[Déjà Bru]

I think I mentioned earlier in this thread the fellow who kicked a 70-yard field goal in preseason.

"Then, on Sunday, Dallas’ Brandon Aubrey boomed a 64-yard field goal to send the Dallas Cowboys’ game against the New York Giants into overtime. Dallas started the drive at its own 33 following a 30-yard return and needed to move the ball only 21 yards to reach Aubrey’s range."



A 30-yard kickoff return and then needing to gain only 21 yards? Against the Giants? Like a walk in the park, no brainer. But I digress.

I bring this up as another aspect that is restoring the kickoff to exciting prominence, in addition to the 2024 rule changes. With the apparently expanding range of field goal kickers these days (years ago, a 64-yard field goal would have been jaw-dropping), there is even more incentive to try to gain yardage on the kickoff.

From The Athletic:

NFL kickoffs are relevant again. Small tweaks have led to desired excitement

By Mike Jones

If the first two weeks of the NFL regular season are any indication, the kickoff has returned to relevance.

After a multi-year process, which included a redesign and experimentation in 2024, and additional tweaks during the past offseason, the play has regained prominence, with stats spiking league-wide and returns impacting the outcomes of games. Those results are exactly what the NFL’s competition committee and owners hoped for when they approved measures the last two offseasons to replace the traditional kickoff with what is now known as the “dynamic kickoff.”

As a refresher, as the NFL and its teams became more knowledgeable and data dependent in recent years, coaches — in an attempt to avoid the elevated risk of concussions and other serious injuries that occurred on the kickoff — began opting to have their kickers boom the ball out of the back of the end zones for touchbacks. By the conclusion of the 2023 season, the kickoff had largely become a ceremonial play, as the NFL saw a historically low 21.8 percent of kicks returned.

Last offseason, the NFL’s competition committee began looking for ways to make the kickoff safer and more relevant. A trio of special teams coaches, Richard Hightower (Chicago), Darren Rizzi (now with Denver) and John Fassel (now with Tennessee), spearheaded efforts to study the reimagined kickoff formation used by the XFL and tailor it to the NFL.

The league conducted a test drive of that redesign last season. That design placed the kicking team on the opposing 40-yard line, the receiving team between the 30- and 35-yard lines and returners lined up in the “landing zone” (between the 20-yard line and the end zone). Touchbacks were placed at the 30 (5 yards further upfield than previously).

Though the new format led to a slight uptick in action, with an average of 32.8 percent of kickoffs returned in 2024, coaches remained content to kick touchbacks rather than risk giving up lengthy returns. Not a single kickoff was returned in last February’s Super Bowl.

So, under the direction of the league, Hightower, Rizzi and Fassel went back into the lab and suggested additional tweaks to the competition committee, which then presented the measures to owners for approval. A further reimagined “dynamic kickoff” greeted teams this season.

Its biggest tweak: the placement of the ball at the 35-yard line on touchbacks. The belief was that this would further incentivize kicking the ball into the landing zone and charging coverage units with making stops downfield rather than simply surrendering such favorable field position via touchback.

Further scaring teams off from settling for touchbacks is the fact that kickers now boast exceptionally stronger legs than in years past.

In the preseason, Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Cam Little successfully blasted a 70-yard field goal. With range like that, a touchback is extremely undesirable because the Jaguars needed less than 15 yards from that ball placement spot to reach Little’s range. Then, on Sunday, Dallas’ Brandon Aubrey boomed a 64-yard field goal to send the Dallas Cowboys’ game against the New York Giants into overtime. Dallas started the drive at its own 33 following a 30-yard return and needed to move the ball only 21 yards to reach Aubrey’s range.

Through two weeks, it appears that the offseason tweaks to the kickoff have worked. In Week 1, 75.6 percent of kickoffs across the league (118 of 156 kickoffs) were returned, according to the NFL’s research department. That represented a dramatic increase from 33.1 percent (57 of 172) in Week 1 of the 2024 season. The 118 returns marked the most in Week 1 all-time and the most since 118 were returned in 2009. Seven of those Week 1 returns went for 40 yards or more, the most in Week 1 since the eight in 2011.

As a result, the average drive starting point was the 30.2-yard line, up from the average starting spot of the 29.4-yard line through Week 1 a year ago.

This seems to be more than just a one-time occurrence, however. Week 2 of the 2025 season saw teams return 80.7 percent (138 of 171) of kickoffs, up from a week prior.

The overall picture after two weeks: 76.9 percent of kickoffs returned (256 of 333), which is up from 30 percent (100 out of 331) in 2024. NFL teams are averaging a combined 201.5 kickoff yards per game after mustering only 83.1 kick return yards in the first two weeks of 2024 and 34.3 yards per game in the first two weeks of 2023.

The NFL also tracks “big play” returns of 40 yards or more, and through two weeks, there have been nine such returns. This past Sunday, one by the New England Patriots’ Antonio Gibson went 90 yards for a touchdown. Only four kickoffs exceeded 40 yards in the first two weeks of the 2024 season, and just two did so in 2023.

It will be interesting to see if the trend continues, but NFL officials believe that the fixes have produced lasting change and are pleased with what they’re seeing, as are the architects of the new-look kickoff.

“We’ve got a real play now,” Hightower said of the impact of the latest changes to the kickoff. “It’s exciting. I believe this change has made our game better in a safer, more competitive way. Over 75 percent return rate, quite a bit of 40-plus-yard explosive (returns).”

P.S. - Occasionally, we dump on officials who don't follow the rules of the game properly. Well, have a look at those NFL Kickoff Rules that I linked to above. My eyes glaze over and my mind wanders just trying to read through them, much less memorize them.