The early look at the NFL’s new kickoff rule in Thursday night’s Hall of Fame preseason game didn’t provide much interesting data.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton doesn’t think the preseason as a whole will be much more fruitful. The veteran coach said Denver might use a joint practice with Green Bay to work on the real stuff, but otherwise figures most teams will play coy until the regular season.
“Every team in the league will hold on to some of the things they want to do for Week 1,” Payton said. “I was talking to (former referee) Walt Anderson today and I said, ‘Walt, you’re not going to see in the preseason. You just aren’t.’ … And I would tell you this — when we get to Week 1, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another tweak or two (to the rules) that they’ve made a change on. Not significant.”
Payton has an idea on that front.
The new rule has three possible starting yardages — the 20 on a ball that hits in the landing zone (from the 20 to the goal line) and rolls into the end zone, the 30 for a traditional touchback and the 40 for a ball that goes out of bounds or lands short of the landing zone.
Payton said he’d prefer any “box foul” — out of bounds, short of the landing zone or touchback — starts at the 35.
That, he said, makes the rule easier to follow for fans.
“I get the box. I like it,” Payton said. “If the analytics tell me that the average drive start or average return is past the 30, well, what do you think is going to start happening? Touchbacks. We’re going to be right back to where we were, and that’s the last thing we want. We’ve got to pay attention to that. And the other thing I think is significant is I don’t like the three different starting spots. … If it’s outside the box, put it at the same spot. I think right now it’ll take a lot of fans a lot of time to figure out the three spots.”
The 35-yard line also would be penalty enough to make teams think twice about touchbacks.
“I’m not going to be comfortable with saying, hey, kick a touchback and give them the ball at the 35,” he said. “Now maybe in the fourth quarter with a two-touchdown lead, but the 30, look, just do the math. If the average return is past the 30 and we’re getting explosives, there’s times where I’m going to look at the scoreboard and say, hey, we’re up 10 here in the third quarter, we might be comfortable with the 30.
“I feel like the 35 would give us what we initially did all this work for. Make a box foul. That’s easy. Make it a box foul and there’s two spots. But right now that’s not where it’s at and we’re pushing.”
Dog days. The Broncos polished off a six-day week of camp practices and now the players are off Sunday before ramping up for another full week. They’ll practice Monday through Thursday in normal camp fashion and then do prep for their preseason opener against Indianapolis Friday and in Saturday’s walkthrough before traveling East.
“All next week we’ve already shelled out all the way through Saturday’s walkthrough and the (bus) to the airport,” Payton said. “Every minute is accounted for for next week.”
While the structure of practice is set, Payton said the staff hadn’t finalized exactly how the quarterbacks will rotate through the week. He also said playing time for the game will be determined later next week.
One step toward those decisions: The staff meets Sunday to talk through the roster, personnel and the coming week.
Fantasy-free TE. Adam Trautman does not care about fantasy football.
You won’t find the Broncos tight end near the top of positional lists while studying for your fantasy draft, nor will you likely throw the ball deep to him often in Madden. But he’s not sweating it.
“Yeah, thanks for asking that. I don’t care,” Trautman said. “I couldn’t care less about fantasy. … (People) gauge a lot of how good you are off of fantasy, but that’s not really how it is.”
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Originally Published: August 3, 2024 at 2:35 p.m.
