The NFL’s new kickoff rule took center stage during the first full week of the preseason, and not surprisingly, things got a little crazy.
The NFL was hoping the new rule would lead to more returns and that’s exactly what happened. In the 16 preseason games that were played this week, there were a total of 127 kickoffs with 82% of them getting returned. If the regular-season number looks anything like that, it would be a monstrous jump over the 2023 season when just 22% of the kickoffs were returned.
When you implement a new rule like this, you know there’s going to be a few bizarre situations, and we definitely got one of those during the Chiefs-Jaguars game on Saturday.
With that in mind, here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from the NFL’s first full week using the new kickoff rule.
The good: The AFC South seems to have figured things out already
During the first week of the preseason, there were only four kickoffs in the entire NFL that were returned at least 45 yards, and ALL FOUR of those came from the AFC South. Jacksonville’s Parker Washington had the longest return of the weekend with a 73-yarder against the Chiefs during the Jaguars’ 26-13 win over Kansas City.
The Jaguars actually had two long returns in the game with Tank Bigsby adding a 45-yarder against the Chiefs. That was one of the four returns over the weekend that went for at least 45 yards.
The second-longest kick return came from Tennessee’s Kearis Jackson, who spun his way to a 63-yard return during the Titans’ 17-13 win over the 49ers.
Anthony Gould (49 yards) of the Colts was the only other returner who had at least 45 yards on a single return.
The bad: Kickers are still trying to figure out how to get the ball in the landing zone
Under the new rule, all kickoffs have to make it to the landing zone, which is an area of the field that goes from the receiving team’s goal line to their 20-yard line. If the ball doesn’t make it to the 20 on the fly, then the receiving team gets a touchback at their own 40-yard line, which is pretty good field position. This type of touchback happened a total of three times over the weekend and we didn’t have to wait long to see it. During the Giants’ 14-3 win over the Lions on Thursday, Detroit’s Jake Bates hit a kickoff that landed at New York’s 33-yard line. That was well short of the landing zone and once the ball hit the ground, the officials blew the play dead and gave the Giants possession at their own 40-yard line.
A kick that lands short of the landing zone is penalized the same as a kick that goes out of bounds.
The Lions were one of the few teams that actually tried to have their kicker hit a line drive with hopes that it would help their coverage team. Most other teams stuck with a vanilla strategy on their kickoffs so they wouldn’t give anything away for the regular season.
The ugly: The Chiefs don’t know the kickoff rule yet
The most bizarre kickoff play of the weekend happened in Jacksonville. The craziness started after the Jaguars scored a touchdown with just 26 seconds left to play in the first half. After the score, the Jags kicked the ball off and that’s when something bizarre happened: The ball landed in the end zone, but then it bounced back into the field of play, coming to a stop at the one-yard line.
After the ball landed, Mecole Hardman stepped into the end zone and touched the ball with the assumption that this would give the Chiefs a touchback.
The officiating crew on the field actually ruled the play a touchback, but that soon changed after they reviewed the situation.
Under last year’s rule, if a kickoff landed in the end zone on the fly, it immediately became a dead ball, so if this had happened last year, it would have been an automatic touchback. However, under the new kickoff rule, that’s not the case.
Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson was told by his coaching staff that the play should have been ruled a safety, so he had a talk with the officials and that’s when the crew decided to review it. You can read the full details of this bizarre story here.
Every team around the NFL will likely be taking note of what happened to the Chiefs so that it doesn’t happen to them during the season.
The new kickoff may not be perfect, but it definitely added some excitement to the first week of the preseason. So far, the owners look smart for approving the drastically new rule.
