Raiders' Special Teams Learning Rule Changes with No Pressure

The new special teams rules will undoubtedly take some time to learn. Las Vegas Raiders special teams coordinator Tom McMahon has taken full responsibility for the players quickly learning the changes.

Las Vegas Raiders Special Teams Coordinator Tom McMahon /

The National Football League plans to experiment with multiple new special teams rules this upcoming season.

Until now, special teams have been cut and dry and somewhat boring. The NFL hopes the new rules will add safety for special teams players and excitement for the fans watching it. However, Raiders special teams coordinator Tom McMahon is understandably more focused on teaching his unit the rules. He has taken an interesting approach to help them grasp the changes.

"I think with them, they have to understand the scheme. They have to be really, really prepared,” McMahon recently said at training camp. “They have to know their job. And for me, it's no consequence. If you put a bunch of pressure, 'Oh if you do this and you do that,' they're going to do this, they're going to do that, and they're going to play slow. 

As the league implements new rules that arguably impact special teams units more than any other unit, McMahon continues to be patient with the players who are all learning new aspects of the football game, many of which are entirely different than what they are used to.  He wants the players to play free and play fast, instead of worrying about making mistakes within the new set of rules.

“In coverage roles and in return roles, we have to get up the rectangle, you have to work vertical,” McMahon said. “And when you say, 'what ifs,' it has the word 'whiff' in 'what if', we're going to whiff. If they say, 'Coach, what if', and we're not letting them play fast. So, the big thing that I have to do is there's no consequence; you guys go play. OK, there's only one bad F word in the world, and it's 'fault'. OK, we'll fix it. If there's fault, it's Tom. So right here, if something happens this year, T-O-M. OK, that's what it is. 

“So, because we got to play with no consequence, and there's no one in our room – I got asked a great question earlier about 'who are you impressed with' -- all these guys. Because right now, they're not looking for fault. Every single time when we point something out, you don't get that look of, 'Oh, I'm down on myself. He's on me.' No, he's fixing. We're fixing. Don't worry about fault. Just go. Go in every single thing we do, go. There's no consequence. And that's the best, for our special teams, our guys love AP [Antonio Pierce] for that. Go, go, man, go, go, go play the game. And we'll fix it in the in the meeting room, but we can't slow these guys down or they're going to get free yardage on all these plays, or vice versa, we'll get free yardage if they slow down."

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