When you first see this in real life, it feels like your mind is playing tricks on you. The ball sails, but the people don’t. Even the returners like D’Shawn Jamison, who had two returns for 52 yards with a long of 26 yards, were thrown to first.
When asked if it was strange to see everyone standing still while he was already running, Jamison answered quickly and emphatically: “YES!”
“But at the same time, it feels great,” he continued, “because now you have time to really analyze and see what holes you have to go through or how to make your cuts and stuff.”
Time and the ability to analyze are the second reason the NFL made changes to this part of the game after last season saw the lowest number of kickoff returns ever. Both Smith-Marsette and Moore answered “no” in unison when asked if it was an advantage for the returner to have a head start. The advantage is not so much in speed, as they found out after the actual game, but in choosing the most advantageous matchups.
“It depends on the matchups now,” Smith-Marsette explained. “A lot of matchups. If the matchup benefits someone on whatever team, then that’s just how it is now… Basically, they move at the same time and if I’m more athletic than the person in front of me, I can beat them or if I’m bigger and stronger and I can get my hands on that person, I can hold them down.”
It’s a duel that many teams are still testing out during the preseason. Before Saturday’s warm-up games, there were 30 kickoff returns in five games. The best field position up to that point was on the 36-yard line.
As the regular season gets rolling and game recordings become more readily available, Moore said he will be watching his opponents to see who is more of a “face-off guy” and who is a “speed guy” to better choose his lanes in advance. A key part of that is coaching the other 10 on the field so they learn not only the rules of kickoff returns, but how their respective returners react to the options. That’s something Dave Canales noticed in the game and is shaping how teams approach practicing returns in the remaining weeks of training camp.
“Just look at the challenges of the different block angles and the ball changes direction pretty quickly,” Canales said of his key takeaway. “Very similar to an offensive play, that’s a downhill run that pops up and all of a sudden the blockers have to attack the defender in space again as he’s running away from you. So, I just noticed some of those challenges.”
