Back in 2024, I asked special teams staffers in and around the NFL what the new dynamic kickoff would look like, before we had ever seen the play executed in the league. The response I got was the following:
Eventually, teams are going to be good enough to kick “dirty balls,” which are difficult to field, that they’ll use the time between when the ball hits in the landing zone to the time that a kick returner can field the ball as the “new hangtime” on the play. This offseason, the NFL moved the touchback from the 30-yard line to the 35-yard line, with the hopes of forcing teams to put more balls into play.
It’s working, as the touchback rate in the NFL has plummeted. Unfortunately for special teams coordinators around the league, though, their kickoff specialists are still lagging at the “dirty ball” skillset.
So far, the two teams that are by far the best at executing these “dirty ball” plays are the Carolina Panthers and the Los Angeles Rams. Unsurprisingly, these are also the teams that lead the NFL with the best opponent drive starting field position following kickoffs.
Undrafted rookie kicker Ryan Fitzgerald is going to be a crucial part of the Panthers’ game plan. The Green Bay Packers, Carolina’s opponent this week, haven’t seen that many “dirty balls” this season, but they have struggled when they have received those opportunities.
Against the Dallas Cowboys, kicker Brandon Aubrey kicked three “dirty balls” that landed just short of the end zone. Packers kick returner Savion Williams kneeled all three of those attempts in the endzone for just a 20-yard touchback. In the dynamic kickoff era, Williams became the first player to take three 20-yard touchbacks in a single game. Clearly, that’s not the result that you want out of the position.
If you want to see the return attempts that I’m talking about in action, go to 1:20 in the video linked below.
It doesn’t sound like the Packers will deploy cornerback Keisean Nixon, a two-time All-Pro kick returner, in the kicking game, but Green Bay will be proactive about stopping the “dirty ball” kicks, per special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia. When asked about the play on Thursday, Bisaccia said, “We’re going to have to cheat our alignment, whether it’s with width or with distance closer to the ball or further away from it, so you can play the big hop.”
An added variable to the mix this week will be the weather. According to the most recent forecast, Green Bay will see up to 33 mile per hour winds on Sunday. I do not envy Williams for having the task of tracking a knuckleball in that environment.
So get ready to see a different type of kickoff this weekend. Also, I talked to a source in the league this week about the subject, and he stated that his team had charted the Packers as the deepest kicking team on kickoffs this year, in terms of putting the ball into the endzone on kickoffs.
I’m not sure how much of that is on purpose, as both head coach Matt LaFleur and Bisaccia have said on several occasions that both of the team’s kickers, Brandon McManus and Lukas Havrisik, have put balls into the endzone when the team specifically instructed them to do otherwise. Historically, the Packers have had an extremely low touchback rate under Bisaccia, who likes to play out the play. For all the fuss about Bisaccia’s work as coordinator, the two units that have performed the best consistently under him have been the punt team and the kickoff coverage unit.
So while Green Bay’s kickoff specialists are trying to find their footing, Fitzgerald is already one of the best in the league in that specific role. Don’t be surprised if his ability to hit these “dirty balls” ends up being a factor in Week 9. Here’s to hoping that Williams has shown growth in fielding knuckleballs since the last time we saw him do it against Dallas.
