At the NFL’s annual league meeting held on April 1st, owners voted to keep the dynamic kickoff concept that debuted last season while moving the touchback spot from the 30 yard line to the 35 yard line if the ball is kicked out of the back of the end zone, according to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero.
“The play was a tremendous success,” said Denver Broncos special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi, who helped develop dynamic kickoffs. “The injury rates were much, much lower. Obviously, the space and the speed of the play were down from what we’re all used to, and so the play was a tremendous success… That’s why we felt the time was now to move the touchback back to the 35, to go back to the original formation that we had proposed.”
That wasn’t the only major rule change approved by NFL owners. The league also passed a proposal that will allow both teams to have at least one possession in overtime during regular-season games. However, the overtime period for the regular season will remain 10 minutes, unlike 15 minutes in the playoffs.
Another rule change that was approved had to do with expanding the league’s instant replay review process. According to ESPN, this new ruling will allow each game’s on-site replay official to reverse flags for penalties like hits to defenseless players, pulling the face mask, horse collar tackles, tripping, and running into/roughing the kicker. But, the replay official will not be permitted to call penalties on plays in which a flag wasn’t thrown.
NFL has passed a rule that allows both teams to possess the ball in OT during the regular season
It was originally proposed to be 15 minute OT, but was changed to 10 minutes pic.twitter.com/EcFDHxQQeo
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 1, 2025
The Detroit Lions’ proposal to reformat NFL playoff seeding, which would allow Wild Card teams to receive a higher seed than Divisional Champions if they had a better record, was also tabled for further discussion.
Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers’ proposal to ban the “Tush Push,” a modified version of a quarterback sneak made famous by the Philadelphia Eagles, was tabled for further discussion. NFL owners will be allowed to once again vote on banning or allowing the play at the next league meeting scheduled for the middle of May.
“There were discussions of, ‘Hey, this just doesn’t feel like traditional play. This isn’t what football was invented to be. This feels a little more rugby. We’re worried about health and safety,'” said Rich McKay, the chairman of the NFL Competition Committee. “I think it will be an interesting discussion. I think what we’ll try to do is make sure that we do a good historical study on what has been, and then I think we will try to have some conversation as a committee and then as a membership going into May to understand where people stand.”
During the meeting, owners rejected a proposal from the Lions that would have eliminated automatic first downs for illegal contact and defensive holding.
