The OTP: Official Titans PodcastThis is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Plan on paying less for the coverage you need with Farm Bureau Health Plans. Get a quote today at FBHP dot com with Amy Wells. I'm Mike Keith. Welcome to the bet MGM studio.
Well, it's good to be here. I do love it in this studio.
Do you like rules? I do like rules are you're a rules person.
I like knowing what the rules are.
You know what you'd like to be aware of the rules.
I like to be aware of the rules.
So at Titans training camp, NFL referee Scott Novak came by just a few days ago. He's in town with his crew, and what would you call what the officials do? Overall, they just sort of work practice and they kind of get into shape a little bit.
I think that's a good way to describe it. They are there both for their own benefit, you know, to kind of walk through things as officials, but also to provide some parameters to Titan's training camp and give them the ability to get an understanding of what officials are going to be looking for, how certain things are going to be called that season. So I mean it's training camp for everybody, and that includes the officials.
And so the other thing they do is the officials make a presentation to the team and to the media about new rules, rule changes, or certain modifications. At Scott Novak did that with the media and he did a great job and the media did a great job asking questions. It was one of the most informative sessions that I've ever been to, and we wanted to share with the ot people about the rules, in particular because they're two massive changes that you're going to watch in the preseason. Obviously, the kickoff rule.
Yeah, that's the big one. That's the one that requires the explanation.
So let's start with this and why they're doing it. It's designed to increase the number of kickoff returns, and as Troy Vincent from the NFL office said on the video that they showed us to cut speed and space in order to eliminate those big time collisions. Yep.
So we're trying to make it more exciting and also safe.
So we're closer together. We're hoping to get returns and we want to get less people hurt. Love it all right, The kicking team will kick off from the thirty five yard line.
So far, so good.
That doesn't change. The other ten members of the kickoff team will line up at the opponent's forty yard line. Okay, so they are twenty five yards away from the kicker. At least nine members of the return team are set up between their own thirty and thirty five yard line, with at least seven of them at least touching the thirty five yard line. That's known as the restraining line. Okay. Players not on the restraining line have to be in the setup zone outside the hash mark.
So as it stands right now, no one has moved. We're just getting set.
We're just getting there.
Two.
And what you have is you have nineteen players within five yards of each other.
Basically, okay, all right.
The play does not begin until the ball is caught in what is known as the landing zone or is returned out of the end zone. Here's an important point. No players except the kicker and the returners can moved until the ball is caught by the returner. So everybody has to stay totally stationed outside of the kicker or the returners until the ball is received. Okay, all right, are you're ready for the landing zone?
I'm ready for the landing zone.
All right. The landing zone is the area between the receiving team's goal line and the twenty yard line. Any kick that's caught in the landing zone must be returned. Okay, all right. If a kick hits in the landing zone and is allowed to bounce into the end zone and downed, or is allowed to bounce through the end zone, it comes out to the twenty like the olden days.
Okay, yeah, all right.
If the kick lands in the end zone and results in a touchback, as we know it either not returned or traveling through the end zone, the ball comes out to the thirty yard line. So if the kicking team chooses to just drive it through the end zone, it comes out to the thirty okay, five more yards.
Last year, which I mean five yards is five yards?
Five yards? Okay. Now here's the fun one. If the kickoff fails to reach the landing zone, say, for instance, it hits at the twenty five yard line, the ball will come out to the forty. The ball will also come out to the forty if it is kicked out abounds.
Okay, interesting, So how twists?
How confused are you? Right now? Marginally confused.
You know, it feels like there's just a lot of if then, right, so I need one of those flow charts, right, we can clear some of this up.
So when Novak was going through this and we were asking our questions, what I determined right away is there were elements of this I clearly didn't know, and there were also a couple of elements that I had sort of wrong. Yeah, So I was very thankful because the information that we received from the owners meeting back at the end of March, yeah, was not this detail.
It was a lot more kind of jargon, yes, and it was a lot more probably the wording that is written in the official legal ease almost for rules. This is a lot more detailed and therefore more confusing.
