The reality of Longwell and the new kick off rules

by Quarem on Mar 23, 2011 8:36 PM CDT

As most of you know right now, the new kickoff rules were approved. The new kicking spot will be from the 35 yard line to supposedly lesson the injuries on those particular plays. Unfortunately for the vikes (skol), this doesn't change much.

At first thought, this new rule will help Ryan Longwell immensely and increase the number of touchbacks in a game, lowering the need for a new kicker. This is actually not the case. It turns out that apparantly Longwell's kicks sail an average of 63 yards in the air. If we apply this average to the new rules, the result is that the ball will be caught at the opponents' 2 yard line. THAT'S STILL RETURNABLE! That still puts pressure on the vike's special teamers that so happened to allow the highest opponent average start (30.8 if you were wondering).

So what becomes of this? Easy assumption is that the opponents will start 5 yards less and have an average of 25.8 yard line. Thats still not great. Lets also not forget that the new rules also state that the kicking team is only allowed a 5 yard running head start instead of 10 to 15 yards (not really sure if that rule affects kickers but would be a bigger disadvantage). So again the average for starting position will be higher since the kicking team will be slower in the start (could argue 1 or 2 yards). In my opinion its just frustrating to think about.

What do the vikes need to do? They have to seriously look at Longwell and his future with the vikes. I personally would love to pick up Alex Henery from Nebraska in the draft, but in truth, he doesn't have a massive leg and did not do the kickoffs for nebraska. If the vikes decide to keep Longwell, which is fine since he's the most accurate kicker in the league, then the special teams needs huge help. I don't know how to change this other than blaming the special teams coach or that the players are not sufficient and just picking up good players in the draft/free agency will be enough. I'm not really sure. I just know being last in the league in something indicates to me that the vikes need to seriously address this issue.

I don't know, what do you guys think? Thanks for listening to my rant.

This FanPost was created by a registered user of The Daily Norseman, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the site. However, since this is a community, that view is no less important.

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Quarem, you make some good points that I hadn’t considered. I do think, however, that Longwell’s current average is due in part to the fact that he has to worry about getting enough hang-time so that his coverage team can get down and try to stop the inevitable return. The difference that 5 yards makes is potentially that he can worry less about hang-time and get the distance to put the ball in the endzone. Then he is at least making the returner make the decision to take it out or put his knee down. Of course this also means that the coverage team would need to be fast and effective to make the knee an attractive option, but at least the option is there (and certainly it would be taken some of the time).

All in all, I don’t know that I necessarily disagree with you, but I would like to hope that there is a way we can keep Longwell’s accuracy around and not continue to give up such good field position.

by shem on Mar 24, 2011 10:20 AM CDT reply actions

Yeah, it is such a benefit to have Longwell, but the disadvantages are becoming more a more clear. I would be more willing to keep him if the coverage was better, sick of seeing kick returns for TDs.

by Quarem on Mar 24, 2011 8:56 PM CDT up reply actions

honestly Longwell brings a pretty automatic FG to the Vikes whenever we need it

Hate to say it but after watching many many teams screw the pooch on fg’s the last couple of years I have to say I want to keep Longwell for just that. He is someone we can count on. How many other NFL teams have a clutch kicker like that?

It's a lot easier to love the Vikings when they win...

by Grime on Mar 24, 2011 11:48 AM CDT reply actions