Dynamic Dysfunction

Kickoffs. They’ve been a part of football for over a century, hearkening back to a time before the founding of the NFL itself, when football still did not allow innovations like “the snap” or “forward passes.”

Kickoffs have changed form over the course of football history. 2024 is the newest step forward, as the NFL has now introduced a new kickoff format. This new style, called the Dynamic Kickoff, was controversial when it was announced earlier this year. But what exactly makes this “dynamic?”

The premise of the Dynamic Kickoff is to try and make the kickoff a legitimate play during a game. Kickoffs being returned for touchdowns are some of the most iconic moments in football, and more of those increases the NFL’s reputation as a league of big plays and legendary player performances, boosting the league’s popularity. [Ed. Note—legit question: how could the NFL be more popular?] Here’s how it works:

• The ball is kicked from the kicking team’s 35-yard line. Ideally, it lands in the (appropriately named) “landing zone,” an area from the returning team’s goal line to their 20-yard line.
• A pair of returners are allowed to be in the “landing zone,” while the other nine members of the returning team must be between their own 30- and 35-yard lines. Of those nine players, at least seven must have a foot on the 35-yard line.
• As for the kicking team, their blockers must be on the returning team’s 40-yard line.
• The kicker cannot cross the 50-yard line until the ball hits the ground in either the landing zone or the end zone, or until the returner starts to run it back.
• Any kick that is short of the landing zone is treated as an out-of-bounds kick, and the returning team’s offense starts on their own 40 yard line.
• Any kick that goes into the end zone or behind it is a touchback, and the returning team starts from their 30 yard line.

This all sounds great, but is it really?

The dynamic kickoff is designed to allow for more returns on a play that is one of the most likely to cause injuries. A 2018 study found that during the 2015 Ivy League football season, 21% of concussions came from kickoffs, despite kickoffs only comprising 6% of total plays. In the NFL, kickoffs were four times more likely to result in a concussion compared to a passing or running play. As I’ve already written about before, the NFL at least pretends to superficially care about player safety. The Guardian Cap debate and the concussion saga continues, as well as continued petitions from players to ban artificial turf. The NFL has shown that is attempts at improving player safety are done more to avoid media controversy, rather than out of genuine care for players. The dynamic kickoff is no different.

Kickoffs are already prone to causing injuries, and the new format is explicitly designed to allow more of them to happen. The Dynamic Kickoff only offers increased injury potential, which is a massive failure in terms of the players, but the dynamic kickoff has also been a failure for the NFL for a simple reason: the anticipated big returns are not actually happening.

Through the first four weeks, a total of 665 Dynamic Kickoffs occurred. Of these, 68% resulted in a touchback. While that is technically lower than last season’s 73% rate, two-thirds of plays designed for returns but resulting in touchbacks is not a good look for the NFL. To add to this, through those same four weeks, teams averaged only 1.5 returns per game. The 2023 season is the only season in NFL history with a lower rate of returns per game, at 1.3. Even Donald Trump pointed out the absurdity of this new format, saying “I don’t know what they’re doing with the kickoff return in the NFL, and I don’t want to get involved in controversy, of course. But it looks so bad.”

All the Dynamic Kickoff has done is showcase the NFL’s continued negligence in matters of player safety, as well as stoke further controversy from every slice of football fandom, from random posters on social media to former presidents. The NFL should admit the Dynamic Kickoff is a failure, and go back to a more conventional format, one that does not promote returns or touchbacks. [Ed. Note—It feels weird giving Greg Schiano credit for anything, but he does have a decent proposal about this.] Perpetuating dysfunction does not result in function.

Further reading:

• New Dynamic Kickoff Rule Explainer (NFL)
• How changing this one football play may reduce head injuries (CNN)
• Ugly Data for the Dynamic Kickoff (Frank Michael Smith)
• Kickoffs are stupid and bad (Chart Party)