NFL owners say goodbye to the wedge

by MaPatsFan on Mar 29, 2009 8:35 AM EDT in New England Patriots News

Don't worry all you rabbit food eaters, the owners didn't mean wedge salads. Although, I've had some wedge salads that should be said goodbye to, but I digress. No, the wedge I'm referring to is not the kind pictured to the left, but the one where a wall of really big linemen, preferably 300 pounds or more, stand in front of a kick returner and absorb hits from "coverage players" who have built up steam attempting to break through blockers and level the returner. This tactic has become so successful that many special teams coaches are predicting burning the midnight oil trying to come up with alternate schemes:

"Most everybody runs a three or a four, and has for years," said Bills special teams coach Bobby April, whose units annually rank near the top of the NFL. "I told my wife, with these rules I just added a lot more work hours because we run that and we've run that for a long time and been successful with it. It's going to take a lot of work and a lot of ingenuity to come up with a different offense, because basically a kickoff return is an offensive play.

In Mike Reiss's article, quoted and linked above, he brings up an interesting point - the need for large linemen on special teams may have diminished. The more probable special teams guy will be a faster, lighter player who can play man-to-man coverage:

While some teams might still have a couple of bigger linemen leading the returner as part of a two-man wedge, all three coaches anticipate that kickoff return teams will now feature more players with a different body type. Thus, there is likely to be a trickle-down effect in how head coaches determine their 45-man game-day rosters - a backup lineman who might be in the wedge could turn out to be a luxury that is no longer feasible.

"Now you could be eliminating them," O'Brien said. "You could find a lot more smaller athletes on the field both ways because they're one-on-one and you have to be able to play in space. I think it will create a little more excitement that way in terms of the matchups we have on the field."

What do you think?

Poll

Do you think eliminating the wedge is a good thing?

Yes

37 votes

No

102 votes

Indifferent

39 votes

178 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 5 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

If safety was their logic

then I wonder if eliminating the wedge will actually decrease safety as kick returners are more exposed to being levelled by those streaking defenders. I also expect this will result in more fair catches, reducing some of the excitement of kick returns.

Good poll – will be interesting to see what others think.

by LovinBlue on Mar 29, 2009 9:44 AM EDT reply actions

That's the problem with rule changes such as this

Coaches will find another strategy to give their team an advantage – which will work until other teams find a strategy to counter it. Either way, it’s going to involve some hard hitting head-on collisions that will at some point render a player to the IR roster.

Keep the faith!

by Marima on Mar 29, 2009 3:01 PM EDT up reply actions

As a former Kick/Punt Returner and Kickoff Coverage/Punt Coverage Gunner...

I think this sucks. By far the most adrenaline filled, entertaining thing to do as a player is line up and sprint as fast as you can until…BOOM! It’s not like people aren’t still going to be sprinting full speed into each other. Even when you run the chute instead of the wedge, people get, as Emmitt Smiff likes to say, “blowed up”.

I think you’ll see a lot more of a sideline chute style kickoff return now. It’ll be interesting to see how it translates to the pros given the amount of speed and athleticism they have up there. You know, and you’ll still be making a wall that bodies will be slamming into.

Unless they change kickoffs to two hand touch, it’s going to continue to be an exceptionally violent part of the game.

by BodyByBelichick on Mar 29, 2009 3:33 PM EDT reply actions

Great points

As a former dude in the biz, did the wedge cause enough (serious) injuries to warrant its dismissal? To be honest, I haven’t heard of any that are widely publicized.

Blogger at SBNation's New England Patriots blog, Pats Pulpit

by MaPatsFan on Mar 29, 2009 6:41 PM EDT up reply actions