Next week, NFL owners will vote on whether to make the league’s new kickoff rule permanent — but with a few changes.
The NFL’s competition committee has recommended the kickoff remain similar to the one installed for 2024, when the league saw 332 more returns than in 2023 and yet saw fewer injuries than the previous season, league vice president Jeff Miller said in a conference call Wednesday. The reimagined kickoff used last year was technically on a one-year trial basis.
“We presume the injury rate is going to stay similar to a run or pass play,” Miller said.
The committee suggested giving receiving teams the ball at the 35-yard line on touchbacks instead of the 30, hoping to make touchbacks less attractive for the kicking team. Onside kicks, which last season were allowed only in the fourth quarter, would be allowed at any point in the game — although they’d still have to be declared by the kicking team in advance.
Last year’s revamping of the kickoff had a kicker stand by himself at the 35 with 10 tacklers at the opposite 40, standing in front of blockers positioned five-to-10 yards in front of them. Neither blockers nor tacklers could move until the ball landed.
The committee also proposed allowing instant replay to help adjudicate face mask penalties, horse-collar tackles, tripping, blows to the head and neck and roughing the kicker.
Three other rule changes were proposed by teams. The Eagles suggested making the regular season overtime rule the same as in the postseason; the Lions proposed eliminating an automatic first down as the result of defensive holding and illegal contact; and the Packers proposed banning the Eagles’ vaunted “Tush Push.”
The Eagles and Bills were the only two teams that ran the play more than five times last year. Committee co-chair Rich McKay said that “the thing nobody likes about this discussion that we’re having … is the idea that the rule that’s directed against two teams.”
At least 24 owners must vote to approve the proposals next week at the NFL’s annual meetings in Palm Beach, Fla.