Are you gonna play every ball? Are you gonna kick a touchback? What’s the new drive start going to become?”
According to Green Bay Packers head coach Rich Bisaccia, teams expect mid-season amendments to the NFL’s kickoff rule changes, once the league sees the unintended consequences of the play. This offseason, the NFL approved its XFL-style kickoff, which will prevent either side of the kicking game from moving until the returner fields the ball. The NFL is hoping that these rule changes revitalize the kickoff, which has been deemed a dangerous play due to high collisions and also a boring play because of the volume of touchbacks.
The Packers were one of the few teams that actually voted against the rule change this spring, with president Marky Murphy claiming that the club wanted to test out the kickoff in the 2024 preseason before reevaluting the play for 2025 regular season action. The rule changes eventually passed by a 29-3 vote.
Bisaccia questions whether or not teams will actually avoid touchbacks, though, because of how the plays are structured. He brought up an example of how even a touchback to the 30-yard-line, the penalty for kicking it out of the end zone, could be a viable strategy
Penalizing touchbacks even harder to eliminate them from the game is one way an in-season change could impact the kickoff game this year. Bisaccia also brought up possible amendments to alignment rules as another way the play could evolve throughout the season. He also mentioned that the league has already made one amendment to the rules they agreed to at owners meetings: Kickers cannot lay the ball flat on the tee on kickoffs, something other teams were experimenting with to make returns harder to field cleanly.
It’s becoming clear that the NFL’s adjustment to the XFL’s rules may actually lead to more touchbacks than intended, which could cause in-season rule changes after we see the results of the preseason. Teams and special teams coordinators are already preparing for an adjustment, so don’t get too used to the details of the league’s new kickoff quite yet.