All right, So I'm gonna let you ask some questions.
Perfect first, I got them.
But first I need to mention open a Titans checking account at Pinnacle by this Friday, August second, with at least one hundred dollars and a recurring direct deposit. Now this is just through this Friday, and you could receive two tickets to five Titans home games. Details at Titansbanking dot com. Titans Checking from Pinnacle Play hard bank easy member FDIC. So we're talking about the new kickoff rule. We've laid it out for you. Amy Wells has questions.
I do have questions. Can I just list them? Can I just run through them? Is that okay with you?
Sure?
Okay?
So say I'm the returner. Kickoff comes, I catch it, you catch it, and my feet are on the goal line.
Yes?
Where am i? Am I in a landing zone? Am I in a goal? Where am I?
You're actually not technically in the landing zone. You're technically in the end zone.
Okay.
So if you down it, then you are in a position where it comes out to the thirty, but you can obviously run it if you choose to do so.
Okay, great. What about fair catches? Can I fair catch this thing?
No?
Fair catch is dead?
More fair catch?
All right?
Well? Fair catch? Goodbye?
Okay. So here's a question. After the kicker kicks.
The ball, I like this one. I know where you're going.
Can he keep just running as far as he wants to go until the ball is caught?
Well, that's a thought because he he's running at the ball.
When he kicks it, and so he can just can take you.
On his momentum keeps going, You're thinking to yourself.
Can his momentum carry him into a returner?
No, okay, he can only go as far as midfield. Ah, so he has to stop at the fifty. He can't go beyond the fifty yard line until the play happens. The feeling is with the version of it that has happened before. In the XFL, kickers have often been involved in tackles. But no, you cannot just keep let your momentum.
Carry you to infinity, carry you.
To you to infinity and beyond.
Okay, So how does all of this apply to, say, like a free kick following a safety.
The safety yeah, also known as the safety kick.
Is it really called that?
That's what they called it in the rule book?
Really? Have you ever called it a safety kick?
I have not. I've always called it a freak kick.
I've never heard a human call it that.
But okay, So what happens that's interesting is the ball is kicked from the twenty instead of the thirty five, so fifteen yards back following the safety, but the kickoff team is still at the other team's forty. The return team is still at the thirty five. The restraining line is still in the same place, and the landing zone remains the same between the goal line and the twenty interesting, so nothing changes except the spot of the actual kick after a safety.
So say there's a penalty, then what are we doing?
The position of the kicker changes everything Again, everything stays the same forty, the thirty to thirty five, the restraining line in that five yard area, and the landing zone goal line to twenty nothing changes. What is interesting about the penalties though, is and this was example Scott Novak used, So penalties that had formerly been applied to the kickoff, like say a guy catches a touchdown pass. This was the example Novak used, and he taunts, so the touchdown is still good, but there's a fifteen yard penalty it. Now all of those kind of penalties have to be applied to the extra point try, So if there's a fifteen yard penalty in that instance, then it'll be a forty eight yard extra point instead of a thirty three yard extra point.
Ot people, at this point, I want to give you permission to pause, if you need to rewind, listen to some of this again. We want to make sure you understand what's going on here. I'm going to have to listen to this and rewind because there's a lot of there's a lot of detail to this.
This is a lot.
Well, I took notes, and then I watched the video twice, and then I got online and found everything I could to read about some of these other scenarios as well.
I read the official like NFL operations, whole page. There was a chart and everything. Thank you NFL. It was very well done. But there's a lot here. Let's continue on.
I have more question.
Go, okay, So the receiving team, according to you and your explanation, must put at least nine players between the thirty and the thirty five correct, Yes, okay, So if you do that, does it not mean that you'd have two returners deep? So why would you do that?
Well, that's the rule.
Well okay, so I mean all right.
And in the XFL, I think they only had one returner.
I think so.
