Kickoff touchback percentages meant little to the Miami Dolphins when Antonio Gibson found daylight at Hard Rock Stadium on September 14, 2025. With just over seven minutes remaining, Miami had grabbed a 27-23 lead after Malik Washington’s 74-yard punt return touchdown. The crowd had barely finished celebrating when the Dolphins lined up for the ensuing kickoff.
Twelve seconds of game clock later, everything changed.
Gibson fielded the kick and raced 90 yards for a Patriots touchdown. New England coach Mike Vrabel sprinted along the sideline as his returner pulled away. The Patriots eventually won 33-27.
The sequence exposed the risk behind the NFL’s redesigned kickoff. Miami needed to cover one return and protect its four-point lead. Instead, the Dolphins surrendered a touchdown before their offense could touch the football again.
Under the league’s revised rules, kickers increasingly face a choice between conceding the 35-yard line and testing their coverage units. A touchback removes the possibility of an immediate return touchdown, but it also sacrifices potential field position.
That trade-off has complicated NFL special teams rankings. A low touchback rate might reflect excellent placement and disciplined tackling. It could also expose a coverage unit that gives up too much ground.
So how should teams measure a kickoff when the safest option already costs them 35 yards?
How the Touchback Became a 35-Yard Decision
The NFL began overhauling kickoffs before the 2024 season. Traditional formations had produced increasingly predictable touchbacks, leaving fewer opportunities for return specialists to influence games.
Charted kickoff data showed that only 22.9% of kickoffs produced returns in 2023. The league introduced its dynamic kickoff format the following year, moving most coverage players and blockers closer together to reduce long running starts.
The new alignment created a landing zone between the receiving team’s goal line and its 20-yard line. In 2024, a conventional end-zone touchback placed the ball at the 30.
Teams still had little reason to gamble on every kick. Sending the ball deep guaranteed a predictable result without exposing the coverage unit to an explosive return.
The 2024 return rate climbed to 34.7% in the same data. That represented progress, but the league wanted more live returns.
Before the 2025 season, NFL owners approved another adjustment. Standard end-zone touchbacks moved from the 30 to the 35-yard line. Suddenly, kicking through the end zone carried a larger field-position cost.
Denver Broncos special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi, who helped develop the dynamic kickoff, explained the calculation during the NFL’s April 2025 league meetings.
“If the touchback lands at the 35, analytically, it’s telling you to kick and cover the ball,” Rizzi said.
His reasoning came from the previous season’s results. Only about 16% of kickoff returns crossed the 34-yard line, giving coverage teams an opportunity to make a stop inside the 35 on roughly 84% of returns.
That wasn’t a guarantee of success. Still, the numbers gave coordinators a reason to reconsider automatic touchbacks. A clean tackle could save valuable yards without requiring an extraordinary play.
During the completed 2025 season, 75.9% of kickoffs produced returns, more than double the previous year’s rate. Teams averaged 69.41 kickoff returns, compared with 32.06 in 2024.
A return stopped at the 25 effectively saved ten yards compared with a standard touchback. String together several such stops, and a defense could spend an afternoon working with longer fields.
Those savings depended on precise execution. Kickers needed enough control to reach the intended landing spot, while coverage players had to close their lanes before returners accelerated.
Gibson’s touchdown against Miami demonstrated how quickly the calculation could backfire. Once he reached open grass, the Dolphins had no chance to recover their field-position advantage.
Entering 2026, teams had a full season of evidence under the 35-yard touchback rule. The new rulebook retained that standard spot, alongside the separate 20-yard outcome for certain kicks that first touch the landing zone. Kickoffs from midfield also carried a specific touchback exception.
Every placement decision now demanded more thought than simply measuring how far a kicker could drive the football.
Why Touchback Rates Can Mislead NFL Special Teams Rankings
The 2025 season exposed a curious distinction. Some teams willingly surrendered touchbacks yet consistently limited opponents when they brought kicks out. Others chased live returns without always producing the field-position advantage they wanted.
