The reasons why the NFL wants to change kickoffs

Why does the NFL competition committee want to change how kickoffs are done?

They have two reasons: Safety. And scoring.

Certainly, the league’s attempts at player safety have been inconsistent and hit-and-miss. But kickoffs have long been a flashpoint. After all, the kickoff-coverage and kickoff-return units have been colloquially called the “suicide squad” since time immemorial.

But as NFL competition committee chair Rich McKay noted on a Zoom conference Thursday, even the league’s neutering of the kickoffs — to where the play became a non-factor over the last dozen years — failed to curb the injury rate.

“Over the years, we have gotten all this data from health and safety that said, ‘Listen, the kickoff configuration is too dangerous and we need to find ways to make the play safer.’ And we just have not been able to find a way to make the play safer,” McKay said.

“We have been able to kind of make the play more of a non-event — i.e. touchbacks — but we have not been able to make the play safer. The injury rate remains right at the same historical levels it has been at.”

So, the changes not only failed to enhance safety, they turned a potentially-exciting play into one that became progressively more boring. A lose-lose proposition.

But then there was scoring — which has dropped from its 2020 COVID-19 season apex by 6.04 points per game, from 49.58 that year to 43.54.

“Statistically, what gives us concern a little bit is scoring,” McKay said. “… We spent a lot of time trying to understand that.

“I do believe the kickoff proposal this year will impact scoring, because I think it will impact field position by at least 3-5 yards, and in doing that, you definitely impact scoring.

From that was borne the massive overhaul of kickoffs that the competition committee proposed heading into the NFL’s annual meeting that commences Sunday in Orlando, Fla.

Assuming that the proposal smake it out of committee, they will be subject to a vote of the 32 owners. Twenty-four “yes” votes are required for passage.

BREAKING DOWN THE PROPOSED KICKOFF CHANGE

The key elements:

• The kickoff will remain at the kicking team’s 35-yard line;
• Ten players on the kicking team will line up at the receiving team’s 40-yard line (or 25 yards away from the spot of the kickoff, if there is a penalty);
• The receiving team will align nine players at its 35-yard line, with two players back deep to field the kick

And if the kickoff changes are approved, touchback adjudication will change, too, thanks to the introduction of a “target zone” — between the receiving team’s 20-yard line and its goal line.

• The touchback spot will remain the 20-yard line if the ball strikes a receiving-team player or the ground before rolling into the end zone.
• A kickoff that lands in the end zone or is downed after being fielded in the end zone on the fly — without bouncing in the “target zone” — will lead to the the receiving team starting possession at it’s 35-yard line.
• Also, a kickoff that goes out of the end zone — will result in the receiving team starting possession at its 35-yard line.

One result of all this would be that on-side kickoffs would be transformed. The surprise on-side kickoff that Sean Payton used to open the 2023 season could not exist. Nor would his second-half opening kickoff call in Super Bowl XLIV.

Special-teams coaches worked with McKay and the competition committee on this proposal — which was the result of a trend going back over a dozen years.

“The play will feel different and radical because it doesn’t look like the typical formations we’ve had before, but this play has been used, and we’ve seen it in the XFL for two years,” McKay said.

“What [the coaches] did is they took a play, and they made it our own. They created what we call the ‘NFL hybrid kickoff.’ They truly re-looked at the formation, looked at the start line.

“… All the things that I think are important to making this play better, they did a really good job of.”

KICKOFFS HAVE BEEN IN DECLINE FOR A WHILE NOW

“One thing that jumps out at me and jumps out at us as a committee is that when you go back to 2010, you looked at 416 touchbacks in 2010 and you looked at 45,000 return yards in 2010 — that’s in one season,” McKay said. “We are now at 1,970 touchbacks — we went from 416 to 1,970 — and we have gone from 45,000 yards of return down to 13,000 yards of returns. We’ve taken too much out of the game. It’s too exciting of a play.”

McKay pointed out that of the 13 kickoffs in Super Bowl LVIII, 12 sailed out of the end zone.

Competition committee chair Rich McKay, on the proposals to change kickoffs: “We’ve taken too much out of the game. It’s too exciting of a play. And so, we use that phrase, ‘We don’t want to lose the foot from the game,’ but I also think we don’t want to lose special teams.” pic.twitter.com/lPBHUgPwyK

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) March 21, 2024

“And so, we use that phrase, ‘We don’t want to lose the foot from the game,’ but I also think we don’t want to lose special teams,” McKay said. “I think special teams have been a part of our game for a long time — an exciting part of our game — and it feel like special teams, especially when it comes to the kickoff, has been away for a little while, but it really hasn’t, it’s much more of a recent effect, but that line of demarcation of 2010 is when, all of a sudden, those touchbacks started to go up.”

Now, kickoffs into the end zone on the fly will not be a goal; they’ll be punished. It changes how every special-teams coach goes about their work.

And maybe it will change the viewing habits of fans accustomed to using kickoffs as the chance to extend bathroom breaks and kitchen visits by 45 seconds.