Silver And Black Pride
NFL makes touchback spot the 35-yard line in hopes of promoting more action in kickoff return game
Continued consistency and breaking a long drought.
That’s what’s on the line for the Las Vegas Raiders regarding the NFL’s 2025 special teams rule change this upcoming season.
With eyes on creating more action on kickoffs — something that was dampened with player safety in mind — the league moved up the dead ball spot on touchbacks to the 35-yard line. The rule changed, approved on April 1, is aimed in increasing the kickoff return rate which will have reverberating effects on all 32 special teams units in the league.
A 30 to 40 percent jolt would certainly add more excitement to the kickoff, an exercise that often resulted in both the kicking and receiving team watching the ball sail into the end zone or outside of the landing zone without much effort.
Originally devised to meet both player safety and scoring opportunities, NFL owners felt the dynamic kickoff rule (adopted in 2024) needed a tweak. Thus, the new 35-yard line dead ball spot to entice teams to be more tactical with the kick and return opportunities.
The other kickoff rules remain in place — such as alignment and landing zone — with the advanced dead ball spot the new addition.
Fortunately for Las Vegas, special teams coordinator Tom McMahon has an accurate and strong-legged place kicker in his group: Daniel Carlson.
While other teams may showcase a booming kickoff specialist — the Detroit Lions’ Jake Bate led the league with 85 touchbacks in 2024, for example — Carlson compiled 51 touchbacks which puts him 15th in the league in that regard. The 63.8 touchback percentage is below the league average (64.3) and the average distance Carlson’s kicks traveled (61) was also below the average.
But Carlson’s placement helped the coverage unit limit any type of return opportunities as the Silver & Black allowed the third-least return average at 24.8 while also showcasing the 13th fewest return opportunities (24).
Continued consistency from Carlson will help ensure the Raiders special teams unit remains strong in kickoff coverage.
Which brings us to the drought portion mentioned at the beginning of this piece.
When was the last time the Raiders housed a kickoff return?
Way back on October 16, 2011 when fleet-footed wide receiver and return specialist Jacoby Ford torched the Cleveland Browns for a 101-yard touchdown.
Behold:
Ford, who played for the Silver & Black from 2010-13 after being selected in the fourth round (108th overall) of the 2010 NFL Draft, is the all-time franchise leader in kickoff return touchdowns with four.
The ongoing 14-year gap is the longest steak for the Silver & Black when it comes to housing kickoff returns. Before this current dry spell, it was from 1980 to 1988 and 1988 to 1995 as the two most recent gaps. Before that it was 1962 to 1975.
The Raiders’ kickoff return prowess has certainly lost its luster the past few seasons.
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