According to the Washington Post’s Mark Maske, the NFL’s competition committee is looking at moving touchbacks from the 30-yard line to the 35-yard line for the 2025 season. The 30-yard line touchback spot is new to the NFL, due to the league’s “dynamic” kickoff change, but it hasn’t dissuaded teams enough to not have them kick into or through the end zone.
Last season, the team with the highest touchback percentage was the Dallas Cowboys with an 89 percent rate. Currently, the Los Angeles Rams, the Green Bay Packers’ next opponent, are kicking touchbacks at a 95 percent rate.
The Packers were actually dead last in touchback percentage as a kickoff unit in 2023 with a 43 percent rate. They’re up to 65 percent this year, as the league leans into kickoffs for being the dominant kicking strategy under this rule set.
Green Bay is also dealing with the kickoff on the other side of the ball, too. Keisean Nixon, who has been a first-team All-Pro kick returner for the last two seasons, has only been able to return one ball this season — an ill-advised return at the end of the Packers’ Week 1 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Don’t expect him to get a return this week, either.
Hopefully, bringing touchbacks out to the 35-yard line would put more balls into play. That will be something that the competition committee will have to decide.
The competition committee is currently comprised of four coaches, the Buccaneers’ Todd Bowles, the Bills’ Sean McDermott, the Rams’ Sean McVay and the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin, two general managers, the Dolphins’ Chris Grier and the 49ers’ John Lynch, one owner, the Giants’ John Mara, and three executives, the Falcons’ Rich McKay, the Cowboys’ Stephen Jones and the Bengals’ Katie Blackburn.
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