The NFL made a bold move by revamping the kickoff play for the 2024 season, but it seems another major modification is already in the works for next year. According to a report from Mark Maske of the Washington Post, league executives and members of the NFL’s competition committee are seriously considering a proposal that would further alter the kickoff rules, specifically regarding where the ball is placed following a touchback.
Currently, after a kickoff results in a touchback, the receiving team starts their drive from the 30-yard line. The proposed change, however, would move the spot to the 35-yard line, effectively giving teams better field position on a non-returned kickoff.
The intention behind this modification is to reduce the frequency of teams deliberately kicking the ball out of the end zone to prevent a return. By offering more favorable starting field position on a touchback, the hope is to incentivize teams to kick shorter and encourage more kickoff returns.
Maske noted that so far in the 2024 season, approximately 29 percent of kickoffs have been returned through the first four weeks, which is a notable increase from the 17 percent recorded during the same period in 2023. While the increase reflects some success with the current rules, the NFL’s original aim was to boost returns to over 50 percent, which hasn’t yet been achieved.
Those involved in designing the new format may have underestimated how willing kicking teams would be to allow opponents to start drives from the 30-yard line in exchange for avoiding a potentially dangerous return. The hope now is that moving the ball to the 35-yard line will make kicking teams reconsider their strategy of simply blasting the ball through the end zone.
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The revamped kickoff rules, inspired in part by the XFL’s innovative approach, also included stipulations such as requiring any ball landing inside the designated “landing zone” (between the receiving team’s 20-yard line and the goal line) to be returned.
Additionally, if a ball is kicked short of this zone or goes out of bounds, the receiving team is granted possession at their own 40-yard line. Initially, when these rules were proposed, a touchback through the end zone was supposed to spot the ball at the 35-yard line, but that was changed to the 30 due to a lack of votes.
For this new change to take effect, approval from at least 24 of the league’s 32 owners will be necessary.
Given the dramatic overhaul of the kickoff already seen in 2024, further tweaks are expected in the near future, and the shift to spotting the ball at the 35-yard line might just be one of several adjustments coming for the 2025 season and beyond.
