The NFL will have new kickoff rules in 2024 – here's how the play will work (2024)

FAQs

The NFL will have new kickoff rules in 2024 – here's how the play will work? ›

Here are the new rules surrounding it. Any kick into the landing zone must be returned. If the ball is kicked short of the landing zone or out of bounds, it will automatically be placed on the receiving team's 40-yard line.

The new kickoff format allows only the kicker and returners to move prior to the ball being fielded, according to a CBS Sports rules explainer, with a designated “landing zone” for the ball to land between the goal line and the 20-yard line.

Here are the new rules surrounding it. NFL kick returners, like the Philadelphia Eagles' Parris Campbell (above), now have to return a kick if it lands in the newly created landing zone between the goal line and the 20-yard line. Any kick into the landing zone must be returned.

Onside kicks

Can only happen in fourth quarter. Trailing team must declare onside kick attempt to officials. If kick goes past setup zone untouched, kicking team is assessed 15-yard unsportmanlike conduct penalty, and receiving team gets the ball at the kicking team's 20-yard line.

Landing zone is the area between the receiving team's goal line and its 20-yard line.

If, when a free kick is taken, an opponent is closer to the ball than the required distance, the kick is retaken unless the advantage can be applied; but if a player takes a free kick quickly and an opponent who is less than 9.15 m (10 yds) from the ball intercepts it, the referee allows play to continue.

Any kick that hits the landing zone and then bounces into the end zone must either be returned or downed, so teams can't just let the ball bounce into the end zone and get an automatic touchback if it hits the landing zone first. If the return team downs the ball in the end zone, it goes to the 20-yard line.

Under Rule 17 of the NFL rulebook, the commissioner also has the authority to overturn a game result (that is, order a forfeit loss to the offending team and a walkover win for the wronged team), order the game to be fully replayed, or to discard the results of the game from the unfair act onward and resume play from ...

Two Feet Down: The receiver must get both feet or any part of the body other than the hands on the ground inbounds. Football Move: The receiver must make a football move, such as taking another step, reaching/extending for the line-to-gain, or having the ability to perform such an act.

For example, California has three NFL teams since the San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego metro areas can support up to four teams, while Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Virginia, and Kentucky do not have any NFL teams. The majority of the other NFL franchises are based in large cities.

What happens if the receiving team does not touch an onside kick? ›

This is so they can make sure of securing possession once the ball has traveled the necessary 10 yards—the receiving team cannot simply refuse to touch the ball, as the ball is live once it has traveled 10 yards and can be claimed by either team; thus, if the receiving team does not make a play on the ball, it makes it ...

The biggest rule for an onside kick is that the ball must go 10 yards before the kicking team can attempt to recover it. This isn't the rule for the opposing team, who can recover the ball before it hits the 10-yard mark.

The NFL is looking to address two things with the new kickoff rules: reducing injury rates on kickoffs while also keeping a play alive that as provided some of the league's most exciting moments (hats off to 2024 Hall of Famer Devin Hester) but had become routine with kickers blasting the ball out of the end zone for ...

If the ball hits in the landing zone but rolls into the end zone, the touchback comes out to the return team's 20-yard line. If the kickoff goes out of bounds or does not make the 20, the play is dead once the ball lands and the receiving team will get the ball on their own 40-yard line.

Zone 14 in football, also known as the 'golden zone', is strategically an extremely important area of the pitch. It is located centrally in front of the opponent's penalty area, about 10 to 20 metres from the goal.

Then, in summer 2019, IFAB — the body responsible for the laws of the game — changed the one around goal kicks to state that the ball no longer had to exit the penalty area of the team taking it before a player could receive the first pass.

A corner kick is awarded when the whole of the ball passes over the goal line, either on the ground or in the air, having last touched a player of the defending team, and a goal is not scored in accordance with Law 10. A goal may be scored directly from a corner kick, but only against the opposing team.

A kick-in is a method of restarting play. A kick-in is awarded to the opponents of the player who last touches the ball when the whole of the ball crosses the touch line, either on the ground or in the air, or touches the ceiling of the hall. A goal may not be scored directly from a kick-in.

The rule reverts to the 2023 parameters, which state that an emergency third QB must be on the 53-man roster or as one of two standard elevations per week. An elevated QB would have to be active for the game rather than in the emergency role. A player can be activated three times per season.