With a change in the kickoff rules, the most boring play in the National Football League is suddenly the most intriguing.

NFL owners approved a new kickoff proposal for the 2024 season that is intended to bring back excitement to a play that has become routine and stale. The new rule, approved on Tuesday during the NFL owners meeting at Orlando, is a dramatic change from how kickoffs have been conducted in recent years.

Here’s the skinny:

·  While the kicker kicks off from his 35-yard line, the other 10 players will be line up on the receiving team’s 40-yard line, with five players on each side of the ball. The receiving team must have at least seven players on their 35-yard line, with two more players able to line up between the 30 and 35-yard lines. The receiving team can have up to two players in position to return a kick.

·  A “landing zone” exists between the receiving team’s goal line and the 20-yard line. The coverage team and blockers for the receiving team are not allowed to move until the football has been fielded by a returner or hit the ground in the landing zone. No fair catches are allowed.

·  If the kicked ball does not reach the team’s 20-yard line, the return team takes possession at its own 40. If the ball is kicked out of bounds, the receiving team takes possession at its own 40 or where the ball went out of bounds.

·  If a kickoff goes through the back of the end zone, the receiving team gets a touchback and the ball at its own 30. If the ball hits the ground in the landing zone, then rolls into the end zone and isn’t returned, the receiving team gets the ball at the 20.

Got all that? The new kickoff format, adapted from the XFL, a minor league, is approved for a one-year trial basis. The change follows the lowest kickoff return rate in NFL history, a nadir reached last season. The Las Vegas Raiders, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Green Bay Packers were the only teams to vote against the new measure.

Coaches are already trying to figure out the implications of the new kickoff rules. According to one reporter, Stephen Holder, Lions head coach Dan Campbell has already engaged his special teams coach, Dave Fipp. “I think what’s got a lot of people spooked a little bit is the unknown of it,” Mr. Campbell said at Orlando. “And that’s what excites me.” 

Mr. Campbell adds that he and Mr. Fipp “have already been back there talking about it.  We’re watching all these XFL clips, looking at different body types and you’re looking at returns and you’re looking at schemes. And I think that’s the unknown.”

Ideally, the new rules will return excitement to kickoffs and add value to kick returners. The special teams ace, Devin Hester, voted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for 2024, and Joshua Cribbs, Desmond Howard, Deion Sanders, and Tim Brown are among the top return men in the history of the NFL. 

Recently, due to player safety concerns, the majority of kickoffs have been uneventful, with the ball being kicked through the end zone to avoid kicking it out of bounds or any type of return.  That should change with the new rules. The XFL had a 97 percent return rate over 40 games in 2023, while the NFL had a 22 percent rate over 587 games, according to CBS Sports.

The head coach of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, Andy Reid, said that the new rules should add some excitement to the game. “I think it adds a little excitement and newness to it, right?” Mr. Reid said, according to NFL reporter Mark Maske. “Is that a word? Newness.”

Soon after the new kickoff rules were announced, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed kick-return specialist Cordarrelle Patterson formerly of the Atlanta Falcons, to a two-year $6 million deal.  Mr. Patterson is a prolific kick returner with nine career kickoff returns for a touchdown. He has led the league in kickoff return average three times.

The NFL also announced plans to hold games on Christmas Day, even though the holiday falls on a Wednesday this year. Also, the trade deadline is pushed back one week and will take place after Week 9, on November 5. That is Election Day.

The league also outlawed the dangerous swivel hip-drop tackle, which last year led to 15 players missing time due to injury, according to league sources.