Louis Rees-Zammit’s rugby-to-NFL dream edges closer but huge obstacles remain

IIf there was ever a time, if ever a place, for Louis Rees-Zammit to chase his NFL dream, this is it. The former Welsh rugby union star is reportedly close to a deal to join the Kansas City Chiefs, the back-to-back Super Bowl champions.

Rees-Zammit will likely join the team for their annual training camp, an extended tryout of sorts as he learns the rigors of the NFL. He will join a 90-man training camp roster that will eventually be whittled down to 53, with 16 spots still up for grabs on the practice squad, an effective reserve team. This season also marks the first time teams will have an additional practice squad spot available for players who have completed the league’s International Player Pathway program. Since the introduction of the IPP, 37 international players have signed with teams and 18 remain on rosters.

In other words, there is still a long way to go for Rees-Zammit, even if this is a promising start. The transition from rugby to the NFL is tough. The complexity of the positions and playbooks is difficult for even some of the best college players to grasp. And no franchise has as advanced a system as the Chiefs.

But there was news this week that should encourage those who believe in Rees-Zammit and could be the small miracle he needed to carve out a meaningful NFL career. NFL owners have agreed to a rule change that will overhaul the league’s kickoff procedure. Due to the sport’s ongoing concussion crisis, the league in recent years has adopted a neutered version of the kickoff, the best chance for a player to get the ball and make a play in the open field. To address injury concerns, the league instituted rules that drastically reduced the number of returnees. Last season, only 23% of kickoffs were returned. The latest change will change that. The NFL is moving to a new style where efficiency will increase to 60-90%, making the kickoff a weapon again.

This is good news for Rees-Zammit, whose best chance at an NFL roster was as a kick returner on the special teams unit. And returners are now more expensive. Holding a traditional position, it would take some time for the 23-year-old to gather the institutional knowledge needed to line up on Sunday. But when you get around four chances per game to collect, run and break the ball, that should come naturally to a talented but raw player like the Welshman.

Franchises usually gamble on players who come through the international program, hoping they will one day become something. There are no disadvantages with the schedule exemptions. At best, these players are seen as fringe prospects, usually elite athletes, who can be molded into marquee-caliber players. The value of Rees-Zammit is that he has an advantage today.

With the new rules, teams will chase a market inefficiency, looking for a player on a cheap contract – Rees-Zammit would earn $216,000 (£171,000) per season with a practice squad – who wouldn’t have made the roster under the old way but who can now bring juice in the second leg.

Rees-Zammit meets the requirements, even though the chances are still high. Plug him into this year’s NFL draft and his performance in drills that measure speed, size and strength ranks in the bottom 7% of wide receiver prospects. On his Pro Day, where team scouts look at prospects, he clocked a good sprint time but failed to match the draft prospects of the same build even at a low level in other key metrics. As a running back he is too lanky and unfamiliar with the nuances that determine whether a player makes it onto the field or not.

But with the kickoff revamp, Rees-Zammit becomes less of a long-term receiver or running back project and more of an immediate specialist, tilting the odds ever so slightly that he could retain a spot on the roster. Teams traditionally had a return specialist on their roster, with the understanding that a sudden shock – a score, a big breakaway – could change the momentum, spark a drive or tilt the game in their favor. However, when the league began establishing rules for returning from games, teams opted not to retain a specialist, preferring instead to use a running back, wide receiver or defensive player who could earn extra money as a returner.

Now that calculus is changing, with the new kickoff rules. Through that prism, Rees-Zammit’s skills make sense; he can shake off tackles and drive downhill instead of having to deal with the intricacies of route running or mastering pass protection.

The timing is ideal – and the landing spot, if confirmed, is even better. In Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, he will work with the best quarterback in the world and the most innovative coach in the league. If anyone is willing to bend the norms, it’s Reid. Worst-case scenario, Rees-Zammit will spend time with one of the greatest coach-quarterback duos in the league, working in the most advanced offense in the sport. For a former rugby star trying to live out a fantasy, that’s objectively cool.

Even with the rule change, there’s little chance Rees-Zammit will leave training camp, and even less chance he’ll end up on the Chiefs’ active roster this season. The Chiefs are aiming for an unprecedented three-peat – and are more likely to fall back on known quantities with experience in the game. But kick-off reform has opened up a path for the Welshman to run through at some point. It’s not out of the question that the Chiefs send him off to the practice squad to learn the game before giving him a chance to play in the NFL in a season or two.