Return of the Kickoff

A little over a month ago, Devin Hester was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  He was the first player voted into the Hall of Fame who was primarily a kick returner.  It also seems pretty likely that he'll be the last.  Because the kickoff return, one of the most exciting plays in football, has been all but eliminated from the game.

Hester was responsible for one of the most famous kick returns in history.  He took the opening kickoff of Super Bowl XLI to the house, the first time in Super Bowl history that the opening kickoff was returned for a touchdown.  Ten years earlier, Desmond Howard was named Super Bowl MVP after returning a kickoff 99 yards for a score in the Packers' 35-21 victory.  A kick returner winning Super Bowl MVP is unheard of in today's NFL!  So is three touchdowns on three consecutive plays, but that's exactly what happened in Super Bowl XXXV between the Ravens and Giants.  After Baltimore returned an interception for a touchdown, back-to-back kickoffs were returned for scores.  The craziest 36 seconds in Super Bowl history.

In Super Bowl LVIII, there were 13 kickoffs in nearly five full quarters of play.  None of them were returned.  Thirteen kickoffs, 13 touchbacks.  Not exactly the most thrilling thing to watch!  All because the NFL, in trying to make kickoffs safer several years ago, rendered them basically obsolete.

Fortunately, what happened in the Super Bowl may prompt a change.  When the kickoff rules were changed, it was in the name of player safety.  The play was deemed "too dangerous," so they set out to limit them.  Limiting the number of kickoffs returned in a game soon turned into every kickoff being a touchback, though, so that's not exactly the solution, either.  The Super Bowl simply highlighted a problem that's been brewing for a while.  Touchbacks may be safer, but they're awfully boring.  And if every kickoff's gonna result in a touchback anyway, why even have them then?

While it may not seem like it, the league isn't interested in completely removing the kickoff from the game.  That's what makes this such a difficult balancing act.  They want the kick return to be safer, but fans want to actually see kicks returned.  So, it looks like another rule change may be on the horizon.  Although, this time, it might actually encourage returns.

Last year, they implemented a rule change that would make any kickoff fair caught inside the 25-yard-line a touchback that's brought out to the 25 (it's also annoyed me to no end ever since they moved the touchback on kickoffs that it only comes out to the 25 on kickoffs, but to the 20 on all other touchbacks...why not just make all touchbacks come out to the 25?).  The result was only 22 percent of all kickoffs last season being returned, including none in the Super Bowl.  That's far too low.

So, after the Super Bowl, the NFL tasked special teams coordinators with creating a rule that both increases the chances of a return and maintains an acceptable injury rate.  They met last week at the Combine and came up with something that's very similar to a rule that was used last season in the XFL.  Now it'll go to the competition committee, where it'll need 24 of 32 votes to pass.

Under the proposed rule, the kicking team would line up at the receiving team's 40-yard line, with the receiving team lining up five yards away at their own 35.  And none of them are allowed to move until after the ball is touched.  That would eliminate the high-speed collisions that are often the cause of collisions.  The only exceptions are the kicker and returners.  The kickoff would still be from the 35, while the returners would theoretically have more room to run.

Here's where it gets interesting, though.  And where it would make the likelihood of an actual return much higher.  The ball needs to land within a "target zone" (presumably between the goal line and the 25).  If it does and rolls into the end zone, the touchback would come out to the 20.  If it goes into the end zone in the air, though, it's treated the same as a kickoff out of bounds and is placed on the 40.

Another play that has all but gone by the wayside due to recent rule changes is the onside kick.  The Saints essentially won Super Bowl XLIV because of their surprise onside kick to start the second half.  Trailing 10-6 at halftime, New Orleans recovered the onside kick and scored a touchdown to take its first lead of the game.  A thrilling moment on the biggest stage that has been essentially legislated out of the game entirely.

With all of the rule changes, recovering an onside kick has become nearly impossible.  Only five percent of all onside kicks were recovered by the kicking team last season.  It's gotten so hard to recover an onside kick, in fact, that there are some people advocating for getting rid of it entirely and instead giving the offense a chance to attempt a fourth-and-long play.  If they convert it, they keep possession.  While that's a gimmick I hope is never actually put into effect, the fact that it would probably yield a higher success rate than the current onside kick rule is telling.

They're also attempting to address the onside kick in the same kickoff proposal, although this one is a little less popular.  First, teams would only be allowed to attempt an onside kick when trailing in the fourth quarter.  So, in other words, they can only attempt one when everybody already knows it's coming.  They would need to declare it, as well, which removes any surprise factor.  The one benefit for the kicking team, though, is that they'd be allowed to line up in a 6-4 formation instead of 5-5.  The inability to "stack" one side is one of the main reasons why the onside kick success rate is so low, so that theoretically would give the kicking team a better shot at a recovery.

Whether either part of the proposal will have enough traction to pass is really the question.  I can easily see enough owners who are at least willing to try something getting on board.  And, if they look at the XFL's numbers, that's even more of a reason to get behind the changes.  During the 2023 XFL season, 93 percent of all kickoffs were returned and there were zero concussions.  So, it would definitely achieve the goal of once again making the kickoff return a part of the game while also not causing injuries.

The NFL also deserves some credit here.  It took them a while, but they finally realized that the kickoff, once one of the most exciting plays in football, has become one of the most boring.  And they want to do something about it.  With rules changes that, I must admit, don't sound too bad on paper.  Rules changes that they know would work.