But in this rule, in how the NFL is doing it, they're putting two guys deep. And what's what's interesting is let's say, now, let's say you want to try to kick something odd like that, you want to kick it with a little bit of a knuckle or you want to angle it towards a certain area. The two returners give you the ability to field the kick wherever it is in the landing zone. So if I kick like a knuckler, something that's got a bit of wobble to it, and it lands at the fifteen in the landing zone, then I've got two guys back there to potentially bring it out. Now the interesting part is, let's say it hits in the landing zone and they can't come up with it, you know, because once the ball hits the ground, it's a thing it's on. Then yeah, that's a live ball.
So yeah, guys, it shouldn't be You wouldn't think it would be too big an issue with two returners, you know, and they're I don't think the league is really excited about the funny kick being part of all of.
This, But it will be, well somebody will. I mean, it's like everything else, somebody is going to try to stretch the rule all different sorts of ways. But again, it has to hit in the landing zone then, because if it hits outside the landing zone then it comes out to the forty. It's immediately dead at that point. So can you be that good.
Can you sure somebody will be there?
I think more than likely. What you will see is you'll see teams angle it two different ends to try to pen guys in.
But then if it goes out, if it goes out.
Of bounds, it comes out to the forty. Yeah.
So it's a dangerous dance. Oh okay. So let's talk about the elements here for a second.
So say say it's a windy day, okay, an exceptionally windy.
Day, Buffalo.
Yeah, okay, And so it's hard to get the ball to stay on the tee and it's the whole thing. So do you have to use one of your nine or ten or however many guys have to come over.
And hold the ball. Nope, you get a free holder.
You get a twelfth guy.
And was can he can he run?
No?
So he just has to get down.
He gets down.
You are furniture.
Yes, this question was asked the other day. It Scott Novak answered, is really good. So the twelfth guy comes on the field, so you can play with twelve players for one.
Play only if he's a holder and.
He comes out, he holds the ball for the kicker and then he must immediately exit the field, so you're not, so you still have ten guys at the forty twenty five yards from the kicker.
So the choreography in my head is you've got eleven guys going this like I guess straight yeah, straight ahead, and then you've got one making a hard left or right.
Out of town sideways guy, sideways guy? All right?
Huh? Are on side kick? Still a thing?
Sorda, Okay, so.
What what does this mean?
I'm going to help you with this. The surprise on sidekick is dead. Rats won't happen.
Guys show up and they're like, wait a minute, are they?
And I know that some people are going to make a big deal, but I checked on this. So oh, the surprise on sidekick, It's happened twice in the Super Bowl. It has but only two surprise attempts last year in the twenty twenty three season, and just four in the last five years overall. And I'm just reading this. Overall NFL teams have converted two of the last fifteen surprise on side kick attempts.
Hmm.
So it's like, yeah, it hasn't been that big a deal now, So if you're gonna, you know, start.
The element of surprise the game I grew up with.
Well, yeah, I mean the game. It's not really a thing. Okay, So the the surprise on side kick is out, okay, but the on side kick is still around. But not until the fourth quarter, right, Yes, it must be declared we're going to do an on side kick. Well, they have to tell the other team so they can get lined up in the normal on side position.
And then don't even do it.
You can't do an on side kick unless you're behind. What So the element that they have kept in the game is that if your two scores. Mind, if you're down twenty eight to fourteen, and you score touchdown, then you can say we're going to on sidekick because you're behind. And so that will mean in the last two minutes somebody can try an onside kick in order to get the ball back and keep the game going. That's good for business, that's good for television, all of this. But the example, Scott novacused, if you're down twenty eight to nothing with a minute to go in the third quarter and you kick a field goal make it twenty eight to three, you cannot on sidekick because it's not in the fourth quarter. H must declare fourth quarter must be behind, can't be tied, can't be tied, Nope, must be behind.
Just get rid of it at that point, like all the fun parts are gone. Get rid of it.
There are a lot of elements to this.
When you say i'm my brain is like smoking. The steam is coming out my ears. So is is all of this permanent? Is this just the way our life is going to be?
