The NFL has made several changes to the rules on kickoffs, intended to reduce the number of injuries that come from full-speed collisions. An unintended consequence has been reducing the number of successful onside kicks.
So far this season NFL teams have attempted 50 onside kicks and recovered just four of them, or 8 percent. Last year NFL teams attempted 57 onside kicks and recovered 12 of them, or 21 percent. As the Chiefs lined up for their unsuccessful onside kick on Sunday night against the Seahawks, Cris Collinsworth noted that the new rule barring players from getting a running start on kickoffs has made onside kicks much harder to recover.
“The onside kick has been a little strange this year because you’re one yard from where the ball is kicked, so you don’t get that run-up that allows you to get there about the time when the ball hits that bounce-bounce way in the air and then comes down. So it hasn’t been as easy this year as it has been in some years past,” Collinsworth said.
Many of the most exciting games in NFL history have been big comebacks spurred on by successful onside kicks. The new rules will make such comebacks harder, and rarer.