The NFL on Tuesday voted to adopt a new rule for kickoffs that the league hopes will reduce injuries while also bringing kick returns back into the fore. For the last several years kickoffs have become a largely ceremonial process where the kicker blasts the kick out of the end zone. The new rules and kickoff formation will likely generate more returns, which makes it not surprising the 49ers were one of three teams to vote against it.
Under the new rules teams will kick off from their own 35 with 10 members of the kicking team lining up on their own 40. There’s a landing zone between the receiving team’s 20 and their goal line that the kick must reach. No fair catches are allowed, and touchbacks give the receiving team possession at their own 30. The kicking team won’t be able to cover the kick until the receiving team has caught the ball. There are a handful of other stipulations, but here is in general what it’s supposed to look like, as executed in the XFL:
