If ever there was a time, if ever there was a spot, for Louis Rees-Zammit to chase his NFL dream, that is it. The previous Welsh rugby union star is reportedly nearing a deal to affix the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, the back-to-back Tremendous Bowl champions.
Rees-Zammit is prone to be a part of the workforce for his or her annual coaching camp, a sort of prolonged trial as he learns the trials of the NFL. He’ll be a part of a 90-man coaching camp roster that may finally be whittled right down to 53, with 16 additional locations up for grabs on the follow squad, in impact a reserve workforce. This season additionally marks the primary time that groups may have an additional spot out there on the follow squad carved out for gamers who’ve come by way of the league’s Worldwide Participant Pathway program. Because the IPP was launched, 37 worldwide gamers have signed with groups and 18 stay on rosters.
In different phrases, there’s nonetheless an extended approach to go for Rees-Zammit though this can be a promising begin. The transition from rugby to the NFL is fierce. The complexities of the positions and playbooks are robust for even among the finest school gamers to know. And no franchise runs as subtle a system because the Chiefs.
However there was information this week that ought to encourage those that consider in Rees-Zammit and could possibly be the minor miracle he wanted to construct a significant NFL profession. NFL homeowners have agreed to a rule change that may overhaul the league’s kickoff process. In recent times, as a result of sport’s ongoing concussion disaster, the league adopted a neutered model of kickoffs, one of the best likelihood for a participant to collect the ball and make a play within the open discipline. To handle harm considerations, the league drafted guidelines that drastically lowered the variety of returns. Final season, solely 23% of kickoffs had been returned. The most recent change will remodel that. The NFL is shifting to a brand new model that may see returns leap to between 60 and 90%, making the kickoff a weapon once more.
That is excellent news for Rees-Zammit, whose finest likelihood at making an NFL roster was as a kick returner on the particular workforce unit. And returners at the moment are at a premium. Taking part in a standard place, it might take time for the 23-year-old to collect the institutional data wanted to line up on Sundays. However being given 4 or so probabilities a recreation to collect the ball, run and break tackles ought to come naturally to a gifted however uncooked participant just like the Welshman.
Franchises normally take a bet on gamers coming by way of the worldwide program within the hope that they may develop into one thing sometime. With the roster exemptions, there are not any downsides. At finest, these gamers are considered as fringe prospects, usually elite athletes, who could possibly be molded into roster-caliber gamers. Rees-Zammit’s worth is that he has upside at this time.
With the brand new guidelines, groups will likely be chasing a market inefficiency, in search of a participant on an inexpensive contract – Rees-Zammit would make $216,000 (£171,000) a season on a follow squad – who wouldn’t have made a roster below the previous methods however who can now deliver juice to the return recreation.
Rees-Zammit suits the invoice, although the percentages are nonetheless lengthy. Plug him into this 12 months’s NFL draft and his efficiency in drills that measure pace, measurement and power are within the backside 7% of vast receiver prospects. At his Professional Day, the place workforce scouts have a look at prospects, he clocked a superb dash time however did not match as much as even low-level draft prospects of the identical construct in different vital metrics. As a working again, he’s too lanky and unfamiliar with the nuances that dictate whether or not a participant makes the sector or not.
However with the kickoff revamp, Rees-Zammit turns into much less of a long-term receiver or working again mission and extra of an instantaneous specialist, tilting the percentages ever so barely that he might cling on to a roster spot. Groups historically carried a return specialist on their roster on the understanding {that a} sudden jolt – a rating, an enormous breakaway – might shift momentum, spark a drive or tip the sport of their favor. Because the league started to legislate returns out of the video games, although, groups opted in opposition to maintaining a specialist, preferring to make use of a working again, vast receiver or defensive participant who might moonlight as a returner.
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Now, that calculus is altering, with the revamped kickoff guidelines. Via that prism, Rees-Zammit’s abilities make sense; he can shake away tackles and drive downhill slightly than having to take care of the intricacies of route working or mastering cross safety.
The timing is good – and the touchdown spot, if confirmed, is even higher. With Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, he’ll be working with one of the best quarterback within the recreation and the league’s most progressive coach. If anyone is prepared to bend the norms, it’s Reid. At worst, Rees-Zammit will spend time round one of many biggest coach-quarterback duos within the league, working in essentially the most cutting-edge offense within the sport. For a former rugby star making an attempt to dwell out a fantasy, that’s objectively cool.
Even with the rule change, the percentages are slim that Rees-Zammit will make it out of coaching camp and decrease nonetheless that he makes the Chiefs’ energetic roster this season. The Chiefs are aiming for an unprecedented three-peat – and usually tend to fall again on recognized portions with expertise within the recreation. However the kickoff reform has opened up a lane that the Welshman might run by way of sooner or later. It’s not out of the query that the Chiefs squirrel him away on the follow squad to study the sport earlier than giving him a chance to play within the NFL in a season or two.
