Kickoff returns are way up in the NFL this year, and with that increase in returns comes the promise of more excitement on a play that had become dull when touchbacks dominated. However, the most thrilling outcome on a kickoff—a return for a touchdown—has been surprisingly rare this season.
Patriots returner Antonio Gibson electrified fans in Week Two against the Dolphins by taking a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown. Yet, that remains the only kickoff return touchdown in the entire NFL this season.
This scarcity is unusual, to say the least. So far in the season, there have been a total of 764 kickoff returns, but only one resulted in a touchdown. This touchdown rate is easily the lowest in NFL history.
To put it in perspective, last year—the first season of the so-called “dynamic” kickoff—there were 920 kickoff returns across the entire season, with seven of those resulting in touchdowns. Back in 2023, when the NFL deemed kickoffs so dull that the “dynamic” kickoff rule was introduced, there were only 587 kickoff returns, nearly 200 fewer than the league has already seen through just six weeks this year. Despite the lower volume, four kickoff returns went for touchdowns in 2023.
The current scarcity of kickoff return touchdowns may simply be a statistical oddity rather than a long-term trend. But for all the talk about how “dynamic” the new kickoff rules were supposed to make the game, they haven’t yet produced the most dynamic result of all—a returner taking the kickoff all the way to the house.
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/kickoff-returns-are-up-but-touchdowns-are-down-with-only-one-this-season
