The NFL voted today to introduce a major change to kickoffs for the 2024 season. You can read more about the changes and what they mean for the play and the league in general in SB Nation’s explainer by our old friend James Dator.
The ultimate intention of this rule change is to increase the amount of kick returns while decreasing the amount of injuries sustained during kick returns. Previous rule changes had decreased, for example, the overall number of concussions on kick returns by simply decreasing the number of kick returns. The concussion/return ratio apparently remained relatively consistent.