Now? Now it's one year trials. I mean it was voted in twenty nine to three. The Raiders, the Packers and the forty nine ers were the only teams that voted against it.
But like, after seeing all of this and a year of a wrapping your mind around all of these changes, I don't think you can ever unsee it.
Yeah, you can unsee it. They've unseen things before.
Do a whole year of all of this nuance, and then it's just it's like never happened.
Well, but you think about this, Only twenty or actually a little less than twenty two percent of all kickoffs were returned last year.
That's not a lot.
It's terrible. There were nearly a lot. There were nearly two thousand touchbacks.
I know it's not good.
Hey, there was not a kickoff returned in the Super Bowl, not one. Now, think about this, Amy, So what you had is, instead of a football play, you had two highly skilled kickers, Harrison Butker and Jake Moody.
Just kicking at each other.
It was like they were at the driving range. Basically, they were just seeing how far they could kick it. That's not a football play.
Now you get so fired off of that.
Do I kickoff? Yeah? I don't know that. I like now that I've learned all that goes with this.
You don't like this either.
No, I'm not saying I don't like it. I don't know that I like all that goes with it.
It's like a video game play.
Well, here's the thing. Using the hybrid kickoff rule, and I'm reading because I type this out. Using the hybrid kickoff rule, the XFL saw returns on ninety seven percent of the kickoffs in twenty twenty three. I couldn't find the numbers for twenty twenty four. I apologize, but ninety seven percent. No way the NFL gets that high.
No chance the higher than like twenty two percent a win?
Could they? You know? Troy Vinson in the video said thirty plus percent would be and I mean that would be quite an increase what I think is going to happen. Okay, I think two major things. Rich Vasacia, the longtime NFL special teams coach, said in a recent interview that he that there there probably will be tweaks during the preseason, that there will be discussions about, you know, things that just don't make sense once they see it in games makes sense. I think teams will do this in September and October. In the regular season. I think teams will have kickoff strategies. I think teams will have return strategies. I think you'll you'll get into all sorts of things. I think you'll have injuries which will cause your kickoff team to be lessened. Yeah you're saying, okay, we don't have the right makeup here. I also think people will bust some returns, which will.
Be fun, yeah, very exciting.
And then I think by the time you get to Halloween. Just my opinion, but by the time you get to Halloween, everybody will say we're just kicking it through the end zone.
So everybody will be over it. Yep, we're trying to nuance, trying to do it.
We don't we don't want to have to spend all the time to block it. We don't want to. We've got guys who are hurt, the returners. Who is that going to be?
What?
What are we going to do here?
Just kick it out, Just.
Kick it out of the insigne. That's just one person's opinion.
Yeah, it's I mean, you're probably pretty spot on.
But I mean, to the OT people, that was a lot more than you thought it would be. Right.
I'm telling you there's no shame in rewinding and listening twice because this is a lot of information.
Does that count towards our listenership viewership? Yeah?
I think we get double if you actually listen to it two times, three, four or five.
Please do that. Tell friends, go to neighbors, Hey, Titans fans. Seat geek makes it easy to find tickets so you can be a part of all the touchdown celebrations even after an exciting kickoff return. Whether you're buying or selling football tickets, seat geek is the place to do it. Seat Geek the official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans. The most disruptive idea in ticketing a ticket that works. Expect the expected from gee Seat geek. All right, are you ready for other rules changes? Yeah?
Because I think that there is a kick off?
Okay, yeah, I mean we've we've kicked the kickoff, man, like.
We well, we wanted to do that. I mean, listen, this is real inside baseball stuff in terms of rules. And if you listen to the OTP for fun and for abolity and the one for you, probably.
Not if you want a fun podcast, not here.
But I made this decision. I'm the problem. It's me.
No, this is a very important thing to understand. Well, and we have preseason football coming up in like twenty minutes, and can you.
Imagine how many times we're going to have to get into the overall explanation of what this is.
Well, and there's gonna be a lot of what in the world, what is this?
