Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell sheds light on important NFL change that gives teams more information on its players

The little things add up to a successful football team.

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
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Nov 2, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Myles Price (4) returns a kick during the first quarter against the Minnesota Vikings at Ford Field. David Reginek-Imagn Images
David Reginek-Imagn Images

The NFL has made a lot of rule changes over the course of the last few seasons, but none have been bigger than the implementation of the new kickoff.

Of all the teams in the NFL, the Minnesota Vikings have been one of the biggest benefactors of the change. Rookie UDFA Myles Price has become one of the league’s best returners and has been on pace to contend for an All Pro.

The idea of the new kickoff was meant to keep the kick return in the game, with the reason being to keep the game exciting and add the potential of more explosive plays. Having that is also important for NFL teams in a way you wouldn’t expect.

New kickoff gives teams more film to evaluate depth of roster

One of the ways you can use the kickoff is to have more film to evaluate your players. The Vikings are in a unique position where they have seven undrafted free agents on the roster from the 2025 class, and they are all over the special teams units.

Head coach Kevin O’Connell was asked about the kickoff, and he was very honest about it.

“It’s a unique play. There’s no question it’s a unique play,” said O’Connell. But there’s just so many — the game day roster, where maybe you would have looked at certain positions as a little bit more negotiable for the game day roster. Now you say that you need this many body types, this many skill sets to make sure that you understand it’s maybe the one play in special teams that has been so unique for this year.”

O’Connell is right. The new style of kickoff has made it so much more important how you build your gameday roster.

“It’s affecting starting field position. It’s affecting the ability to respond when a team scores, as we saw in Detroit early on in the game,” continued O’Connell. “I think as teams get more comfortable with the schemes, the body types, the type of players that are in there, and those guys start to get more accumulated reps. You’re seeing high level of execution.”

The execution is a big factor of this entire conversation. It’s far from perfect at this point, being that it’s such a new play and penalties are happening frequently.

“I don’t have any data on this, but it feels like one of the more penalized plays on either side around the NFL. And I think that’ll continue to come down as guys kind of learn the space or lack thereof, that there is on the play. But every single Sunday, it’s a critical play,” said O’Connell. “I think Myles Price has had a big-time role in not only the kick return, but the punt return phase of understanding what it can be for our team, especially where we’ve been at statistically in previous years, it was a major thing we wanted to try to make sure we were doing to play the type of complimentary football we wanted to play.”

With the Vikings continuing to rely on young players who were undrafted, it’s a net benefit for them from a long-term perspective. It not only gets them onto the field, but also gives the team film to continue evaluating them during the year, something that hasn’t been available at the same level in years.

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