With the rules changing in 2024, nobody really knows what to expect when it comes to kickoffs, and you can count Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin in that group.
After practice on Saturday, Tomlin spoke on the subject and made it clear neither he nor anybody around the league really has a full grasp on the situation until there's video of it out there.
But Tomlin has at least one way to prepare for the rule changes: he might buy Madden NFL 25 when it comes out in August.
"I think anybody that's saying they got a handle on it is probably lying or naive," he said, per Steelers.com. "There's no video, all we have is words on a page. I think that's a component of it that makes it exciting. There's going to be some anxiety among my peers regarding these concepts until we get some video. I'd imagine there's a lot of guys in my position gonna be watching the Hall of Fame Game to see what some of it looks like. I'll be looking at the EA Sports game when it comes out to see what it looks like. It's just uncharted territory and so you pay respect to the unknown with preparedness and anxiety at times."
Tomlin was likely joking, but never put it past an NFL head coach to do whatever it takes to be ready.
In preparation for the rule changes, teams around the league are experimenting with interesting approaches. The Las Vegas Raiders, for example, are having some of their defensive players actually kicking the ball off to add another tackler to the unit.
If you plan on buying the video game next month, just be on the lookout. You may just stumble into a game against Tomlin online.
