NFL club owners back dynamic kickoffs, delay tush push vote
In annual league meetings at Palm Beach, owners voted to keep the kickoff procedure adopted on a one-season basis for 2024 with one tweak -- touchbacks will see the ball spotted on the 35-yard line rather than the 30-yard line.
The NFL sought to add spark to kickoffs while maintaining player health and safety with the new system, and league statistics showed 332 more kickoff returns bumping the return rate from 21.8% to 32.8% with 59 returns of 40 or more yards, the most in the NFL since 2016.
"The play was a tremendous success," said Broncos special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi, who helped create the dynamic kickoff rule.
"The injury rates were much lower. Obviously the space and the speed of the play were down from what we're all used to, and so the play was a tremendous success.
"That's why we felt the time was now to move the touchback back to the 35, to go back to the original formation that we had proposed."
Improving the field position for receiving teams, the NFL hopes, will make teams think again before kicking the ball into the end zone and set up even more returns.
No onside kick rule adjustments were made.
There's still no decision on shoving quarterbacks from behind in short-yardage situations, a move the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles used often last season, calling it the "Brotherly Shove" instead of the "tush push" as most rivals dubbed it.
The Green Bay Packers proposed to ban the play but the motion was tabled to a later date. The next NFL meeting will be in mid-May, when the matter is likely to be decided after much discussion in two days of owners talks.
Opponents say the play is dangerous to players while supporters say there is no medical data to back those claims.
"There were discussions of, 'Hey, this just doesn't feel like traditional play. This isn't what football was invented to be. This feels a little more rugby. We're worried about health and safety,'" NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay said.
McKay noted the NFL had prior language about pushing and pulling players that was removed from the rule book 21 years ago.
"Up to 2004, we had rules in place that prohibited pushing and pulling, and we deleted that from the book because it became harder for our officials to officiate downfield what was going on," McKay said.
"As opposed to voting on this particular proposal today, Green Bay asked could we go back and talk about reintroducing the 2004 language, study it, understand it, and talk about it again when we get to May."
McKay wasn't sure which way the vote might fall.
"What we'll try to do is make sure that we do a good historical study on what has been, and then I think we will try to have some conversation," he said.
Instant replay expanded
NFL owners made other rule tweaks.
The league passed an Eagles proposal to make regular-season over-times like playoff extra periods by allowing both clubs a chance to possess the ball regardless of the result of the first possession.
But the regular-season over-time will remain only a 10-minute session.
Instant replay was expanded to allow a replay official to advise on-field officials on specific aspects of a play and to advise on clear and obvious video evidence.
The NFL rejected a Detroit proposal to eliminate a first down as part of a penalty imposed for defensive holding or illegal contact.
Tabled for later was another Detroit proposal to adjust playoff seedings to go by record without regard for division championship.