Despite having the NFL’s back-to-back first-team All-Pro kickoff returner, the Green Bay Packers were one of three teams to vote against the league’s new kickoff rules, per Albert Breer of the MMQB.
The Packers, San Francisco 49ers and Las Vegas Raiders were the three dissenting votes. The other 29 NFL teams voted in favor of the change, which will go into effect for the 2024 season on a one-year basis.
The new rules are designed to make the kickoff return a safer play (see: fewer concussions) while encouraging more returns. Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst and coach Matt LaFleur both said they wanted the kickoff return to return to the game. In recent years, touchback percentages have skyrocketed.
Under the new rules, kickoffs will have a “setup zone” for coverage players and blockers between the 35- and 30-yard line and a “landing zone” between the 20-yard line and the goal line. Players on either side can’t move until the ball hits the ground or is returned. By having fewer full-speed collisions, concussions should be reduced. Reducing the incentive for touchbacks should mean drastically more returns. The design was most recently used in the XFL and is now being adopted on a trial basis in the NFL.
Here’s what the new NFL kickoff will look like this season: pic.twitter.com/vtR5bqGZLK
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 26, 2024
In theory, more kickoff returns — the primary goal of the rule change — should benefit Keisean Nixon and the Packers. Nixon, who re-signed in Green Bay this offseason, led the NFL in kickoff return yardage in both 2022 and 2023. He should now get even more opportunities to impact field position in 2024. But the Packers special teams — a shaky spot for years — must now cover more kickoffs as well.
Nixon was certainly in favor of the rule change before the league vote:
lol Go Ahead And Approve That KR Rule And Ima Go Back to Back to Back…. #K9
— K9 (@keiseannixon) March 20, 2024
Team president and CEO Mark Murphy represents the Packers in league votes.
Murphy said the Packers were more interested in a trial run of the new kickoff rules during the preseason, before it’s implemented during the regular season.
Mark Murphy one why he cast one of three votes against NFL’s new kickoff rules designed to bring kickoff returns back into the game. Surprising because, you know, his team has the reigning two-time All-Pro. Murphy explains: pic.twitter.com/73nPh4THSy
— Ryan Wood (@ByRyanWood) March 26, 2024
