Sean Payton likes new NFL kickoff rule ‘it benefits Broncos’

The NFL has tweaked the kickoff rules again heading into the 2025 NFL season and Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton is a fan of the adjustments.

This year, the league’s one-year experimental dynamic kickoff, introduced for 2024, becomes permanent. There is a slight change, though. Owners voted in April to move touchbacks on kicks that reach the end zone on the fly from the 30-yard line to the 35-yard line, which should lead to more action on those plays.

Last year, the experimental kickoff increased return rates from a record-low 21.8% in 2023 to 32.8%. The NFL says injuries were reduced as well, with the rate of concussions dropping 43% on returns, as well as a drop in lower-body injuries. Still, just under one-third of the kickoffs being returned isn’t a lot, and it’s because many teams were fine with a touchback and their foes starting at the 30.

“I was in favor of the 35 and because there were teams still taking the approach, ‘will defend the 30-yard line as a start point,'” Payton explained Thursday. “The kickoffs and the play itself and the returns spike way up regardless. It’s hard as a coach to say I’m comfortable with them, starting on the 35-yard line. I’m gonna want to defend that field position.”

In moving the touchback to the 35, the league estimates that there will be a rise of 60% to 70% in returns from last year. The NFL also changed a rule about how blockers on the play are allowed to line up, in hopes of longer returns.

“I think it benefits us based on our talent, our returners, our coaching,” Payton said. “We feel like we’ll benefit from that, and we’re all a little bit smarter or more experienced relative to how those returns begin to look from this time last year.”

Payton may be right that more returns are a good thing for Denver, given the Broncos’ two-time Pro Bowler in the role. Marvin Mims Jr. housed a kick return under the old rules in his rookie season and saw a small increase in average return last year with the dynamic kickoff, though he had fewer chances. His huge 408 punt return yards, for an NFL-best 15.7 yards a return, hint that more chances for Mims could mean great things for the Broncos.

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