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NFL's Kickoff Rule Change Leads to Highest Return Rate Since 2010
The NFL's kickoff rule change in 2025 increased returns to 75.6%, the highest since 2010, while reducing concussions by 43%, enhancing game excitement and player safety.
- In Week 1 of the 2025 season, the NFL recorded a 75.6% kickoff return rate, the highest weekly level since 2010, after a small tweak to the dynamic kickoff rule increased returns.
- After returns plunged in 2023 to a record-low 21.8% return rate, league designers reshaped kickoffs with the dynamic kickoff to reduce high-speed collisions and injuries.
- Seven returns of at least 40 yards included a 71-yarder by Tennessee's Chimere Dike, and Sportradar found the average drive start was the 29.5-yard line in Week 1.
- The NFL reported that the experiment's first year produced a modest uptick in returns last season while reducing injuries, with concussion rate dropping 43%.
- By shifting the touchback to the 35-yard line, the league projected a 60%–70% return rate, contrasting with returns dropping from 80% to 53.4% after the 2010 season.
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Rockdale Citizen & Newton CitizenReposted by 
Marietta Daily Journal
Marietta Daily JournalRule change prompts highest kickoff-return rate since 2010
NFL teams returned 75.6 percent of the kickoffs in Week 1, the highest rate in the league in 15 years, after moving the touchback to the 35-yard line.
·Georgia, United States
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Total News Sources21
Leaning Left6Leaning Right3Center7Last UpdatedBias Distribution44% Center
Bias Distribution
- 44% of the sources are Center
44% Center
L 38%
C 44%
R 19%
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