Hard to say how this will look both early and throughout the season. HOF game, as our first real taste, gave me the impression that the starting field position will be overall better for the course of the season. Not so much more kickoffs being returned to near midfield, but more a matter of less kickoffs resulting in drives starting, say, within the 15-yard line. A big part of that will be determined by the flags thrown. We've seen so many mediocre to decent kick-offs being punished by holding and other calls, the past several seasons, to the point where proper returns are being avoided ('let's just take the 25'; Chiefs are classic for this), while that smaller percentage of those actually returned often end up getting penalized and therefore not usually worth the attempt.
McAfee was on to some of that, in a short clip on youscrewed. Certainly the leaving early aspects, which I only sort of grab. Holding and block in the back calls might diminish, but its too early to predict what calls might be more emphasized by the zebras.
Maybe a slight increase in starting field position--hence higher totals--early in the season, if I had to guess. Adjustments might be made depending on what happens. Should be fun. What the hell. Lets give it a shot.
Fuck the general news cycle. Lets kick-off already.
Apparently, I'm getting old.
Some further proof follows.