Sean Payton and his Broncos coaches may be geniuses because they noticed an issue with NFL’s new kickoff rules.

When the Denver Broncos kick off against the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday (11 am MDT), the revamped kickoff will be on display for all to see.

NFL fans got a glimpse of it in the Hall of Fame game, and there’s no doubt the play will be exciting all year long as teams try to use it to their advantage. But, what if an overlooked aspect makes the new kickoff just as boring as it was in the past?

Sean Payton and Ben Kotwica found an issue with NFL’s new kickoff rules

Before we get into the potential problem with the new kickoff, let’s quickly recap what the play will look like.

Simply, there will be no more running down the field, as 19 of 22 players on the field will be lined up only five yards away from one another. The other players will be the kicker, now from the 35 yard line, and two returners.

Here’s one recent look at it:

A couple more wrinkles in the new rule, too, though. First, a touchback results in the receiving team starting at their own 30 yard line, not the 20. If the ball hits in the landing zone—between the 20 and goal line—and stays in the landing zone, or rolls into the end zone, is a live ball. A kick that doesn’t reach the 20 is given to the receiving team at their 40. Or if it goes out of bounds, it goes to the 40. Also, a receiving player can catch the ball with one foot out of bounds and get it on the 40.

That little wrinkle led Sean Payton to say how IQ is key for the Denver Broncos on kickoffs. Not only will there be times a receiver could stand on the boundary and catch the ball, but there will be a lot of decision making on the fly, too.

But when Payton talked about it last week, he also talked more about a potential issue with the NFL’s new kickoff rules.

“I’m pushing… I get the box—I like it,” Payton explained on Aug. 3. “If the analytics tell me the average drive start or the average return is past the 30-[yard line], well what do you think’s going to start happening? We’re going to be right back to [touchbacks], and that’s the last thing that we want. So we have to pay attention to that.”

Basically, why give the receiving team a chance if they can regularly return it past the free spot, the 30?

His special teams coach Ben Kotwica agrees.

“There are a couple elements here that I would say are going to be what to watch for. How’s the ball going to be delivered, conventionally or unconventionally?” Kotwica asked. “Are we kicking—if you watch the [Pro Football] Hall of Fame game, both teams kicked, caught it, returned it. There is an advantage if you can kick the ball in the landing zone on the ground. That’s that unconventional kick. So how much does that become the norm? That would be number one.

“Then number two is on the return side, where is the starting field position after the ball is returned? The subtle yet substantial change where the touchback went from the 35-[yard line] to the 30-[yard line] is going to make a difference. If teams are returning the ball out to the 36,37-[yard line], you may get back to square one where kicking a touchback to the 30-[yard line] is more beneficial. So those are two elements that will be played out. In the preseason, we want to kick to cover, and I think most teams want to do that to see how the play works out and also to evaluate your players.”

Others, like Mike Florio, are noticing, too:

The two purposes of the new kickoff rules are player safety and to make the plays exciting again. But if teams can easily pass the 30 consistently on returns, kicking teams will just boot it deep again. That means many touchbacks.

Which completely nullifies the exciting aspect of the plays.

There’s another problem with new kickoff rules: 3 starting spots

The new kickoff rules are complicated to understand. Even for longtime fans.

Payton doesn’t like the many different starting spots.

“The other thing that I think is significant—I don’t like three different starting spots,” he explained. “In other words, I understand the 20-[yard line]—I like it. I get the old rule when it went out of bounds, but if it’s in the box, great. If it’s outside the box, put it in the same spot whether it’s [out over] the sideline, end zone or short. Because I think right now it will take a lot of fans a long time to figure out the three different spots. ‘Wait a minute, it went out of bounds, it’s on the 40-[yard line], but it went too deep or short, it’s on the 30-[yard line]?’ So reduce the variables there. Just make it a box foul.”

He’s right. It would be simpler if it went in the “box” or landing area, a touchback is to the 20. If a ball isn’t in the landing area, it goes to the 40.

The NFL is already an incredibly complicated sport, and the three different starting spots make one of the simpler plays harder to understand for fans.