Giants special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey sees ‘uncharted territory’ with new kickoff rule – The Denver Post

Giants special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey didn’t have to blast the NFL’s new kickoff rule on Thursday to make it clear where he stands.

He said it all with his shoulder shrugging, his grim acceptance of a change that heavily impacts his livelihood, and his response to whether special teams coaches feel like an endangered species these days.

“That’s a really good question,” McGaughey said with a sad smile. “That’s a really good question.”

McGaughey knows all he can control is his response to a rule that allows a fair catch anywhere behind the 25-yard line to bring the ball out to the 25 for 1st and 10.

“We might not agree with it, but that’s just what it is, and we’ll govern ourselves accordingly,” he said, speaking for all coaches on his marginalized side of the ball.

But the Giants’ coordinator did echo one of the common complaints of this rule’s critics: NFL owners are ignoring the possible unintended consequences that coaches and players pleaded with them to acknowledge before its passage.

“This is uncharted territory,” McGaughey said. “It’s something that we haven’t seen before in our league, and [there is] always going to be something that’s going to pop up within a new rule change that they didn’t foresee. So it’s one of those deals where you’ve got to play the games to see what happens.”

No one truly knows. The overriding frustration, however, is while owners claim this rule was passed to make the game safer, teams’ adjustments to gain an edge could create a more violent play with kicks that are squibbed, knuckled or shortened.

“There are going to be some teams that will be aggressive with it, I’m sure,” McGaughey said. “We’re always looking for angles as coaches, right? We’re always trying to find competitive advantages. We’ll always try [to] find those. So, we’re looking at certain things that we could possibly do, and we’ll see what happens.”

Above all, the owners’ hypocrisy in claiming player health and safety as their priority is what grinds the most outspoken players and coaches.

Coaches like McGaughey aren’t going to go there, of course. His boss, Giants co-owner John Mara, voted in favor of the change and helped push it through.

But Patriots captain Matthew Slater, a three-time Super Bowl winner who built a decorated career on special teams, was willing to speak out strongly at a recent New England OTA practice.

“It’s my understanding that the powers that be think this is gonna improve player safety and health,” Slater said. “And I’m just not convinced that our league is always gonna do what’s in the best interest of our players. I understand that we want to reduce head injuries and things of that nature, but we don’t always act as if player health and safety is paramount.”

“We can talk about the Thursday night games. That’s an easy one. That’s low-hanging fruit,” Slater added. “But we can also talk about the issues that our players experience once they leave the game: Why is it that we have to fight for health care beyond five years out of the game? Why is it that when players go to file for benefits, in terms of disability, [they have] to jump through hoops nonstop? Why is it that we’re continuing to fight the battle that we’re fighting of grass versus turf?”

Slater, 37, at least, is closer to the end of his NFL career as this rule enters football — on a one-year trial basis, they say — to threaten some of what he does best.

But what about players like the Giants’ Cam Brown, 25, and Carter Coughlin, 25? They’re fourth-year pros who have their roster spots because of their special teams value.

McGaughey admitted “it’s tough” for players like that across the league now.

“It’s not an easy situation when you know, for the most part, you’re going to get anywhere from 25 to 28 plays [a game on special teams],” McGaughey said. “Normally [as an individual] you get really 14 to 15 of those plays, maybe 18, and then half of those might go away. Naturally, you might think, ‘OK, what is my value?’”

McGaughey also noted it will no longer be as effective to use Giants kicker Graham Gano’s ability to land his kickoffs just outside the goal line, between the 3-yard line and 1-yard line, since a fair catch there will simply give the opponent the ball at the 25.

Each head coach ultimately will decide if his team just abandons the kickoff entirely and boots the ball far, content to give up the field position.

“It just depends on the coach and the organizational philosophies and how they view things,” McGaughey said. “Some organizations might choose to do that, some organizations may not. It just depends from week to week and whatever the head coach or whatever the organization’s philosophy is on how they’re going to approach that play.”

The NFL’s owners claim this rule is in response to a spike in concussions from 12 to 19 in kickoffs last year. Slater doesn’t want to hear it. He thinks this is optics-driven.

“I just don’t believe that this is truly in the name of player health and safety,” he said. “What I do believe is we want to portray ourselves as a certain way to the public, to you guys, that says we care about the players. But I can give you a long list of examples — and I’ve been around this game for almost 40 years — I can give you a long list of examples where the league and the powers that be do not act in the best interest of the players.”

“If we’re really concerned with player safety and health, let’s talk about some of the real issues that are gonna impact player safety and health,” he added. “Let’s not talk about a play [which] over 99% of the time, when the ball’s kicked off, is injury free. Those are the facts. Those are the stats. You can go look them up yourself.”

McGaughey said he’ll keep coaching techniques and emphases the same way and keep an eye out for possible adjustments that could help. It’s all he can do.

“No one wants to lose a part of what you’re used to doing as … your job to kind of go away,” he said. “You want to be able to coach the way you’ve been coaching and have the same kind of impact in the game that you want to have. But again, you just make the adjustments and just keep moving.”

()