According to Kansas City Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub, who is considered one of the best coaches at his position in the NFL and has received interviews for head coaching openings in the past, the NFL’s new kickoff rules may have an unintended consequence: Not having a kicker on the field at all. Toub recently stated that the NFL’s new “XFL-style” kickoff approach puts the kickoff specialist in a position to make more tackles. Per Toub, he estimated that kickers were “involved” in 25 to 40 percent of the XFL’s kickoff returns.
He also mentioned that the Chiefs would use their place kicker, Harrison Butker, in “certain situations,” like the team having a late lead in the game — when the team will simply elect to kick the ball out of the end zone and take a five-yard penalty to give the opposing offense the ball at the 30-yard line instead of allowing them to get a kickoff return attempt.