The NFL says moving the touchback on kickoffs to the 35 is ‘not likely’ this season

AP Pro Football Writer

The NFL’s new dynamic kickoff is achieving its goals in the preseason of raising the rate of return and the threat of big plays after years of increasing touchbacks.

Whether that will carry over to the regular season, when coaches might be more concerned with avoiding risk than testing out the new rule, remains an open question.

The average starting position through the second full weekend of exhibition games is the 28.3-yard line, according to the NFL, up 4.4 yards from this point last season.

That has already sparked some talk that teams might just opt to kick it deep through the end zone once the regular season starts, trading the starting spot after touchbacks at the 30 for lessening the risk of giving up a long return.

The NFL doesn’t anticipate moving the touchback spot to the 35 — the original spot proposed by the competition committee — from the 30 that owners approved on a one-year trial basis in March.

“It would be not likely,” Dawn Aponte, the NFL’s chief football administrative officer, said Monday. “The way that we passed this and discussed it with the competition committee as well as membership at large was really about continuing to evaluate. It is a one-year rule change, so we anticipate to evaluate this throughout the season.”

There have been some minor tweaks added this summer as officials and teams talk about the rule, including allowing the kicking team to have a 12th person on the field as a holder if the ball falls off the tee twice. That player would be required to leave the field immediately after the kick.

Aponte said there could be some other adjustments made before the season but doesn’t anticipate any changes once the season kicks off on Sept. 5.

“I think our objective is always to have the rule in place as we head into the season,” she said. “I never say never. There’s people above my pay grade that get to decide that. But that’s the objective.”

NFL executive Jeff Miller said 78% of kicks have been returned this preseason, up from 63% at this point a year ago. There have been 11 returns past the 40-yard line — nearly double last year’s rate.

The league approved the changes after kickoff return rates fell to an all-time low of 22% last season and all 13 kicks in the Super Bowl went for touchbacks. Kickoffs had been a dangerous play with the concussion rate about four times that of a scrimmage play and the overall injury rate about double, according to Miller.

The new rule that has at least 19 of the 22 players clustered in a 10-yard range at the start of the kick is expected to reduce the high-speed collisions that caused so many injuries.

Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said it’s too early to determine the impact of the new rule on injuries.

New Helmets

The NFL is encouraged by the number of players using new helmets that have shown in tests to reduce the rate of concussions. The league now has approved eight position-specific helmets, with Miller estimating that about 200 of the approximately 2,900 players in training camps are using them.

Players using those helmets don’t need to wear the soft-shell helmet covers known as Guardian caps in practices, which are required for every position other than kicker, punter and quarterback.

“Change is hard,” Sills said. “We all get accustomed to things that we like, but I think that the players have a lot of confidence in the testing that the league and the union do together on these helmets, and the fact that they’ve been willing to explore these new models is reflective of that.”

The NFL estimated a 50% reduction in concussions among position groups using the Guardian caps the last two preseasons but Miller said the new helmets are as good or better than a Guardian cap on top of an older-style helmet.

Players can now wear Guardian caps in games and there were six players who did it in the first weekend of preseason games and five this past weekend.

Lower-body injuries

The NFL has tweaked training camp rules in recent years out of hope of reducing the lower-body injuries that often plague teams.

The league has instituted a ramp-up start to training camp to ease players into the work. Sills said there was a 29% decrease in missed time for lower-extremity strains during the 2023 training camps compared to 2021. There was also a 50% drop in training camp strains recurring in the regular season.

It’s too early to have numbers from this year but Sills said it remains a high priority with NFL players missing more time due to hamstring injuries than other ailments.

Capture The Flag

With the 2024 Olympics having just concluded, attention is now on 2028 when flag football will make its Olympic debut at the Los Angeles Games.

That has piqued the interest of several NFL players. Miller said the league and the NFLPA are having talks about players under contract to NFL teams participating. The 2028 Olympics are set to be held from July 14-30 and could bleed into the traditional start of NFL training camps in late July.

“Obviously, the hope would be that players who want to participate in the Olympics and represent their country have that opportunity to do so,” Miller said. “No final answer but it is something that we’re working on actively.”

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