Buffalo Bills ST coordinator Matthew Smiley carefully treading challenges of new NFL kickoff rule

Earlier this offseason, Buffalo Rumblings brought you an article explaining the new NFL kickoff rules being given a one-season trial run in 2024. The new approach, adopted largely out of XFL rules, was delegated by the NFL Competition Committee — a group that Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott was appointed to this offseason.

After deliberating about the rule, the competition committee put it to a vote with NFL ownership at the annual league meeting — where it was approved before ultimately landing with all 32 special teams coordinators, who’ve worked to collaboratively define the new rule.

A bold change, it ushers in the most significant overhaul to the kickoff rules in years. Why, exactly, were such significant updates made? The crux of the argument continuously circles around the idea that NFL kickoffs are among the most dangerous plays, exposing many players to a heightened risk of injury.

Unchanged will be where the ball is kicked from (kicking team’s 35-yard line). But now, the 10 other members of the kicking team must line up on their opponent’s 40-yard line. To counter that alignment, the receiving side (opponent) will line up blockers (nine in total) anywhere between their 30- and 35-yard line. The receiving team also fields two returners anywhere inside their 20-yard line.

Despite significant discussion about the new rule, it remains uncharted territory for the entire NFL. Those players who previously spent time in the XFL playing special teams may provide a competitive advantage, at least in the early going.

There’s bound to be an influx of strategy from special teams coordinators and coaches, where before the play often met its conclusion as a touchback. Though no return took place, there were still more than two dozen football players running full speed downfield and into one another — for a play that previously involved little strategy and carried little on-field impact. It’s a welcome change, even if seems clunky on paper.

Ahead of the Bills’ practice on Sunday, July 28, special teams coordinator Matthew Smiley spoke at length about the new kickoff rules, acknowledging the learning curve for the NFL as a whole.

“I think that’s an interesting choice of a word “attack” — there’s so much humility that’s gotta be baked into this deal because no one’s ever done it. So I know it’s similar to the XFL, but even some of the rule changes that are different between what we’re getting ready to do and what the XFL did makes for new wrinkles too. So even watching that film, while helpful, it’s not gonna be exactly the same. So, a bunch of research, a bunch of brainstorming, the spring was very helpful working through some things and incorporating the guys in the room. The players are probably underestimated a lot of times for how much football they know, how smart they are, how creative they are — so we had times during the spring when we said ‘Hey what do you guys see in here, what do you think?’ So experimenting in the spring and really trying to learn and see where the issues are, and see how we can capitalize both ways.”

Where is Matthew Smiley’s mindset at ahead of implementing the new kickoff rule in live action?

“(F)rom my side of the table, it is more anxiety than it is excitement. Just because it is… there is no test track. So it can’t be ‘Well hey, when I was back at Eastern Illinois in 2009 we did this thing that I think kinda worked. There’s just no, nobody’s ever done anything like it. So, special teams coaches, just by nature, are always thinking of worst-case scenarios, and the guys give me a hard time. I’m like ‘hey, be ready for this thing’ (and they’ll say) ‘Coach that hasn’t happened in three years.’ Well now we’re in uncharted territory, so going through your Rolodex — okay if this, then that — right now doesn’t even exist other than what you learned in practice.”

Smiley was asked about what cue will be involved to notify the nine up players that the ball has been kicked. He admitted that at this point:

“(I)t will vary. So there’ll be some guys that will need to track it and they’ll use the returner or the ball hitting the ground to start the play. There’ll also be guys that are locked in on the kickoff coverage to start the play because the area’s so close you can lose track of guys quicker. So with the way kick return used to be, you’re getting a bunch of depth, you can let it sort out in front of you — that’s no longer the case, so you do have to be, whether you use it as the way to start or not, you have to be super aware of ‘Who is my man? What does my man do?’ right at the start of the play.

Smiley was also asked whether a different skill set will be desired under the new rules.

“As a kind of general thought, I think there’s a good chance that kick returners are gonna look more like punt returners. So maybe a punt returner in the past that was a punter returner only who was either not comfortable on kick return or not as good on kick return, I think those type of players have more of a chance of being successful with the new rules on kick return.”

When asked to explain what now gives them a chance to be more successful, Smiley pointed out that:

“It’s less high-speed collisions. It’s more potentially lateral movement and finding a hole. It potentially looks more like a offense-defensive play or even like a punt return as opposed to kick return — setting a course, staying on that course, maybe one move and hit it. There’s potentially more wrinkles and with less space with the new rule.”

