San Francisco 49ers

NFL Rule Change gives 49ers' Dawson Kickoff Duties

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

The 49ers’ Phil Dawson is once again finding himself on kickoff duty. The NFL’s decision to change touchbacks from the 20 to the 25 yard-line was an attempt to reduce kickoff returns. Instead, it has incentivized shorter kickoffs.

Last season the San Francisco 49ers relied on punter Bradley Pinion for all their kickoffs. As a younger player with a stronger leg, Pinion could — and can — more reliably produce touchbacks.

But with the NFL’s rule change to move touchbacks from the 20 to the 25, kicking teams are having less incentive to kick the ball through the end zone.

The rule change was supposed to encourage receiving teams to take the five extra yards with the touchback, thereby reducing kick returns. Instead, it is encouraging kicking teams to kick the ball short. Hence, the more accurate Dawson is back in action. As he told CSN Bay Area:

“I don’t know this was the intended consequence of the rule change,. Even the commissioner [Roger Goodell] said they’re going to revisit the rule change once they get enough data. If they’d talked to special teams coaches, I think they would’ve gotten a pretty clear indication this might have happened.”

Dawson certainly seemed unsurprised by this turn of events. It certainly seems like an obvious strategy: kick the ball higher and shorter, let your coverage unit get downfield, and increase the chances of tackling before your opponent reaches the 25 yard line touchback mark.

More from Niner Noise

Hence, this may be another rule the NFL throws out in a year.

All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of ESPN.com, Pro-Football-Reference.com and Sports-Reference.com unless otherwise indicated.

This article originally appeared on