A new NFL rule change will play to the Broncos’ strengths

The NFL’s Annual League Meeting is this week down in Palm Beach, Florida, where coaches, owners and front office members are all getting together as the 2025 league year gets underway. The proposed rule changes were voted on Tuesday morning, and one specific rule that passed could benefit Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos.

Kicking updates, per source:

The NFL’s onside kick amendment will be adjusted and voted on later in May.

Touchbacks on kickoffs will now bring the ball to the 35-yard line.

— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) April 1, 2025

This rule change was made to incentivize kickoff returns instead of having teams just boot the ball out of the end zone. In 2024, teams did not mind kicking touchbacks and giving their opponent the ball at the 30-yard line. The NFL introduced the “dynamic kickoff” format heading into last season in an effort to have more kickoff returns, and it didn’t show as much improvement as they hoped.

Final regular season numbers on the new NFL kickoff rule:

Touchback rate: 64.3%
Return rate: 32.8%

Both were a notable improvement over 2023, but were worse than any other season since at least 2000. Much more work to do if the NFL still envisions kickoffs returned routinely.

— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) January 7, 2025

The Broncos had the 12th-highest touchback percentage in the NFL last year, but this new rule change won’t affect the kicking game. It will affect the kick return game and the offense.

Option A for opposing teams is to kick the ball within the ‘landing zone’ instead of out of the end zone, which means giving Marvin Mims Jr. a chance to return the kick. Among players who returned at least seven kickoffs last season, Mims ranked 11th in average yards per return with 27.7. While he didn’t get many chances to showcase his return skills on kickoffs, he got plenty on punts, and had the most average yards per return on punts with 15.7 (minimum 10 returns).

Option B for opposing teams is to give the ball to Bo Nix and the Broncos offense on the 35-yard line. That means that Denver would only need to pick up 27 yards to get into Will Lutz’s field goal range (his long in 2024 was 55 yards, but he has made a 60-yard kick before in his career). In the entire league last year, the average yards per drive was 31.4, showing that getting into field goal range wouldn’t be as big of a challenge as before. With a Broncos offense that will have new weapons to help move the sticks, this rule plays to their advantage.

Other rule changes are being voted on currently by Greg Penner and the rest of the owners in the league, with the biggest news out of Palm Beach being that talks to ban the ‘tush push’ have been pushed back to another day. This kickoff rule being changed is a great start to the day for the Denver Broncos.

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