The dynamic kickoff is here to stay.
After seeing the new form of the free kick in 2024, NFL owners approved to make the change permanent in 2025. But with an interesting wrinkle: The dead ball spot after a touchback is now the 35-yard line.
This is all to promote more returns this coming season an beyond.
Giving the opposing offense the ball at the 35-yard line by either blasting the kickoff out of the end zone or missing the landing zone — on paper — looks like quite the deterrent for the kicking team. Nary a squad is going to put their defense behind the eight ball from the jump … right?
Las Vegas Raiders special teams coordinator Tom McMahon is certainly of that notion.
“Personally, I think you’re going to cover probably all of them when you go into the season,” McMahon began when asked how many more kickoff returns we’ll see this season. “It’s hard to give up the 35-yard line on a touchback when last year the average drive start was the 30. So, it’s hard to walk in and say, ‘Hey we’re just going to give five yards.‘ I can’t tell you exactly how many, but I would say pretty much most of them guys are going to try to cover.”
McMahon, who enters his fourth season as the Silver & Black special teams boss, is a very big fan of the rule change and making the dynamic kickoff permanent. In his mind, it allows several Raiders to get in on the action as special teams work encompasses all the fundamentals of the game from blocking and tackling.
“I love the rule. And the big thing is, our special teams players now, they’ve got to work every single play,” McMahon explained. “There is going to be a tackle, you’ve got to block somebody every single play. So, at the end of the season, you’re going to have guys with 20 tackles on kickoff. And last year, we covered I think like 27,28. You get that up near the 70s and your special teams players’ value skyrockets, and they want to play. They’re football players, they want to make plays.
“Same thing on kickoff returns, they want to block. And your returner value skyrockets. Last year you’ve got 20 returns, this year that player has 70. I don’t know in the league who gets 70 touches before the season starts. That kick returner is guaranteed more touches, other than your half backs.”
In 2024, Las Vegas ranked fifth overall with a healthy 29.6 yards per return average on kickoffs, according to Pro Football Reference. Which is merits attention as the Raiders only had 23 return attempts last season which is the 26th least out of the 32 squads.
Flip it over to kickoff return coverage, and McMahon’s group ranked tops in the league limiting opponents to an average of 23.8 yards per return (25 total returns for 596 yards, good for 10th least kickoff yards allowed). Thus, the Raiders coverage units fared well this past season.
The man who is the focal point of the kickoffs remains the same: Daniel Carlson. The 30-year-old kicker enters his eighth season in the league and finished middle of the pack in terms of limiting touchbacks in the first year of the dynamic kickoff rules with 51 (80 total kickoffs).
While he’s showcased his big leg since arriving onto the NFL scene as a fifth-round pick (167th overall) in the 2019 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings, the Auburn product will get to blend his power with accuracy when booting the ball to start the action. Power to send the ball into orbit with hang time. And accuracy to drop it into the desired spot.
“Probably location. Probably just making sure you’re not giving them free yards where if you pop it to them on the 10-yard line, we’re starting when they catch the ball,” Carlson said when asked what’s the important thing on kickoffs now. “And so, if you give them 10 extra yards where they’re just starting at the 10-yard line instead of the goal line, that’s kind of the hang time equation nowadays. So, at a certain point, it’s location on where the ball is placed whether it’s the corners, the middle, deep, short, whatever it is, you got to kind of be more precise nowadays.”
Carlson also noted he’s putting an onus on hangtime and location as he doesn’t want returners to be able to build up steam and get a running start to field his kicks. He wants them stationary and waiting for the ball to arrive to allow his coverage unit the time to limit returns.
In terms of the return game, it’ll be interesting to see who McMahon and the Raiders earmark for that job when the team opens its 2025 regular season campaign on the road against the New England Patriots next Sunday. Veteran running back Ameer Abdullah, who signed the San Francisco 49ers and was released earlier this month, notched nine returns (for 296 yards) to pace the Raiders return unit last season.
During Las Vegas’ preseason tilts, speedy wide receiver Tre Tucker was listed as the kick returner on depth charts. Running back Dylan Laube also made the 53-man roster and returned six kickoffs for 164 yards. Running back Chris Collier, who is on the practice squad, also has special teams experience and fielded two kickoffs in 2024.
Giving Tucker or Laube the opportunity to showcase their return ability will give them more opportunities outside their standard role as receiver and tailback, respectively.
But we’ll see soon enough if new dead ball spot of the 35-yard line dissuades teams from simply blasting the ball into or out of the end zone. The NFL thought the rule change last year would trigger more action, however, as the season wore on and fatigue and injuries took its toll, teams simply said forget it and opted for touchbacks, instead.
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