New NFL kickoff to follow XFL-style ‘hybrid’ model

“I think it’ll be a big improvement,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “I think it will bring the play back into [being] a relevant play, an important play and an exciting play. And I think we can do it where the injury rate will drop.”

NFL leaders hope the modified version will make the kickoff both safer and more meaningful, after the portion of kickoffs returned plummeted last season under a previous attempt to fix the play. The owners ratified the hybrid play, which is similar to the kickoff model the XFL once used, for one year only, meaning the competition committee, league and owners must revisit the issue next year.

The owners approved the measure by a 29-3 vote on the final day of the three-day annual league meeting. The competition committee had proposed the new model — with input from NFL health and safety officials and special teams coaches — after league leaders spent months studying alternatives.

“I think it’s good for the game,” Los Angeles Rams Coach Sean McVay, a member of the competition committee, said earlier Tuesday. “I think all the intentions are in the right direction.”

In the new kickoff alignment, the kicker will line up alone on his half of the field and kick from the traditional spot, at the 35-yard line. The other 21 players will line up at the opposite end of the field. The 10 other players on the kicking team will begin at the receiving team’s 40-yard line, separated initially by only five yards from blockers on the receiving team. At least nine of the 11 players on the receiving team will line up either at their 35-yard line or within five yards of that in what’s called the “setup zone.” The receiving team will be allowed as many as two returners.

The kick must land between the goal line and the 20-yard line. To encourage returns, kicks into the end zone will be punished: The ball will be spotted at the 30-yard line. Kicks short of the landing zone will be spotted, like kicks out of bounds, at the 40-yard line. A kick that falls in the landing zone must be returned. The would-be tacklers on the kicking team and the blockers lined up in the setup zone for the receiving team cannot move until a returner touches the ball or it hits the ground.

Once the returner catches the ball, the idea is that the kickoff will resemble a play from the line of scrimmage, with similar blocking schemes and strategic approaches. Coaches might call for reverses or laterals across the field.

“As soon as the ball gets kicked and caught, you’re going to be like: ‘This is what it looks like. This is a normal play,’ ” Dallas Cowboys special teams coordinator John Fassel said Sunday.

By having the kicking team line up far down the field instead of gaining speed with a long sprint after beginning from the spot of the kick, the new model is designed to eliminate the violent collisions that have made the kickoff so dangerous. The injury rate on kickoffs has been twice that of plays from scrimmage, according to league health and safety officials; the concussion rate has been four times greater.

It is among the most striking rule changes in NFL history. Rich McKay, the chief executive of the Atlanta Falcons and the chairman of the competition committee, called it “a big change” perhaps surpassed in magnitude only by the use of instant replay as an officiating tool.

McKay said “the optics are definitely the most drastic we’ve seen” for a rule change and added: “I’m very comfortable in what the play is going to look like. But it is going to look like … a different play those first couple weeks.”

NFL leaders have said in the past that the kickoff would have to be eliminated entirely if it could not be made safer. The league made previous attempts to modify the rules for the traditional kickoff, without lasting success in lowering the rate of injuries — and, in particular, concussions.

Last offseason, the league and competition committee took the temporary step of enacting a rule to spot the ball at the 25-yard line on any fair catch made by the receiving team of a kickoff inside the 25-yard line. NFL leaders considered that rule change only a one-year solution, knowing it would artificially lower the number of concussions by reducing the number of kickoffs returned. That would give them time to attempt to devise a more permanent solution, they said.

The effects of that rule change were even more pronounced than expected. Most teams had their kickers blast the ball through the end zone for touchbacks that put the ball at the 25-yard line with no risk of a long return. There was no reason to attempt a high kickoff shy of the goal line in hopes of pinning the opposing team deep in its territory, given that such a kick could result in a fair catch.

Concussions on kickoffs decreased 60 percent, from 20 during the 2022 season to eight last season. But league leaders attributed that drop almost entirely to the sharp decrease in returns. Only about 22 percent of kickoffs were returned last season. That was down from approximately 38 percent in the 2022 season and was less than the 31 percent the NFL had projected when the fair catch rule was implemented.

League leaders called the kickoff a dead, ceremonial play. During Super Bowl LVIII last month, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers combined for 13 touchbacks — and no returns — on 13 kickoffs.

Goodell said during Super Bowl week that the league needed to innovate to come up with a solution. Some of those who participated in crafting the new rule project the return rate will be 55 to 60 percent, with an injury rate similar to that for plays from the line of scrimmage.

“We want the ball in play more,” Fassel said. “We want the return rate up over 50 percent.”

It was unclear when this meeting began whether the proposal could generate the 24 votes necessary for ratification. There was wariness that some traditionalists might consider it too gimmicky. But the NFL is running out of solutions. If this doesn’t work, the next step could be to simply place the ball at the 25-yard line and resume play with no kickoff.

Competition committee members and special teams coordinators, including Fassel and the New Orleans Saints’ Darren Rizzi, spent about four hours Sunday briefing owners, general managers and head coaches on the proposal. The committee formally presented the proposal to the owners Monday.

“This was, in our opinion, our best option,” McKay said. “I just think the more we talked that through, the more people got comfortable that, yes, it’s a big change, but the time has come to make that change.”

An onside kick can occur, under the new rule, only during the fourth quarter and only by the trailing team. The kicking team must declare its intention, and the alignment will revert to the traditional kickoff setup.

“We feel this is a great day for the NFL,” Rizzi said. “We’ve taken a play that’s essentially been dying over the course of the last few years, and, in our opinion, we’ve revived it.”

The owners also ratified the Pittsburgh Steelers’ proposal to move the trade deadline to the Tuesday after Week 9. They approved the competition committee’s proposal to allow a team to promote a quarterback from its practice squad an unlimited number of times per season to be designated as the emergency third quarterback on game days.

Replay assist: The committee’s report said it recommended that officials could use the replay assist system to help on certain plays on which a flag is thrown for intentional grounding, roughing the passer or a late hit out of bounds. The system could not be used when no penalty is called. On roughing-the-passer penalties, it could only be used to clarify whether a defender had hit a quarterback in the head or neck area.

Tom Brady’s deal: The owners, as expected, took no approval vote during this meeting on Brady’s bid to become a part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. The deal remains under review by the NFL finance committee.

“We go through a very thorough process on all ownership transfers,” Goodell said. “So we’re just going through that process. We’ve been in touch with their side and the Raiders. I think it’s making progress.”

Christmas games: League officials said the NFL next season will play two games on Christmas, which falls on a Wednesday. The teams participating in those games will play the previous Saturday.