New NFL kick return rule creates confusion

Washington. The first full weekend of preseason games with the new dynamic kickoff included two long returns, a significant dropoff on touchbacks and a massive mix-up on a bizarre play that ended as an unusual safety.

The NFL’s goals of increasing the return rate and bringing back the threat of big plays were mostly achieved last weekend. The NFL reported that 81 percent of kicks have been returned so far in the preseason, even if teams have been a bit cautious leading up to the start of the regular season.

It was also important for everyone to understand the new rules, as evidenced by what happened to the Kansas City Chiefs when they attempted a touchback only to have it ruled a safety.

The play in question came late in the first half of Kansas City’s game at Jacksonville on Saturday, when the Jaguars’ Cam Little’s kick landed in front of the end zone before bouncing back into the field.

Mecole Hardman ran back and knelt in the end zone before picking up the ball around the 1-yard line and carrying it back to the goal line. Under the old rules, a kickoff that landed in the end zone led to an automatic touchback.

The on-field officials initially ruled the play a touchback, but because it was in the final 2 minutes of the first half, it was automatically reviewed. The call was later changed to a safety because Hardman carried the ball from the field of play into his end zone.

The last time there was a safety on a kickoff return without a lateral was in the 2012 season opener when Darius Reynaud fielded the opening kickoff for Tennessee against Pittsburgh while standing in the end zone. He carried the ball from the field of play into the end zone and knelt down, expecting a touchback. But the play was ruled a safety.

The Chiefs’ misplay was the only score on a kickoff, but there were two long returns, with Jacksonville’s Parker Washington returning a kick 73 yards against Kansas City and Tennessee’s Kearis Jackson having a 63-yarder against San Francisco.

There were just 10 kickoff returns of at least 60 yards in the entire 2023 regular season, down from an average of more than 34 per season from 2001 to 2010 before rule changes to increase player safety began making the kickoff obsolete.

That led to the dramatic change this offseason, with the NFL expecting a significant increase in the return rate from last season’s record-low 21.8 percent.

For a standard kickoff, the ball is kicked from the 35-yard line with all 10 coverage players lined up at the opposing 40-yard line. The returning team will have at least nine blockers lined up in the “staging zone” between the 30 and 35-yard lines, reducing high-speed collisions.

Only the kicker and two returners may move until the ball touches the ground or is touched by a returner inside the 20-yard line.

There have been just 24 touchbacks so far this preseason and an average starting field position at the 29-yard line, compared to 23.8 at this point last preseason, when 65 percent of kicks had been returned.

The return rate typically drops once the season starts and teams aren’t testing players and schemes in live action, but the 81 percent rate so far in the preseason bodes well for the NFL’s hopes that at least half of all kicks will be returned.

There was even some confusion over where to line up, as the Raiders and Vikings initially positioned themselves 5 yards further from the end zone on the opening kickoff of their game before the referees corrected them.

San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan was even caught off guard on the Titans’ long return. Accustomed to there being little action on kicks, Shanahan was watching video on a tablet during the return and got in the way of a referee, leading to a 15-yard penalty.