Currently, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and his fellow National Football League brass are in the process of looking to revamp the rulebook following a 2023 season that once again culminated in Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs winning the Super Bowl. This time, it was the San Francisco 49ers who fell victim to Mahomes and the Chiefs’ inevitable offensive attack, and now, Goodell is looking for ways to make the NFL product as a whole more enjoyable for fans as well as sensible and safe for the players themselves moving forward.
One of the main avenues where the league is exploring some changes is on kickoff return plays.
Recently, Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network took to his account on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter, to explain:
“The NFL competition committee met today and unanimously approved a tweak to the proposed NFL Hybrid Kickoff rule, making touchbacks that go into the end zone on the fly come out to the 30-yard line, rather than the 35, per source. The change provides kicking teams a less punitive option if they don’t want to take a chance on a long return. The adjusted rule proposal will be presented to owners for a possible vote Monday morning,” reported Pelissero.
Pelissero also included a visual graphic that the league has come up with to demonstrate what exactly these changes might look like.
As Pelissero mentioned in his report, this new potential adjustment to the rules gives teams a kickoff option that is less drastic, especially when they are facing an opponent who might be a dangerous returner. Of course, nothing is official yet, and the rule change will have to be voted on by owners later this week before anything is put into action moving forward.
The NFL continues to amend its rulebook
This latest potential change regarding kickoffs is just the latest example of what has been a laundry list of rule changes in recent seasons. Over the years, the league has taken great strides in putting player safety at the forefront, including expanding the definition of what constitutes a personal foul or a roughing the passer, as well as incentivizing players to not lead with the crown of their helmets when going in for a hit.
This has led to some criticism from fans who maintain that great defensive players are being effectively legislated out of the game due to the new rule changes, which has given offenses an unfair advantage.
Of course, some fans point to other areas of the games in contesting that new rule amendments are in order. One of the most controversial NFL rules in recent years has been that of the goal line fumble, in which if a team driving toward the endzone fumbles the ball through the endzone and out of bounds, then their opponent gets the ball on a touchback. Some view this rule as being too harsh toward the (initial) offense.
In any case, we will know more about just how possible this new rule change is after the results of the owners’ vote are in.