What is happening? That is not?
I can't wait. What I can't wait for is Coach mac because he's gonna go now that one comes out to the twenty. It's like, no, coach, that one's gonna come out to the forty.
We should We'll just hang give him a copy here. Yeah, we'll just hang it up for him.
All right. So the further rule changes after a three year study. The hip drop tackle is now illegal.
I had to watch a lot of videos to figure out what a hip drop drop tackle.
I did two. I did two. But the reason it is now illegal it is a play that is twenty to twenty five times more likely to result in injury, not twenty percent, not twenty five percent, twenty to twenty five times more likely to result.
In injury, which makes sense. It cannot be good for the old lower extremities.
So in order for an official to call a hip drop tackle on the field, the official must see three indicators. The official sees the tackler wrap the ball carrier.
Okay.
The official must see the tackler swivel the ball carrier in a way that oftentimes will just take the tackler off the ground. Yeah, so he comes up, okay, he grabs around the waist, he wraps, and then he turns the ball carrier to the point that with such force it generally takes him off the ground. And finally, the official then sees the tackler drop his weight on the legs of the ball carrier. Not good, So that's again wrap, swivel, and then finally drop weight on the on the ball on the back of the ball carrier's legs.
But let's think about this. Okay, you know how fast an NFL football game is.
And there're seven officials.
Yeah, do we think that officials are actually going to be able to see all three of those things in real time?
No? I think we will see We'll see him try and will But but do I think do I think they will get close to all of them? No? Because I mean, to see, the game is so fast, and they're at different angles, and plays happen away front, somewhere in front, to the side behind. You know, all of these things, and.
People fall in strange ways.
They fall in strange ways. This happens, and sometimes you're you know, you see something and then you're blocked by two other guys who are in front of the play. I mean, it's not their fault.
No, it's a fast moving game.
It's a fast moving game.
So why even put this in if you know that officials are probably not going to see it?
I think, obviously, to cut down injuries, I think they will call some hip drop tackles. But here's the thing. All of them that happened in the course of a game, whether called for a fifteen yard penalty or not are subject to fined.
So if they go back and see it on a rerun or a video.
You're getting a FedEx on Wednesday.
Have a little notey note in your locker.
And you owe a lot of money. In some ways, I mean, they're going to foul it. They hope to foul the hip drop tackle out of the game. They would like that. But I think in some ways too, they will find it out of the game because it really is in their opinion, that's serious. And some of the injuries. In talking to Scott Novac after the fact, the NFL official that I've referenced multiple times, some of the injuries are groose.
Yeah, and I believe that. I mean, it makes a lot of sense. So how is something like video assist going to plan to all of this?
Well, so great, you would ask video assist or replay assist, whichever term you choose to use. Is something that has been in effect for a few years. This is a different point. Doesn't have anything to do with the hip drop. This is another change. Okay, video assist has been increased to allow the replay booth to help officials with the location of the quarterback relative to the pocket and with the location of the runner relative to the sideline. Okay, So where do you want to start. You've got questions, I can tell yeah, I.
Have many questions. So what is what is the rule that it is going to be associated with that?
Okay? So it's pretty simple, Okay. On a play where there is a question, yeah, about whether or not the quarterback is out of the pocket. If he's outside the pocket and he runs or he is running, he's ball carrier, correct. He is not protected the same way if he's outside the pocket and he throws the ball away, or if he's inside the pocket and he throws the ball. That obviously applies to the possibility of intentional grounding. Outside the pocket, you can throw it away. Inside the pocket, you cannot. It's intentional grounding.
Okay.
So that will be something that replay assists or video assist, whatever you choose to call it. They can immediately speak to the official and say he was outside the pocket, okay, And so they can without it going to a full blown replay.
So they're just going to be able to di in.
