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Fourth and 15 or eight out of 63? That’s one of the questions NFL owners will vote on Wednesday, a rule change that would replace the onside kick — which has an eight out of 63 (12.7 percent) success rate — with an untimed play that would require a team to gain 15 yards in order to keep possession.
NFL insider Adam Schefter joined John Lund and Mark Willard on Wednesday and discussed the proposal, along with his belief that the NFL would prefer to get rid of kickoffs all together.
“It sounds like it’s got a real chance, I don’t know that it will or it won’t,” Schefter said of the fourth and 15 rule change. “I think the league would like to do away with the kickoffs in general. The league has been moving in that direction. Onside kicks, regular kicks, they view it as a dangerous play where there are a lot of collisions, people running at full speed.
“If going to a 4th and 15 play that adds more excitement is something that works, then I think you’ve got a situation where the league would like to do that. The onside kick is such a random arbitrary play to help determine a winner or a loser, how the ball bounces. I like the play, it’s kind of fun, but when you look at it, 4 and 15 makes a lot more sense to me and we’ll see what the league decides to do and how they handle it.”
Listen to the full interview below.