Playbooks
Landingzone Heavy Safety Kick Right is a special teams kickoff play out of the Safety Kickoff formation designed to angle the kickoff toward the right hash to dictate return lanes. This is a coverage-driven kick, not a route concept or offensive scheme, so the design revolves around the kicking team's lane assignments and leverage to the right side of the field rather than man or zone beaters. The primary read progression for kickoff coverage defenders is to stay in their lane, locate the returner off the ball flight to the right side, and converge with outside-in leverage to force the return back to pursuit.
Pre-snap, identify where the return team has stacked its blocking wall, since heavy return formations often overload one side to counter a directional kick. Watch the returner's depth and positioning before the kick, if he is shaded left of the numbers this Right variant forces him to adjust across the field, buying your coverage extra time. Post-kick, coverage defenders should key the wedge blockers first, then locate the ball carrier and maintain outside-in leverage to prevent the cutback lane. Be alert for a personal protector or upman shading right to counter this angle, as smart opponents will adjust their return scheme (like Landingzone Safety Punt Right) to match your directional tendency. If the return team shows a designed reverse or middle return look, your lane discipline on the right side must hold rather than crashing early, since undisciplined pursuit gets gashed by counter action.
Use this kick when you want to pin the return team into a shorter field on the right hash, especially in Landingzone touchback rules where directional kicking matters for spawn location.
Pair this with Landingzone Heavy Safety Kick Left and Landingzone Heavy Safety Kick Middle in your play-calling sequence so opponents cannot key on a directional tendency and adjust their return blocking.
On pre-snap, check your coverage unit alignment and make sure your gunners on the right side widen out to avoid being doubled by return blockers, since a heavy directional kick invites extra protection to that side.
If you know the opposing returner is a burner in the open field, favor this Right variant to funnel the ball away from space and closer to your fastest coverage defenders lined up on that side.
Use this in short field or late game situations when you want to control field position tightly, since a heavy kick to the right limits the returner's ability to break outside for a home run return.