The NFL wants to highlight its kickoff returners, meaning the 49ers will need to find a promising returner this offseason if Deebo Samuel is released
The San Francisco 49ers finished with the fifth-worst kickoff team in DVOA this past season. It’ll be one of the area’s new special teams coordinator, Brant Boyer, will look to improve during his first season.
As we know, the NFL is ever-evolving. According to a report on Sunday by NFL Network’s Judy Battista, the NFL Competition Committee will look at tweaking the kickoff rules once again. Last year, kickoffs were placed from the kicking team’s 35-yard line. If the kickoff results in a touchback, the ball is placed on the receiving team’s 30-yard line. Battista said the newest rule change could be an “either/or” situation.
The league is now considering moving the touchback spot to the 35-yard line or moving the kickoff line back five yards. This is an obvious effort to boost kickoff returns.
Surprisingly, the 49ers finished second to last in kickoff returns last season. The reason that’s shocking is because it felt like Deebo Samuel, who the Niners won’t have the luxury of as a returner next season, was consistently breaking long returns during the second half of the season.
Samuel finished fifth in kickoff return yards but only had 15 returns on the season, so he didn’t qualify among the league leaders. Deebo’s 31.4 yards per kickoff return would have been good enough for the second-best mark in the NFL.
The 49ers will need to replace Samuel’s skill set as a returner, especially if the NFL is going out of their way to tell us they want kickoff returns to be a part of the game with another rule change.
This is likely to be voted on at the owner’s meetings, which take place from March 30 through April 2.