NFL to Move Touchbacks to 25-Yard Line for 2016

Another nail was hammered into the coffin of the NFL kickoff today, with the league agreeing to move touchbacks from kickoffs forward another five yards to the 25-yard line at today’s annual owners’ meeting.

The driving factor in the decision was the rise of injuries on kickoffs in 2015 as compared to the year prior. It appears the aim of the NFL’s lawmakers is to make kick returners second guess the cost-benefit of returning a kick from deep inside their own endzone.

When averaging out every kickoff return from every team last season, the approximate starting point for the offense was its own 24-yard line. So unless a returner can recognise a massive gap in coverage or is forced to return the kick on the rare occasion that it lands short of the endzone, the returner will probably be too tempted to simply take a knee and score a free 25 yards.

As it stands, the new rule is only official for the 2016 season. But if the decision to push the PAT attempt back is any indication, it’s only a matter of time before this rule, too, becomes a permanent aspect of the game.

Other 2016 rule changes approved at the meeting included the controversial automatic ejection rule if a player incurs two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the same game, as well as the outlawing of all chop blocks (when a player dives below the knees of a defender when he is already engaged with another blocker).

And while it may still be a ways away yet, the elimination of the kickoff in its entirety is not a matter of “if”, but “when.” After a while, kick return patterns and the astronomical number of voluntary touchbacks will simply make coaches, officials and owners shrug their shoulders and agree to eradicate the entire ordeal altogether.