The NFL's new kickoff rule for the 2025 Super Bowl, explained
Kickoffs in the NFL looked very different in 2024.
Last spring, league owners approved a rule change that massively changed the kick that starts every game and follows every scoring play. This reform, which roared through a one-year pilot program last fall, added several new wrinkles to free kicks, allowing for greater returns while rewarding kickers for accuracy. The plan also, in theory, would reduce injuries related to one of the most dangerous phases of the game.
Those theories bore fruit in the regular season. While not solely related to kickoffs, injuries — specifically, concussions — fell by a significant margin in 2024. That means the kicks we'll see at the 2025 Super Bowl are likely to stick around.
So what's new? Well, the ball is still placed at the kicking team's 35-yard line. However, everyone but the kicker lines up 25 yards upfield at the receiving team's 40. Five yards away from them is the first line of blocking defense ahead of a maximum of two returners — a line that can't go deeper than the 30-yard line.
It's a setup that looks like this.
There's more than just a funky formation that leaves less room for defenders to build up momentum before crashing into returners. The space from the receiving team's 20-yard line to the goal line is the landing zone. No one from the kicking team can cross the 40 until the ball either lands or is fielded there.
There are no fair catches. If the ball fails to make it to the landing zone, the receiving team takes over at its own 40-yard line. If the ball flies into the end zone, the receiving team takes over at the 30 — a five-yard increase from the previous touchback spot. If the ball hits the landing zone on the fly, then rolls into the end zone and is downed, the receiving team takes over at its 20.
But wait, there's more! If the wind knocks the ball off the tee twice, a kicker can opt to hold it in place with a kicking stick — the tripod kickers use in practice — rather than making a teammate hold the ball on the tee. Onside kicks are still allowed, but have to be declared before the kickoff. From there, normal onside kick rules would apply (and, in honesty, have such a low success rate they'll probably reconsidered this offseason).
To address the lowest kickoff return rate in @NFL history during the 2023 season and concern for player health and safety, the NFL Competition Committee has proposed a new kickoff rule.
If adopted by NFL clubs, the new rule will keep the excitement of kickoff returns in the… pic.twitter.com/0ltQpSrAvC
— NFL Football Operations (@NFLFootballOps) March 22, 2024
This is a very visible reform that will be the first thing casual fans notice if Super Bowl 59 is their first game of the year. It won't be the last, however — especially now that hip-drop tackles have been deemed a 15-yard penalty with some very subjective language attached.
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