Seahawks special teams coach Jay Harbaugh would have an NFL fit after spending the past nine seasons in
the University of Michigan. The good news is: The rest of the NFL’s special teams coordinators are also undergoing a major adjustment.
The NFL revamped its initial rules this offseason, which should bring more excitement to the return game.
“It’s totally new for everyone, and it’s really cool to see the different ideas that people have and to be able to take what we know from the old world of kickoffs and kick returns, and see what’s still true and what’s not. it’s true,” Harbaugh said Monday. , via a team transcript. “It’s a fun process as you go along, just trying different things and realizing, ‘Hey, this might not be what we thought.’ It’s organized trial and error.”
Some experimentation will occur in the preseason, but it seems likely that the trail and mistakes will continue into the regular season. Harbaugh expects the special teams coaches to study each other. After all, it is a league of imitators.
“What works; what doesn’t work,” Harbaugh said. “So I think we’re probably going to see pretty rapid changes for five, six, seven and eight weeks. And anyone who has an advantage early on will probably be able to maintain that advantage for a while until people catch up.”
Harbaugh hopes to use two returners, due to the difficulty of one returner covering the entire landing zone.
There are many differences from the traditional kickoff, but not everything is different.
“One of the things we talk about in this building is that instead of focusing on what’s different, let’s focus on what stays the same,” Harbaugh said. “The destruction of the block, the awareness of how far I am from the ball, what decisions should I make in coverage? The same fundamentals in the return game of great feet, great hand positioning, great eyes, leverage, all of those things are still true. So it’s easy to get carried away by what’s different, but we think you’ll be able to make a lot of money just by understanding and betting on the things that have stayed the same.
