49ers’ Deebo Samuel ready to embrace kick returns amid new rules

NFL kickoffs will look very different during the 2024 season, and San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel is eager to get involved. The NFL has adopted kickoff rules similar to those from the former XFL league to increase player safety and make kickoffs more exciting by reducing touchbacks. Under these rules, each team will line up in close proximity before the returner fields the kickoff. Players cannot move until the ball hits the ground or the return specialist fields the ball inside the 20-yard line.

Watch the video below for a glimpse of what the new kickoffs will look like.

Samuel wouldn't mind taking on the return specialist role if needed.

After Friday's practice, when asked if he would like a shot at regular kick return duties, Samuel answered, "Oh, for sure."

He added, "I wouldn't mind doing it from the get-go. I'm a team-first player, so if [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] was like, 'Hey, man, we don't want you to do it full-time. We just use you whenever we really need it,' I'm fine with that. But if you want to use me full-time, I'm all for that as well."

The star receiver admits that NFL players will experience a significant adjustment, which could eventually alter how teams build their special teams units.

"Looking at it, it's kind of weird, but I feel like, on the side that we on, for us, the returning team, I feel like we have a real big advantage of you make one guy miss," Samuel said. "I mean, it's just you and a kicker, and nine times out of 10, the kicker's not making tackles. So I'm pretty sure people will try to turn skill guys into kickers at some point if it continue to go [this way], just so they have a last-line-of-defense tackler."

Samuel also believes this could be a precursor to eventually doing away with kickoffs altogether.

"I feel like, at some point, if it got to this point, I feel like in a couple years or so, [there] probably won't be a kick return or anything along those lines. I feel like it's gonna be a lot of touchdowns coming from not just us, but from other teams as well because I'm pretty sure other people got a lot of skilled guys that's really good in space as well."