NFL plans to bring "more excitement back" to kickoff with changes for 2025

The dynamic kickoff is here to stay, though there will be tweaks to it for the 2025 season.

The proposal that passed at the annual league meeting on Tuesday moves a touchback from the 30 to the 35-yard line. It also will change the alignment for players lining up in the “setup zone” to return kicks.

The shift to the dynamic kickoff was considered a success in 2024, largely due to the reduction of injuries suffered in that situation.

“The outcome of the first year from an injury perspective was very close to what we modeled and expected,” said Jeff Miller, NFL executive vice president of communications, public affairs, and policy. “Changing that formation led to a confusion rate very similar — or the same — as a run or pass play, which was gratifying and expected to see the decrease in those injuries. Overall, injuries decreased as well, which is great, given the slower speeds on the play and not as much space.

“The kickoff decrease on the concussion [rate] led in part to the league as a whole seeing the fewest concussions that we’ve ever had on record this season — which, obviously, is a great advance. A lot of work has gone into that and the kickoff play contributed to that in a substantial fashion.”

Broncos special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi — who was previously with the Saints — explained that the two objectives special teams coordinators had for the dynamic kickoff were to make the play safer and make the play more exciting. Now that the first part has been taken care of, they can get to the second.

“The play was a tremendous success,” Rizzi said. “I think the one thing we have to understand is we’re going to see a lot more kickoff returns now in the NFL — like we did, most of us, when I was growing up. We saw a touchback rate of maybe 15 to 25 percent, somewhere in that neighborhood. And we feel like that’s going to be the case again. So, we’re going to [bring] more excitement back.”

As the league has previously noted, on the whole, the NFL had a 32.8 percent kickoff return rate in 2024 after it fell to 21.8 percent in 2023. The average field position was the 29.6-yard line, with 59 returns of at least 40 yards — the most since 2016.

The Commanders led the league with 60 percent of their kickoffs hitting the landing zone while the Rams were last at 6 percent — with the vast majority of Los Angeles’ kickoffs simply going out of the end zone.

With the touchback moving to the 35-yard line, the analysis should change for teams like L.A.

“Our initial knowledge told us if the touchback lands at the 35, analytically, it’s telling you to kick and cover the ball because, really, your start line [for] drives will be at about the 30-yard line. So, that’s why the 35-yard line is the line of demarcation, if you will,” Rizzi said. “We feel like with the touchback at the 35, a lot more teams are now going to put the ball in play. That’s why we feel like there are going to be a lot more kickoff returns.

“There were seven kickoff returns last year for touchdowns. But, that being said, there was only about 16 percent of [kickoffs] returned over the 34-yard line. So, 84 percent of the time, you had a chance to tackle and cover inside the 35. So we projected kind of the models — who knows exactly what the percentage is going to be? I would tell you probably 70-to-75 percent range with return rate. But that remains to be seen. I think there are situations where there’s going to be opportunities for teams to kick touchbacks and have the ball start on the 35, especially with a lead.”