Green Bay Packers

Will the NFL's New Kickoff Rule Hinder Keisean Nixon?

Photo Credit: Dan Powers-USA TODAY Sports

All things considered, last season did not go well for the Green Bay Packers. They took one last shot at it with Aaron Rodgers, sans Davante Adams, and were in Cancun by January. But there are always positive takeaways. About halfway through the season, special teams gave the anemic offense and underperforming defense got a major jolt. The disaster that had been special teams, particularly in the Matt LaFleur era, is both well-documented and exemplified by the catastrophic home playoff loss at the hands of Talanoa Hufanga and the San Francisco 49ers. However, we started to see special teams create opportunities for the Packers in Rich Bisaccia’s first season at the helm, and it all started with Keisean Nixon.

Nixon started his college career at Arizona Western. He wasn’t drafted, but signed with the Las Vegas Raiders, who released him two seasons later. After being a pretty under-the-radar offseason pickup in Green Bay, he erupted onto the national stage. Everyone remembers his house call against the Minnesota Vikings, but it felt like he was somehow finding gargantuan holes on every run-back, en route to league-leading return numbers and an All-Pro nod.

It’s been a chaotic offseason for the Packers. They finally traded Rodgers, and he took a few buddies with him to New York, including Allen Lazard. Even with these departures, the cap situation remained dire. But for all the turnover that was taking place as the organization began gearing up for the Jordan Love era, fans were loud in their demands to re-sign Keisean Nixon. They finally had a spark on special teams, someone who got them excited for kickoffs rather than anxious. Holding on to that meant something ahead of their first season without a Hall of Fame quarterback in decades.

Packers Twitter almost universally celebrated Nixon’s one-year, $4 million deal, which is worth up to $6 million with incentives. The phenom will be back for another run. However, the NFL competition committee threw in a little twist earlier this week that might shake things up. Kickoffs can now be fair caught, allowing the offense to start at the 25-yard line. This new rule, which special teams coordinators unanimously opposed, aims to target “sky kicks,” which arc high before landing outside the end zone, allowing the kick coverage to get downfield and make a play.

The incentive to take a touchback is more enticing and easier to act on than ever before. It’s a move aimed at player safety, with kickoffs being a disproportionate cause of injuries, particularly concussions. When you look at the structure of the play, it’s easy to see how that’s the case. But the new rule is getting panned as another step towards removing kickoffs altogether. Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said the NFL could turn into “flag football” with the way the league is approaching these issues. LaFleur said he wouldn’t get into his personal feelings on it but made it clear he was not in favor.

We saw Nixon take quite a few kickoffs out of the end zone and have success doing it. Whether we will see that again likely hinges on some analytics, depending on whether early data shows the kick-return unit is creating game-breaking upside. As for Nixon himself? He doesn’t seem to care, claiming in an Instagram post that he “doesn’t know what a fair catch is.” He also used the word “irrelevant” when speaking with reporters earlier this week. According to Nixon, the Packers voted against the rule, which is easy to understand since they just shelled out a few million to maintain their first special-teams star in recent memory.

Will this new rule impact Nixon? Absolutely. There are some circumstances, like when you’re controlling the game, where the 25-yard line sounds great. The cost of taking it out of the end zone is going to be higher, and the consequences of bad returns will skyrocket with fans and media alike knowing the alternative is really not a bad deal at all. It surely helps explain why his deal is only for one year, with the league knowing this vote was on the horizon.

But is it going to prevent Nixon from being himself? It really doesn’t seem like it, especially if he has anything to say about it. Nixon will get his licks in. The boom potential was high with the group they had paving the way for him last year, and the hit rate on that potential was astounding. Bisaccia brought most of his guys back to keep doing the dirty work, so hopefully this is just a bump in the road.

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