The NFL’s new kickoff rules have reinvigorated the play, with the return rate spiking this year after offseason tweaks. Big plays are up, and so is excitement.
But with more returns have come more injuries, including a surge in concussions that could prompt another look at how to manage player safety during kickoffs.
Through seven weeks this season, 79.3 percent of kickoffs had been returned, a big jump from the 31.7 percent return rate through seven weeks last season.
But the rate of concussions per 100 kickoffs through seven weeks rose from 0.09 in 2024 to 1.18 this season, according to internal league data that was shared with teams and viewed by The Athletic. The concussion rate per 100 kickoff returns climbed to 1.48 through seven weeks, compared to 0.29 last season. The data shared with clubs indicated that it is roughly five times the league’s baseline concussion rate on run or pass plays.
Asked last week about the issue, the NFL acknowledged that there have been more injuries on kickoffs this season, which it said was expected. The league did not comment specifically on concussions other than to say the issue would be analyzed when there is more data. The league also pointed to comments from Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president of public affairs and policy, player health and safety initiatives, who said in October that there had been two concussions and no ACL injuries on kick returns during the preseason.
The NFLPA said this week it was “tracking the data closely this season to understand injuries and injury risk associated with the new kickoff rule,” and that “our union continues to push for a more collaborative, transparent approach to data sharing and rule changes to serve the players’ best interests.”
Kickoff injuries became a storyline almost immediately this season, when Philadelphia Eagles fullback Ben VanSumeren suffered a torn patella tendon on the opening kickoff of the season. VanSumeren was carted off the field and won’t return this season.
The Eagles lost Ben VanSumeren after an injury on a kickoff in the season opener. (Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
New England Patriots running back Antonio Gibson, one of three players to record a kick return touchdown in 2025, suffered a big hit on a kickoff return in a Week 5 win against the Buffalo Bills. The injury resulted in a torn ACL and put him out for the season.
Through Week 7, there had been 13 concussions on kickoff plays compared to just one in the same time period last season, the NFL’s data showed. That tally doesn’t include Denver Broncos All-Pro Marvin Mims Jr., who suffered a concussion during a kickoff return late in a Week 8 blowout win against the Dallas Cowboys. Denver coach Sean Payton later said it was a miscommunication to have Mims in at that point, but the injury resulted in him missing Denver’s past two games.
In Week 10, Washington Commanders linebacker Ale Kaho suffered a concussion on a kickoff that knocked him out of the game and prevented him from traveling to Madrid this week. The week before, Commanders wide receiver Luke McCaffrey, who at the time ranked third in the league in kick return average, broke his collarbone on a kickoff return and will miss the rest of the season.
League leaders introduced so-called dynamic kickoffs after an anemic 22 percent of kickoffs were returned in 2023, the lowest rate in NFL history. The NFL had previously made changes to the play meant to reduce the number of returns because of the danger of high-speed collisions.
Team owners approved the new kickoff rules in a 29-3 vote in March 2024, hoping to make kickoffs both safer and more relevant.
The dynamic kickoff calls for players on the kicking team to line up at the opposing 40-yard line, the receiving team between the 30- and 35-yard lines and returners in the “landing zone” (between the 20-yard line and the end zone).
The inaugural dynamic kickoff season saw a slight uptick in action (32.8 percent of kickoffs returned), and the NFL made the change permanent in the 2025 offseason while also making more tweaks in hopes of a more dramatic increase.
The most notable change is the placement of the ball at the 35-yard line on touchbacks (5 yards farther upfield than in 2024 and 10 yards farther than pre-dynamic kickoff). The thought was that giving the receiving team better field position on a touchback would incentivize the kicking team to aim for the landing zone and hope to make a stop on a return. League data shows that 73.2 percent of kickoffs came down in the landing zone through Week 7, compared to 20.6 percent through Week 7 last year.
The intent of the dynamic kickoff remained the same through the changes: to bring the play back to life while eliminating the running start players had on traditional kickoffs that led to big collisions, concussions and other injuries.
Through seven weeks, there were more than twice the number of 40-plus-yard returns this season, the league data showed. (There were 32 this year, compared to 13 last year.) But some executives around the league have already wondered if the competition committee will consider more tweaks in an effort to confront the rising injuries.
President Trump this week repeated his criticism of the dynamic kickoff, saying in an ESPN interview that “I think it’s so terrible, I think it’s so demeaning and I think it hurts the game. It hurts the pageantry.”
— The Athletic’s Dianna Russini contributed to this report.