll be trend setters for the play.

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"I think it's been really a really great experience," Hines said of studying the play. "It's football, so you gotta lean on each other. And that's one thing I'll say is Bubba's always been great with taking ideas. He's always listening to his players, and we're all just kind of brainstorming. It's great when we can sit in a room and figure out what we're going to do. The first two or three weeks might look a little bit sloppy, not for us, but for kind of everybody. I think someone's gonna figure it out before somebody else and then we'll kind of go off that because we're all kind of brainstorming ideas to figure out how we can block and setup people."

It's one big, league wide science experiment that will play out over the remaining weeks of spring practice and deep into August during training camp. Once healthy, Hines will have a chance to put Ventrone's innovation to the test, hopefully to the beat of many trips to the end zone.