How the NFL's New Rule Impacts Carroll, Raiders

Like most teams, the Las Vegas Raiders are still putting the pieces together on what they will be this season.

Carroll Sounds Off on New Rule

The National Football League recently revised its kickoff rules to enhance player safety and increase the number of returns across the league. So far, the move has paid off for the league, but teams are undoubtedly still adjusting to the changes that were made.

Raiders Head Coach Pete Carroll shared his thoughts on the rule change, noting that he believes the changes will only impact his views on kickoffs in general, not his overall approach. Carroll had quite a unique thought process on the subject.

"I wouldn't think that. I wouldn't think that it affects everything because of the kickoff. It certainly affects the kickoff. It does affect our thinking and all that, but it doesn't affect how we punt the football and hit field goals and stuff like that, I wouldn't think," Carroll said.

"The first couple weeks, just like when you're a new team, you show what you are doing and show who you are and what you're trying to get done, and the other teams got to take advantage of that; they didn't know."

Carroll noted that he believes the increase in plays made on kickoffs likely has to do with the fact that teams now have multiple games worth of film on their opponents. This gives them a chance to exploit their opponent's weaknesses on kickoffs and kickoff returns.

Carroll believes execution has more to do with a team's success rate in the kicking game than the league's new rules. After watching their opponent steal momentum via the kicking game last week, the Raiders would be wise to find a way to do so themselves sooner rather than later.

“When you're a new team like us, they have to figure us out because they don't have last year. We can look at last year's film. We can look at Ben [Johnson] when he's coaching in Detroit. We have all kinds of different ways to go, and I think that you see a big transition maybe in the kicking game because it's just three weeks old and everybody got a chance to see everybody, and it's pretty hard to hide it after a couple of weeks," Carroll said.