Seahawks' John Schneider Reveals How Seattle Will Adjust To New Kickoff Rules

The NFL has altered its kickoff rules for the upcoming season and teams will have to spend time adapting and game planning for the changes.

Dec 2, 2018; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider walks on the / Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

The NFL has altered its kickoff rules for the upcoming season and teams will have to spend time adapting and game planning for the changes.

Earlier this week, the Seattle Seahawks signed receiver/kick returner Laviska Shenault Jr. to a one-year, $1.292 million deal to add depth to the receiver room. But with his kick return experience, the Seahawks will no doubt utilize that aspect of his game as well.

Dec 2, 2018; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider walks on the / Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

The former second-round pick split the last four seasons in Jacksonville and Carolina and has averaged 27 yards per return over the past two.

“That’s one of the primary reasons we signed Laviska,” Seahawks general manager John Schneider told Seattle Sports. ” … We’ve been talking to him, he’s a great returner and he’s a really powerful dude like (receiver Dee Eskridge), so we were like man, let’s go for it.”

The NFL has adopted the kickoff rules of the old XFL.

Under the new kickoff format, kickers and returners are the only players on the field who can move before the ball is caught. The kicking team will line up 10 players at the return team's 40-yard line while the return team will line up at least nine players between their own 35- and 30-yard lines.

The ball will be fielded between the 20-yard line and goal line. If it goes into the end zone, it's a touchback and the ball will be placed at the return team's 30-yard line, moved up five yards from the previous touchback rules.

Return teams will also field two returners as opposed to the more recent rules needing just one.

“The XFL deal was one returner. Initially when they were talking about it, a lot of the angst within the special teams coaches community was that if there’s just one returner back there, the ball is going to drop and it’s going to look sloppy, there’s going to be a lot of line drive (kicks). It’s like get the ball on the ground so it’s a jacked up play, which people thought could lead to more injuries and may just look like a sloppier play in general. So having the two returners back there really takes that away,” Schneider said. “… Having the two returners is kind of a way they worked through things.

“It’s a game-changing play. It’s gonna be a real play,” he said. “I think it’s gonna be fun.”

Schneider thinks Shenault can excel in the new return game and thinks versatility is the key.

“Versatility. He’s that guy that you just give him the ball,” he said. “There was run after the catch stuff in college. We loved him coming out. As soon as you give that guy the ball, he’s incredibly explosive. He played a lot of running back last year. As a matter of fact, I think he split time between the running back room and the receiver room (in Carolina). Right now, he’s gonna be in our receiving room. He’ll come in there and compete with that group. It’s gonna be a fun group.”