On Tuesday afternoon, the National Football League owners approved a bunch of new rules for kickoffs, and there are going to be some pretty significant changes. Let’s go down the list of what the new rules are, courtesy of the breakdown given by CBS Sports.
2017 Rule: Kickoff team must have at least four players on each side of the ball.
New rule: Kickoff team must have five players on each side of the ball.
As CBS points out, this could end up having a huge effect on the onside kick, because now teams won’t be able to overload one side of the kickoff formation.