NFL Targets Raiders With Strange Rule Change

While their 5-8 record may not indicate that the Las Vegas Raiders has been playing with some sort of unfair advantage, the NFL doesn't care. It was revealed Thursday that the league's officiating office has targeted the team with a strange rule change surrounding kickoffs.

The NFL informed teams they will no longer be allowed to use a kickoff holder to hold the ball on top of the placekicking tee. This is a strategy commonly used by Daniel Carlson and the Raiders' special teams unit in 2022.

According to head coach Josh McDaniels, the Raiders had previously received clarification this was allowed. Now, the league has changed its tune on the matter.

McDaniels recently explained that the use of a holder allowed his team to keep the ball on top of the tee, inside of inside it. This allowed Carlson to get further under the ball on kickoffs and create more hang time.

The league will still allow holders on kickoffs in certain situations, like when the ball could be blown off the tee because of high winds. It'll be interesting if Las Vegas continues to use a holder because this seems like a rule that would be difficult to enforce with much consistency.

Adam Taylor McKillop is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Adam Taylor also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username atmckillop. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel. 

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