NFL considering rule changes to increase kickoff returns

Now that the league has made kickoffs safer, it wants to figure out a way to make them interesting again.

As you may have noticed in Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, every kickoff was a touchback that was brought out to the 25-yard line. After the latest change to the kickoff rules — 2023’s one-year rule change that allowed a kickoff to placed at the 25-yard line when it was fair-caught behind the 25 — just 22% of the league’s kickoffs were returned.

The league has continued to tweak kickoff rules to improve player safety. But with only one in five kickoffs being returned in 2023 — and no kickoff returns in the league’s most-watched game — the NFL has now realized that things have been pushed too far. In late February, the league’s executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent told NFL.com columnist Judy Battista that another change was in the air.

“We know we won’t go back into what we saw last year, when it became a ceremonial play,” he said.

According to Vincent, the league’s Competition Committee (and special-teams coaches) were being tasked to come up with a proposal for a new kickoff format that would continue to keep players safe, but also provide more opportunities for returns. Owners would then vote on this proposal during the annual league meetings scheduled for March 24-27.

At a Saturday meeting during the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, special-teams coaches from around the league worked out a proposal that is similar to the kickoff format used in the XFL.

Under this proposed rule, the ball would still be kicked from the kickoff team’s 35-yard line. But the rest of the kickoff team would line up on the opponent’s 40-yard line. The return team would line up just five yards away on their 35 — and no one on either line could leave those positions until the ball is touched or reaches the “target zone,” which will be between the 20-yard line and the goal line.

If the ball is kicked into the end zone, the receiving team gets it at the 35-yard line. If the ball is kicked into the target zone and rolls into the end zone, the receiving team’s possession starts at the 20-yard line.

By moving the touchback to the 35, kicking teams will be de-incentivized from kicking the ball away from returners. Returners will be incentivized to field balls that reach the “target zone.” But blockers for each unit will no longer be able to get up to full speed before making contact with opposing players, which will make injuries less likely.

This proposal would also require changes to onside kicks. Teams could only attempt them when trailing in the fourth quarter — and because a different formation would have to be used, the kicking team (which would be allowed to use an unbalanced 6×4 formation) would have to declare its intention to kick onside.

Final wording (and other details) of the proposed new rules are still being worked out. But we should expect the proposal to be put before the owners when they meet in Orlando, Florida at the end of March. For the rule to be adopted, 24 teams will have to approve it.