What many want to know is how much kickoff strategy NFL teams will endeavor to show during the preseason, since they do need to practice in a live setting. Smiley revealed that:

“Traditionally in the preseason you don’t show anything — that’s true offense, defense, and special teams. So there’s a good chance that the preseason will look different than the regular season when it comes to the new kickoff rule. Because, even if you look at last year with the fair catch, well in the preseason you’re not gonna fair-catch a ton ‘cause you wanna see guys return and on the other side you wanna see guys make tackles. So in the preseason you’re willing to be… probably more open to letting balls get returned and wanting returnable balls, and that may not be the case in the regular season.”

Smiley did say that they may experiment within the new rules during the preseason.

“Potentially more experimentation, but you also gotta be careful what you’re showing. So, everybody’s gonna be on pins and needles watching those first preseason games because maybe there’s a team that’s doing something, they’re like: ‘Holy cow, okay, yeah we gotta start messing around with that.’ And it may just be confirming: ‘Okay, we thought that was gonna look like that too.’ But even though preseason will be different from regular season, everybody’s gonna be glued to their TV watching ‘okay, what are guys doing, what’s it look like?’”

Matthew Smiley was also asked to weigh his level of concern for further exposing kickers who may be more-involved tacklers under the new rule.

“I think that is something that exists with the new rule. Probably, mostly because there’s a great chance to get to the second level by returners. But the stats that were used were from that XFL film, and the one big difference — well, multiple differences — but the difference in the XFL it was 10-on-10 and all singles. So you immediately go down to it now being returner versus kicker. So as a kickoff team with this new rule, you either are using a cover guy to kick — and that’s pluses and minuses — or you’re figuring out how to protect your kicker. No one is going into it saying: ‘I think T Bass is gonna be our leading tackler.’ That’s bad business right there. So, you’ll have to figure out one or the other depending on who’s kicking the ball for you.”

Though crazy as it may sound in theory, Smiley was then asked whether one might ever consider having a non-kicker in the role as kicker to supply a more adept and less risky tackling situation.

“You could, and it’s only a short kick because you’re trying to get it just past the 20. But you may not necessarily just want to kick it to the 20 because they still have to run farther if they catch it at the one, and then depending on how good that cover guy is, that positional player that’s kicking, he may have less choices with what he can do with the ball. So you’re potentially sacrificing that, where you’d gain that from your kicker.”

As a coordinator, Matthew Smiley values the insight that his special teams players bring to their positions.

“This is my philosophy. I think it’s always important to get their insight, number one — phenomenal knowledge in the room, but number two it encourages buy-in. So now we’re doing something that they kind of collaborated with and they were in the process of learning it as we were learning it, and it forces all those guys to learn the rules quicker. ‘Okay, if coach is asking me what my ideas are here I have to know what are the alignment rules, what can I take advantage of.’ So, I think that was a big part of what we did in spring, and it also encouraged — and this was one of the biggest lessons I learned last year — it doesn’t matter how different for us the roster is different this year. And so it’s easy to say: ‘Okay new year. New kickoff rule.’ It feels more like starting from scratch a little bit. It should be like that every year. So even if you have a lot of the same guys coming back: New year. New start. How are guys fitting in? How are they working together? How are we communicating and collaborating? But every year no matter what your roster looks like you’re starting over in some aspect.”

While much of the focus has been on what teams will actually do, there’s also a fair bit of question about how players will respond to the new rules. Smiley pointed out that while there is some excitement:

“They also have the same nerves of: What’s it gonna look like?How’s it gonna turn out? What’s gonna be their part of it? So I think a lot of that’ll come once we start getting in games and really seeing what other teams are doing, what kind of balls that you’re able to return. So I think that’ll come with it — with us as coaches and players , and the same with the fans as they start to watch it and learn it and… ‘Holy cow this is… I’m not going up and refilling my popcorn. I gotta see what happens on this play.’”

To close Smiley was asked how much he’s been able to enjoy the process of problem-solving the new rule.

“I remind myself that ‘hey, I’m a problem solver. I like solving problems,’ and then I go back to thinking ‘oh no, what if this, what if that?’ So, enjoy? Just my personality in general is probably not my wheelhouse. But it is a challenge and it will be weekly because we were able to — really, you’d kind of get a pattern of a certain team, a certain coordinator, a certain head coach. Well, we may be going through this year where you say: ‘Okay, we’re ready to play this opponent. They’ve done this the last three weeks.’ In the old days, you’d say: ‘Okay, good I know what to prep for.’ You don’t know that they’re not gonna come out against you and it look completely different. So that type of problem solving will be in the forefront throughout the entirely of the season.”