A quick explanation of the NFL’s new kickoff rules

Kickoffs are safer now, but we still don’t know if they’ll be more exciting or more boring.

The kickoff has long been the most dangerous play in football, so the NFL made changes this offseason to make things safer. In May, the league released new guidelines that ban wedge blocking and running starts for the kicking team.

What are the differences?

The wedge — a group of players who team up to block side-by-side — has been shrinking for a while. It was cut down to a maximum of two players in 2009, so eliminating it altogether isn’t surprising, nor the most significant part of the rule change. The more noteworthy differences are where players are allowed to line up before the kick.

All players on the kicking team must line up even with the ball, with five players on each side, and at least two players outside the numbers on each side of the field. The receiving team needs eight of its blockers in a 15-yard “setup zone” near the middle of the field.

NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent tweeted a handy explainer of the changes:

The goal for the NFL was to reduce the distance between the would-be tacklers on the kicking team and the blockers on the returning team. Ideally, the league hopes the changes will make players run down the field together like a punt return instead of colliding in open space.

What about onside kicks?

The probability of successfully recovering an onside kick in the fourth quarter was just 8 percent during the 2017 regular season, but the rule changes may have tanked those odds even harder.

With kicking teams now mandated to have at least five players on each side and two players between the numbers and hash marks, an onside kick will look much different and is an even bigger long shot.

Will kickoffs be better or worse now?

It’s tough to say, but with no running start for the kicking team, it’s possible that running lanes could be easier for returners to find. Even without wedge blocks to spring returners, kickoffs may end up being more exciting than ever and likelier to end with touchdowns.

Or the opposite could be true.

In the 2018 preseason with the new rules in place, there were 345 kick returns and none were returned for a touchdown. In the 2017 regular season, seven of 1,036 kick returns were taken back for touchdowns — or one in every 148.

Still, the preseason provided a small sample size and many of the returns were taken by players who aren’t going to be starting kick returners in the regular season. While there weren’t any touchdowns, the NFL collectively averaged 22.9 yards per return. In the 2017 regular season, the average return went 21.6 yards.

It remains to be seen how the numbers will look at the end of the year, but the NFL’s rule changes probably made the game much safer and don’t appear to have made a stark difference in the likelihood of a successful return.