FEWER SUCCESSFUL ONSIDE KICKS

The new kickoff rule, passed here by owners on Tuesday, not only forbids players on the kickoff team from having a running start, but stretches and spreads them out equally from sideline to sideline, on either side of the kicker. Won’t that make it even more difficult to recover an onside kick? Yup. “They’re difficult now,” Rich McKay, chairmain of the NFL’s competition committee, told Postmedia of on sidekick attempts. “It’s a 10-12% success rate on a known onside kick. So could this make it a little less (successful)? Yes. Are we concerned about that? No.”

Also, the new rule surely will increase the number of kickoff returns, McKay said. “(It’s) much more of a punt play, and we think that will reduce the collisions and therefore the concussions,” McKay said “The fact the returns go up and it’s a more competitive play is a good result.”