The NFL spent years managing the injury risk presented by kickoffs by minimizing the play. In 2025, the NFL went the other way, moving the touchback point from the 30 to the 35 in an effort to encourage more returns for the “dynamic kickoff” that in the first year of the new approach, when it was a dud.
To no surprise, more returns has led to more injuries. Specifically, more concussions.
Jayna Bardahl of TheAthletic.com [has obtained league data](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6798426/2025/11/12/kickoff-returns-concussions-injuries-nfl/) that has been shared with teams through the first seven weeks of the 2025 regular season.
The shift of the touchback point has resulted in a massive increase in returns, from 31.7 percent through seven weeks of 2024 to 79.3 percent through seven weeks of 2025. In turn, the number of concussions per 100 kickoffs rose to 1.48 through seven weeks. Through seven weeks last year, the number was 0.29.
It’s a rate five times higher than the baseline concussion rate on scrimmage plays.
The NFL declined to comment to TheAthletic.com on the specific issue of concussions, saying only that the issue will be analyzed when more data is available.
Data isn’t needed. Only common sense is. More returns mean more hits mean more injuries of every kind. Helmets are struck by knees and elbows and forearms and other helmets. Helmets strike the ground. Concussions happen.
Here’s the thing the NFL won’t say out loud, but which absolutely resides at the core of the entire issue. Revising the kickoff rule was never about minimizing concussions. It was always about eliminating the possibility of high-speed collisions that can cause serious neck injuries.
The current kickoff formation, for the most part, removes the risk of a Kevin Everett/Eric LeGrand-type of outcome. Two players, running toward each other at full speed. They dip their heads just before impact. The Newtonian forces place high stress on the cervical spine. The risk of serious injury, or worse, is real.
But the NFL has never framed it that way. Yes, people like Giants co-owner John Mara had publicly called the kick return the “[most dangerous play](https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/nfl-should-just-get-rid-of-the-most-dangerous-play)” in the game. It wasn’t about concussions. It was about broken necks.
Whether it was for liability purposes or superstition, the league has never said the quiet part out loud. In the age of enhanced sensitivity to player health and safety, one spinal fracture during a kickoff return could have a massive negative impact on the sport, at every level.
If the league is going to keep the kickoff in its current form, it eventually needs to admit that the changes weren’t made to reduce concussions but to avoid catastrophe. While there’s a separate question regarding an uptick in garden-variety concussions is acceptable, the entire effort has been about avoiding the possibility of a player becoming paralyzed, or killed, during a kickoff return.
The dynamic kickoff removed the full-speed, two-men-going-in-opposite-directions collisions. This year, satisfied that the close quarters of the blockers and tacklers makes a potential neck fracture far less likely (except, frankly, for the kicker who is trailing the action and running toward the returner or a blocker), the league tweaked the rule in order to get more returns.
It worked. The formation adopted in 2024 reduced the very real risk of serious injury. The 2025 shift of the touchback point from the 30 to the 35 has increased the risk of non-serious injury by increasing the number of returns.
So what happens next? We’ll find out when the NFL secures sufficient data, apparently.
Data that the NFL doesn’t really need to realize that, unless they are willing to finally admit that it’s always been about preventing broken necks, they may need to make even more changes to the kickoff.
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