The Rams Found Success Without Chasing Returns
Los Angeles recorded a 56.3% touchback rate during the completed 2025 season, the highest mark in the league. Yet the Rams’ coverage unit performed exceptionally well when opponents actually returned the football.
The team held returners to an average of 20.1 yards per return, also the league’s lowest figure.
Los Angeles didn’t need to chase the lowest touchback percentage to demonstrate sound special teams execution. Its defenders handled the returns that came their way, while the kicking unit frequently avoided unnecessary risk.
The results also revealed why kickers and coverage personnel deserve separate evaluations. A deep touchback never gives defenders an opportunity to tackle. Once opponents bring the ball out, however, the coverage unit must protect the field position.
That distinction becomes especially meaningful late in close games. A coordinator might trust his defenders but still refuse to offer a dangerous returner another chance to score.
The Rams showed that strategic restraint and excellent coverage could coexist.
Tampa Bay and Buffalo Take Different Paths in 2026
Through games played on November 1, 2026, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Buffalo Bills had both relied heavily on returnable kickoffs.
Tampa Bay kicker Chase McLaughlin recorded 45 kickoffs and only two touchbacks, giving him a 4.4% touchback rate.
Buffalo’s Tyler Bass recorded three touchbacks on 49 kickoffs, or 6.1%.
Those figures suggest similar approaches, but the return averages reveal a difference.
Opponents returned 43 McLaughlin kickoffs, averaging 24.9 yards per return. Bass allowed 45 returns at an average of 26.3 yards, while one of his remaining kicks went out of bounds.
Tampa Bay’s lower return-yardage average offered one small advantage. It couldn’t establish the better special teams unit without accounting for where the kicks landed and where opponents started their next possessions.
The 2026 numbers also represent a partial season, unlike the Rams’ completed 2025 figures. Differences in opponents, personnel and sample sizes prevent a direct season-to-season ranking.
Return yardage creates another problem. A runner gaining 23 yards from the goal line leaves a very different starting position from one catching the ball at the 10 and gaining the same distance.
Catch point matters. So do tackling angles, penalties and the returner’s final position.
A low touchback rate tells analysts that a team frequently keeps the ball in play. A high percentage shows that more kickoffs end without conventional returns. Neither automatically reveals how much territory the kicking team protects.
Scouting reports further complicate those choices. Against a dangerous return specialist, a coordinator might accept the 35 rather than risk an explosive play.
Facing a struggling return unit, the same coach could target the five-yard line and challenge his coverage players to finish the tackle.
Landing Zones and EPA Reveal the Hidden Yards
Two kickoffs can finish in the end zone but leave the receiving team with very different starting positions.
Under the NFL’s 2026 dynamic kickoff rules, a standard kickoff that reaches the end zone without touching the landing zone results in a touchback at the receiving team’s 35, provided the receiving team downs the ball or it goes out behind the goal line.
If the ball first touches the landing zone before entering the end zone and becoming a touchback, the receiving team generally starts at the 20.
Kick it short of the landing zone, however, and the opponent can choose favorable field position. On a standard kickoff from the kicking team’s 35, that generally means the receiving team’s 40.
A properly placed kick that bounces into the end zone can leave the opponent at the 20. Strike it short of the legal area, and the kicker could surrender the 40 without allowing a return.
Twenty yards separate those outcomes.
The difficult part comes between the kick and the whistle. Coverage players must identify blocks, hold their lanes and tackle before the returner builds momentum.
A missed tackle near the numbers can turn a promising stop into a return beyond midfield. One holding penalty can erase a well-executed return on the opposite side of the ball.
These possibilities make kickoff coverage efficiency a broader measurement than simply counting kicks that remain in play.
The Scoring Value of Starting Field Position
Expected points added, or EPA, gives analysts another way to examine those field-position changes.
Rather than assigning equal value to every yard, EPA estimates how a play changes a team’s scoring outlook.
An analysis of the completed 2025 NFL season compared scoring rates across two starting-field-position groups. Drives beginning inside the offense’s own 35 produced points on 33.64% of possessions.
When teams started at their own 35 or farther downfield, through the opponent’s one-yard line, that scoring rate climbed to 49.46%.
