One of the plays in the NFL that has received the most rule changes over the years is kickoff. Every other year, it feels like there is a new proposal to make the play either more safe or more exciting. A report from Albert Breer indicates that the new kickoff rule has been voted through my NFL owners at the owners meetings in Orlando. The rule will reportedly be on a one-year trial, so they will have to re-vote next offseason after one season of seeing how it plays out, per Tom Pelissero.
The vote was 29-3, with Green Bay, Las Vegas, and San Francisco the only teams voting against it, per Jonathan Jones.
This rule reportedly had intense deliberations and wasn’t expected to have a final vote in Orlando as the rule change is lengthy and frankly kind of confusing. Here is a graphic of the new hybrid kickoff posted by Jonathan Jones on X. It is borrowed from a rule the XFL implemented in 2020.
The kicker will be by himself on his own 35-yard line, and he won’t be allowed to cross midfield until the ball is in play. The coverage team will be lined up together on the receiving team’s 40-yard line and five players must be on either side of the ball. This is in an attempt to lower the large-scale collisions that take place with players running full speed down the field at each other.
The receiving team will have a setup zone from the 30-yard line to the 35. Most of the receiving team will line up at the 35, and they can have two returners back to field the kickoff. There is also a landing zone between the goal line and the 20-yard line. Neither team’s primary line of players can move until the football has been fielded by a returner or the ball hits the ground. The fair catch has been eliminated from kickoff.
If the kickoff doesn’t go beyond the start of the landing zone, then it is considered out of bounds, and the returning team will get the ball at the 40-yard line, much like when it went out of bounds previously. Touchbacks, which have been at the 25-yard line since 2016, will now be starting at the 30-yard line. When the rule was initially proposed, the touchback was going to be at the 35, but it was tweaked over the weekend leading up to the vote. There is also a touchback that ends up at the 20-yard line, like it used to be, if the ball hits the ground in the landing zone and rolls into the end zone without getting returned.
In the event of a penalty on the kickoff, the kicker will be the only person who adjusts where he lines up.
Along with this, there is a new rule for onside kicks since the kickoffs are required to reach the landing zone, which is obviously too far to make sense for an onside kick. Now, teams will only be allowed to do onside kicks in the fourth quarter if they are the trailing team and will have to declare they are attempting it ahead of time.
Here is a short video walkthrough of the rule change posted by the NFL Football Operations page on X, and a live in-game example from the XFL posted by Adam Schefter.
Overall, it is a lengthy set of new rules, and will take some getting used to for players, viewers, and referees alike. If it ends up going poorly, the league has built itself an out for next season and beyond. It will also likely lead to slightly higher scores per game as the touchback is moving up five yards and average starting field position will likely be higher as a result.
