Proposed NFL rule changes include redesigned kickoff, onside replacement

Proposed NFL rule changes for the upcoming season include a redesigned kickoff, a replacement for the onside kick and a ban on hip-drop tackles.

The Philadelphia Eagles have suggested a dramatic option to predictable onside kicks. If a trailing team scores, but is still trailing, the team could attempt one 4th-and-20 play from its 20-yard line. A team could only attempt this maneuver when it’s losing. A team could not use it more than twice in a game. 

The Eagles cited “competitive equity and fan engagement” as the reason for the change. 

Onside kicks have become more like a Hail Mary since the NFL changed its kickoff rules in 2018 for player safety. Before 2018, kicking teams recovered 13.5% of onsides. In 2023, teams attempted 41 onside kicks — kicking teams came down with just two of those attempts.

In the proposed changes announced by the NFL on Wednesday, the league’s competition committee came up with a fully redesigned kickoff. Under the new rule, kickers would set up their tee at the opponent’s 40-yard line. The receiving team could line up at their own 35. 

Kickers would try to land the ball between the opponent’s goal line and the 20-yard line. If the ball lands in the end zone, the touchback would take the offense to the 35-yard line instead of the 25-yard line. 

That proposal, designed to promote more returns in a league plagued by dull touchbacks, could also increase player safety. The competition committee said the change would make kickoffs more closely resemble a typical play, without players gaining significant momentum before a collision. They also said the new rule would “provide excitement and competition in the game.” 

Touchback rates soared in 2023, with fewer than 30% of kickoffs resulting in returns. Touchbacks may have improved player safety, but the play has become increasingly uneventful. 

“Under the current proposal, we feel like there’s going to be an 80 to 85% return rate,” New Orleans Saints special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi said Wednesday on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “We’re talking about adding another 1,600 plays to the NFL season.”

The competition committee also submitted a proposal that would penalize hip-drop tackles, which it described as a potentially dangerous technique. A defender uses a hip drop tackle when they grab a ball carrier with both arms and drop their hips toward the ground, creating a dead weight that can trap the runner’s legs.

NFL executive Jeff Miller believes hip-drops increase the risk of injury by 25 times. 

“To quantify it for you, we see an injury more or less every week in the regular season on the hip-drop,” Miller said in October. “The runner becomes defenseless … That’s where the injury occurs. You see the ankle get trapped underneath the weight of the defender.”

Ravens tight end Mark Andrews suffered a fractured fibula and ligament damage during a hip-drop tackle in November. He missed the remainder of the regular season. 

The NFL reported 10 proposed rule changes this offseason.

One from the Detroit Lions would give coaches an additional challenge to use during games. Under the current rules, coaches only receive a third challenge if they succeed on both prior attempts. The new rule would allow coaches a third challenge flag if they succeed on either of their first two attempts.

The proposals suggested by teams will be voted on at the league’s annual meeting that begins March 24. For a new rule to go into effect, 75% of team owners have to vote in its favor.