This is a small gripe, but it’s a part of a bigger problem.

We’ve got to stop calling the NFL’s new kickoff return rules the “dynamic kickoff,” because through three weeks it’s been anything but as far as the Packers are concerned.

Borrowing a technique from junior high speech class, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word “dynamic” as signifying something that is “marked by usually continuous and productive activity or change,” offering as well that something considered to be dynamic may be thought of as “energetic” or “forceful.”

Counting returns from both teams, Packers fans have been treated to a grand total of six kickoff returns, none of which could be characterized as marked by any kind of continuous activity, energetic, or forceful.

Keisean Nixon’s lone return went for 24 yards, and because of the NFL’s insane rules for return stats, that 24-yard runback only got the Packers as far as their own 16-yard line. Run 24 yards, gain 16 yards. Very dynamic!

Nixon would have been better off staying in the end zone and getting 30 yards for his trouble. Who knows how the rest of that game would have played out if he had? At least nothing bad happened in the last couple of plays.

But Nixon had company in his poor kick return experience. His Philadelphia counterpart, Kenneth Gainwell, managed just 38 yards on his two returns, and his long return of the day gained just 29. Since he, too, brought it out of the end zone, his effort landed the Eagles at their own 23. Gainwell’s other return involved a botched catch, so we’ll set that one aside, but between his lone real effort and Nixon’s misguided return, the Eagles and Packers gained themselves -21 yards of combined field position.

Neither the Packers nor the Colts had a return in Week 2, giving the Lambeau Field crowd a very dynamic display of kickoff talents, but the struggles returned in Week 3. For the Titans, at least. Keisean Nixon, a two-time first-team All-Pro kick returner, spent his day casually fielding kicks he had no intention of returning. Incredible dynamism on display, there.

For his part, Titans returner Jha’Quan Jackson attempted three returns, all of which seemed to have been aided by short kicks. I don’t know if the short kickoff strategy was intentional or a result of the sore foot that landed Brayden Narveson on the injury report this week, but it didn’t increase the excitement at all. Jackson managed a 26-yard return (setting up the Titans on their own 31), a 25-yard return (which, after a hold, landed the Titans at their own 15), and a 33-yard return (giving the Titans their start at their own 32-yard line). Between his three returns, Jackson produced -12 yards of field position for the Titans. Even without the penalty, Tennessee would have been down three yards on the day.

Look, I want the NFL to retain kickoffs. They’re an aesthetic part of the game that we should do everything we can to retain. Kickoff returns are cool! Desmond Howard was a formative part of my early Packers fandom, and his work on kickoffs was a big part of that. NFL games are supposed to include kickoffs!

But if attempting to make them safer is going to result in this kind of performance, maybe it’s time to let it go. This isn’t fun. This isn’t dynamic. Unless Rich Bisaccia is right and in-season rules changes take place, it’s going to be a long year. Maybe they move the touchback to the 35-yard line? Something has to incentivize teams to stop booting it into the end zone.

If we can’t fix it that way, let’s at least stop calling it something it’s not. For right now, there isn’t a more low-energy play in football than the kickoff.