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The simple explanation to Louis Rees-Zammit's strange NFL role after confusion
By Josh Raisey
Louis Rees-Zammit completed his second match in American football on Saturday in a preseason loss to the Detroit Lions, and like the week before, he was tried out in a variety of roles.
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In his first match at Kansas City Chiefs’ home ground, Arrowhead Stadium, the 23-year-old returned a kickoff 27 yards, was used as a gunner on the punt team and has been singled out online for his pass protection late in the match.
But fans who saw the former Wales wing making strides in rugby union have been left slightly confused that in both preseason matches now he has been used to take kickoffs.
Rees-Zammit established a name for himself for his prowess with ball in hand during his time in rugby. While he was comfortable kicking the ball from hand, he was never deployed as a place kicker. Understandably therefore, some have been left a little confused at this new role with the Chiefs.
There is a simple answer to this though, and it has to do with the expertise a rugby player has compared to an NFL kicker, specifically his ability to tackle.
Louis Rees-Zammit with the kickoff pic.twitter.com/kGhAKe2iiP
— Craig McMullen (@craigmcmullen53) August 17, 2024
“It’s less about LRZ making the kick and more him being there as an extra person to tackle the return guy,” The Podcast Nobody Asked For explained on X. “Most kickers wouldn’t do that, or at least not as effectively as a rugby convert. Basically gives them an extra guy on defence for returns.”
Though somewhat strange, there were hints that Rees-Zammit would be used as a kicker as early as May. “Louis has done above and beyond what I expected,” assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Dave Toub said.
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“He can kick field goals, he can kickoff, he can be a kickoff guy for us. He’s every bit as good as Justin (Reid) is at moving the football and stuff like that on kickoffs. And he’s really working hard at the returner job. I’ve got him in there as a starter right now so he gets as many reps as he can. He’s a student of the game — he comes in after practice, he wants to be great, he’s a great athlete.”
I thought this was rugby pass 🤔. Nobody wants to read about American football, it’s just straight up gay, someone should get fired
who cares, here for rugby not for NFL news. Please keep it relevant, stop the free advertising for a sport no one here cares about.
This is 'Rugby' Pass. Delete your article.
Delete this nonsense NOW!!!!!!!!! I will report rugbypass.com to DNS servers as spam and misleading! this is not RUGBY!!!!!!!
Thanks for the NFL update, RUGBYpass. We don't care.
Here we go again with Rees. He threw away rugby for NFL. Its like World Rugby is posting about their cheating gold digging ex that they miss. Focus on Rugby please. I don't care about NFL at all. Here for Rugby, what are you doing ?
Don't care for NFL
'RUGBY' Pass... not NFL Pass!! If you are going to continue posting NFL sht, please rather change your name to Rugby Se Poes so that we know what we are getting into. Thanks
Sorry I'm not interested in reading NFL news this is a rugby site.
No one is interested in an ex-rugby player who now plays for the NFL.
I live in America so the last thing I want to read on this site is NFL news. You will not gain any new fans by pandering to a different sport. Americans call football "soccer" for a reason, they do not care about anything they can't win, so if you want to kill rugby union go ahead and keep posting this garbage here.🤬
fk off with your advertising and go get another job
@josh Raisey, who cares?
No one talked about him while he was a rugby player now you wanna talk about him and he's not even playing the sport
Didn't realize that as rugby fans we now need to have in depth knowledge of an NFL team and their management. Delighted that LRZ is following his dreams and very best of luck to the lad but until he makes noises about returning to rugby think it's safe to say the vast majority of us couldn't care less about the Kansas Chiefs and their inner workings.
Long silence …. Sound of crickets chirping. What exactly has this to do with the world in Union … unless you are on LRZ’s parole as a PR. Genuinely, I seriously doubt that anybody outside his inner circle has any interest whatsoever ever of his exploits or otherwise in American football
I couldn’t agree more. It’s like Rugby Pass’ own version of “Panda Watch”.