Call him Dynamic DeeJay.
Arizona Cardinals kick returner/running back DeeJay Dallas ran into the history books on Sunday in his team's 34-28 loss to the Buffalo Bills, scoring the NFL's first touchdown in the new dynamic kickoff rules.
Dallas raced 96 yards in the fourth quarter, scoring with 8:31 to go in the game.
"Yeah, it's almost like Cover 0," Dallas said after the game, . "You know if you get past the first line of defense, you're on to the kicker."
It was also the Cardinals franchise's first KR TD since Week 2 of 2015 and the first time Dallas, a 2020 fourth-round pick of the Seattle Seahawks, has scored on a kick return in his career. The Bills came close to getting him just before the end zone when he went airborne from the 2-yard line to secure six.
"That monkey almost got on my back," Dallas said. "I was like at the 10. I'm like, 'Oh man. I don't know. I don't know.' But, yeah, the elements, we had the wind pretty well and they kind of hung the ball up, [I] caught it, it wasn't perfect, but the guys upfront made it happen. The rest is history."
Looking to address the lowest kickoff return rate in league history in 2023 while balancing concerning injury numbers on kickoffs before that, 国产外流网franchises approved the new kickoff rule for this season.
The new format more closely resembles a play from scrimmage with the kickoff and kick return teams closer together to reduce space and speed, but promote more returns.
In the preseason, there were no scores either, and over the league's first two games of the season on Thursday and Friday, the majority of kickoffs landed in the end zone, with the returning team starting possession on its own 30-yard line.
However, Dallas debuted the dynamism the league has been hoping to see.