The comparison grouped possessions by starting field position rather than examining kickoffs alone. The published findings did not specify the possession counts for those categories, so the figures illustrate the broader relationship between territory and scoring.
That relationship helps explain why teams value tackles near the 25.
Giving an opponent the ball at the 35 instead of the 25 shortens the next drive. The difference might appear modest on one possession, but repeated concessions can shift a game’s field-position battle.
EPA helps estimate the value of those changes. It also gives analysts a way to examine the damage from explosive returns without assuming every long gain would otherwise have become a touchback.
Gibson’s touchdown against Miami represented an extreme outcome. Most kickoffs never threaten the end zone, but coordinators must account for that possibility whenever they choose to keep the ball in play.
A proper evaluation also separates the kicker’s contribution from the coverage unit’s performance.
A ball that hangs over the five-yard line gives defenders time to reach their assignments. If the coverage team misses two tackles, the kicker should not carry the entire blame.
Similarly, a clean tackle cannot rescue every misplaced kickoff.
To judge the entire unit, analysts need the kick’s landing point, return yardage, penalties and the opponent’s final starting position.
Those details show whether the strategy created an advantage and whether the players executed it.
The Gamble Facing Special Teams Coordinators
Every opponent creates a different challenge. A dangerous return specialist might demand a deeper kickoff, while a struggling return unit offers an opportunity to steal field position.
Weather can complicate either plan.
A strong crosswind might push a carefully planned landing-zone kick outside its intended target. One late replacement on the coverage unit can force a coordinator to reconsider an aggressive call.
These details rarely appear in conventional NFL special teams rankings.
The completed 2025 season demonstrated how dramatically the revised touchback rule could increase returns. Through the opening months of 2026, teams have continued testing different ways to manage the opportunities those rules create.
A coordinator who routinely pins opponents near the 25 deserves credit for those hidden yards. Another who relies on touchbacks may still make the better decision against a dangerous returner.
The Rams’ 2025 coverage performance showed why frequent touchbacks need not indicate a weak unit. Tampa Bay and Buffalo have provided a different perspective in 2026, demonstrating how similarly low touchback rates can produce different return-yardage results.
Those comparisons matter because kickoff strategy depends on more than the kicker’s leg. Returner tendencies, blocking assignments and coverage discipline all influence where the next drive begins.
The most useful evaluation combines opponent starting field position, return efficiency, EPA and penalty-adjusted outcomes. Analysts should also account for explosive returns and the quality of the opposing return unit.
Together, those measurements reveal whether a team consistently protects territory or exposes its defense to unnecessary risk.
Coaches will continue experimenting with kick trajectories, hang time and blocking combinations. Return specialists will search for creases before coverage defenders establish their leverage.
Some teams will keep attacking the landing zone. Others will decide that surrendering the 35 offers a reasonable price for avoiding a dangerous return.
Neither approach guarantees success.
The next advantage may belong to the staff that recognizes when its coverage team can steal ten yards and when the situation calls for a touchback.
That judgment can decide a possession long before the offense reaches the field.
Kickoff touchback percentages belong in NFL special teams rankings, but the final spot of the football tells a much more useful story.
READ MORE: Why Penalty Yardage Is a Hidden Factor in NFL Special Teams Rankings
FAQs
Why did the NFL move touchbacks to the 35-yard line?
The NFL wanted to encourage more kickoff returns. Moving standard touchbacks from the 30 to the 35 gave kicking teams another reason to keep the ball in play.
Do fewer kickoff touchbacks mean better special teams?
Not always. The Rams had the highest touchback rate in 2025 but allowed the fewest yards per kickoff return.
What happens when a kickoff falls short of the landing zone?
On a standard kickoff from the kicking team’s 35, the receiving team can generally take possession at its own 40-yard line.
How do kickoff touchback percentages affect NFL rankings?
They reveal how frequently teams produce touchbacks. Return yardage, starting field position and penalties offer a clearer picture of overall performance.
Why does EPA matter when evaluating NFL kickoffs?
EPA estimates how changes in field position affect scoring chances. It helps analysts compare the value of different kickoff outcomes.
