Why have there been more blocked kicks in NFL in 2025 season? Cowboys address surprising trend

FRISCO, Texas — Special teams are kind of like the offensive line in a way: most football fans don’t think about them until something abnormal and typically negative goes down. 

However, special teams have had an outsized impact on the 2025 NFL season through four weeks. The league has seen a whopping 16 blocked kicks, on field goals, punts and extra points, the most since the 2014 season when there 19 in the first month of play. 

The 4-0 defending Super Bowl LIX champion Philadelphia Eagles, one of two remaining undefeated teams left along with the Buffalo Bills, are one of the biggest early-season beneficiaries of this special teams mayhem. They blocked a punt and returned it 35 yards for a score in a 31-25 road win at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a play that ended up making a difference in the game’s outcome. In their 33-26 Week 3 road win at the Los Angeles Rams, defensive tackle Jordan Davis blocked the Rams’ game-winning field goal attempt and took it all the way back for 61 yards and the score. 

The Chicago Bears also stole a victory via a blocked field goal in Week 4, turning away the Las Vegas Raiders‘ 54-yard try to hang on to a 25-24 win. The Green Bay Packers are two blocked kicks away from likely being 4-0: their 43-yard, go-ahead field goal attempt with 27 seconds left got blocked, which led to a 13-10 jaw-dropping defeat. In Week 4 at the Cowboys, Dallas safety Juanyeh Thomas blocked an extra point that was scooped by safety Markquese Bell for two points. Instead of the Packers going up 14-0, they led 13-2. That ended up playing a significant role in an eventual 37-37 tie at the end of regulation that concluded as a 40-40 tie at the end of the 10-minute, regular season overtime period. 

“Thursday Night Football” kicked off Week 5 with a 17th blocked kick of the 2025 season with Rams kicker Joshua Karty getting blocked on an extra point that would have ended up giving Los Angeles a 24-23 win over the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers instead went on to win 26-23 in overtime. 

So why is the avalanche of blocked kicks happening? Cowboys special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen attributed some of them to it simply being early in the season while acknowledging a heightened scheme focus on the play as well.  

“I think people are just finishing. … Guys are just getting better at finishing whether it’s a field goal or getting up,” Sorensen said Thursday. “There’s some scheme involved with some of them obliviously. … You can change the game. That’s a huge part of it. You get what you emphasize. I think a lot of people really emphasize that. I know we do. You do a lot of drills, and you’ve got to find where you think you can get them. You’re always trying to find that weak link like an offense or defense would, and you try to attack it.”

Thomas himself joked that he’s the reason why, but he also pointed out that it’s perhaps a little easier to identify the “leaker” on field goal/extra point blocks. The leaker, according to Thomas, can be either a side of the line, or a particular player or schematic gap in the formation. 

“Because of me,” Thomas said laughing on Wednesday. “Nah, but honestly if you look at the field goal teams across the league for real, you have a ‘leaker’ which is like the soft side. I feel like everybody across the league is attacking that side. Obviously, that is something I always look at every week. … It could be a person. It could be the whole left or right side [of the line]. You just have to find it. Which side do you think you can get through? Obviously, the coaches do a great job of finding that.”

Yes, blocked kicks are of course heavily predicated on athleticism and otherworldly physical efforts, but there’s also a significant amount of gamesmanship and film study involved. 

“We look for that guy or that side,” Sorensen said when asked about identifying the leaker. “We communicate in game too if there are changes or how guys are feeling. I think it’s huge having a conversation and communication with players in game no matter what phase it is because they’re out there and they feel it. You make the little adjustments. That’s what tape is. You’re always looking for that weak link or that leaker to where you want to attack. That’s all about scheme.”

So where does the leaker typically pop up? A regular location for it to be is the side of the line opposite the side where the kicker is lining up to kick. A bum rush up the middle can also be just as effective at times. 

“Depends, for the most part you want to be rushing where the ball flight is,” Sorensen said. “Most times you’re going to see if it’s on the left hash, you’re going to be rushing the right side. Some teams will come off the boundary and change it up here and there. For the most part if it’s in the middle, teams will try to rush up the middle. You can fire guys off either edge. It just kind of depends on the situation.”

For weeks, Sorensen and Thomas’ teammates felt he was close to getting his hand on a kick. Sunday against the Packers, it finally happened. Veteran special teamer C.J. Goodwin told Thomas he had a shot to get Green Bay on “Sunday Night Football.” That came to fruition, and now Thomas will have to work a little harder going forward because opponents now know to keep an eye on No. 2 for the silver and blue. 

“If you go back and watch film, I get back there every week. It’s a matter of time. That was perfect timing,” Thomas said. …I’m going to have to work a little harder now, but I believe in myself still. … It’s crazy because C.J. [Goodwin] came up to me during the week, and he told me ‘you have a chance to do this and that.’ We practice it, and I trusted my vet. I did it, and then shout out to [rookie second-round edge rusher] Dono Eze [Donovan Ezeiruaku] too. He is one of the reasons I got the block too if you go back and watch it. Shout out to those two guys. It’s not just me. My job is easy, to just jump right through there. Those are the guys that are actually busting their tails, so I can bust through there. … He [Goodwin] predicted it.”