If you haven’t been keeping up, the NFL is rolling out brand-new kickoff rules for the 2024 season, set to debut on Thursday night. These changes, which were tested during the preseason, aim to enhance player safety and increase the number of returnable kicks. However, many coaches and executives across the league aren’t convinced that the new rules will accomplish either goal.
Under the new kickoff format, the coverage and return teams must line up just five yards apart and remain stationary until the kick returner fields the ball. While the NFL has promoted the change as a way to reduce high-speed collisions and encourage more exciting returns, not everyone is buying into the idea.
“The league wants everyone to think it’s a fix and will jam it down our throats and say, ‘See, it works, the return numbers are up.’ But is it really better? Questionable,” an NFL general manager told The Athletic’s Diana Russini. His skepticism mirrors the sentiment shared by several others around the league who question the effectiveness of the changes.
Some teams are already strategizing ways to bypass the new rules entirely. “It’s entertaining, yes. Teams like the Saints and Cowboys will scheme the s— out of this and return everything,” said an NFC head coach. “But a lot of teams are still gonna kick touchbacks. I think you can expect a slight decrease in touchbacks, but slight… the first big return against a team, they will get scared and kick touchbacks after that.”
This comment points to a fundamental concern about the rule change: many believe it won’t actually result in more returns. Instead, they expect teams to continue opting for touchbacks to avoid the risks associated with returns, even if the new rules are supposed to make them safer.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan echoed this thought, suggesting that teams might concede touchbacks more frequently, especially with touchbacks now placing the ball at the 30-yard line instead of the 25. “It’s a hell of an idea. I haven’t thought of that,” Shanahan said when asked about intentionally conceding touchbacks. “When you can start at the 30 and the average starting line is the 29, it doesn’t seem like there’s that much of a difference to really go with the risk of it.”
Shanahan’s comments reflect the growing expectation that teams will play it safe, especially if the reward of a few extra yards isn’t worth the risk of a botched return. The real question is whether the change will have any meaningful impact on player safety, which was the league’s primary motivation for implementing the rule.
An AFC general manager remains unconvinced that safety will improve under the new system. “The coverage players are on top of the blockers very quickly, and if a blocker misses the block or takes a false step, there are more opportunities for high-speed collisions with the returner,” he explained to Russini. “Blockers are in a spot where they do not have ample time to react, which leads to coverage players getting clean to the returner.”
This concern highlights the potential for more dangerous situations to arise. If the blockers don’t have enough time to adjust, returners could be exposed to more intense hits, which runs counter to the NFL’s stated goal of reducing dangerous collisions.
To sum up: NFL coaches expect fewer returns, general managers anticipate little to no improvement in player safety, and some teams plan to simply avoid the kickoff return game altogether by settling for touchbacks. So, with all this pushback, it begs the question: why did the NFL implement this rule change in the first place?
The league may have had good intentions in trying to address safety concerns, but early feedback from those closest to the game suggests that the new kickoff rules might not achieve their desired effect. As the season unfolds, it will be interesting to see whether the changes truly impact the game in a positive way, or if they’ll join the list of NFL rule tweaks that fail to deliver the expected results.