On ding in and just come into the headset of the official and say that's a good call. He was outside the pocket or he was not outside the pocket. The other thing too, about the position of a runner as it relates to the sideline guys getting hit out of bounds. Sometimes you see a guy and he's running and he gets hit near the sidelines and it's a brutal collision and it appears to be a foul penalty markers throwne but he's actually not out of bounds. Right now, they will be able to look at it, and if he has both feet out of bounds, then they could say, well, he was definitively out of bounds or he was not out of bounds. Replay Assist can help with that.
Wait, so how is this currently being used, Like, why are they not already monitoring that?
Well, they do. They're using it some time issues spotting the ball, but we think that's going to get better this year with the censors on the football. Another one is is a ball caught or not? If they can clearly see, oh the ball skipped, they will hit replay assist and say that's an incomplete pass. Interesting, or you know that was he caught it. It makes the game more accurate and yet it keeps the game moving. So they have expanded replay assist to do those things that it has been doing, but to include location of the quarterback relative to the relative to the pocket, and location of the runner relative to the sideline.
So are we just inching closer and closer to the sky.
Judge, Yes, we're gonna have the sky judy in the sky.
The eighth official who makes calls from from the booth, Yeah, that's going to happen. I mean, that's essentially what this is. It's just this official, the eighth official basically has not been empowered to be involved in everything. You know, do they occasionally buzz in on certain things, and you know, we're not one hundred percent sure. One of the things that's difficult in our job calling the game is oftentimes they'll say, oh, completed pass, and they'll run up and mark the ball, you know, and then all of a sudden, the pass is not complete. They won't say upon further review taking it right, they won't say I mean, they won't say anything. So we're calling the game and it's like, oh, Smith made the catch up at the forty yard line, Well, why is the ball back at the twenty yard line? You I mean, as an announcer, you think you've lost your mind, You're like, I mean, so I don't think they're going to start making an announcement that you know it was changed, but it would sure help if it did.
How is this going to impact the challenges by the old challenge, because that's important part.
The challenge thing has gotten interesting because now if you get one this is new rule. If you get one of your first two challenges correct, not both, but one, you get a third challenge.
So you only have to get one right here.
And I have to get one right third. Yes, interesting because a lot of what you were seeing is you were seeing teams challenge something in the first forty five seconds of a game and lose the challenge, yeah, and or early in a game whatever, and.
Then something happens later.
Well, then something happens and they're afraid to use their even though they're very sure, but they're terrified to use the second challenge because even if they got it right, they're out of challenges for the rest of the game. Right, So now, I mean, this is just one more way they're trying to get things right.
So that's what necessitated that change.
Yeah, it adds to the strategy of the game and hopefully more correct calls are made.
Mike, this is mind blowing. I feel like we have covered so much ground. You think I feel smart, I feel stupider, But I think I will feel smarter once I see it.
On the FET. Why would you say you feel stupid?
Well, because there's a lot of stuff rolling in my head right now. Like it's gonna take me a minute seeing this in the preseason a couple times, especially all the kickoff stuff. I'm going to have to see it in action a couple of times to start to get a feel for what it is.
And hearing it.
You know what this really does lining all of this up and really going like move by move within the kickoffs.
It makes what we see out at practice.
It contextualizes some of what we see during the special teams periods now, because that is a very different thing it is. So this this provides some context, which is good. I'm gonna have to see it in action a little bit to get used to it.
I think people just turn this off about five minutes into it.
Oh No, I think that like truet people are riding.
With, they like to know.
And they like to understand, and then they like to find it. When we get it wrong.
It's remember what you said.
I've never heard that appen.
Oh they don't say it to your face. Really, just find it's fine, It's okay. I stick out for you every time, much like high school.
No.
I think this was a really really good idea. I'm glad that we were able to do this. I mean, to get some questions answer.
It just felt like listening to Scott Novak. I was listening and the media was asking their questions, and I mean, I thought the OT people would enjoy this.
Yeah. Absolutely, I enjoyed it.
Class. I'm glad you had a great time. I sure did it for Amie Wells, who really enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed it.
I'm Mike Keith and I was just sort of But anyway, we appreciate you joining us for the O T P.
I don't believe you got that today.
