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NFL concussions down 43 percent on kickoffs, fewest ever in a season overall
“The goal was to reduce the space and therefore the speeds on that play, which were the major contributor to injuries."
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The NFL reduced its rate of concussions suffered by players on kickoff returns by more than 40 percent this season with its new kickoff format in effect, and had the fewest overall concussions in a season in its recorded history, according to injury data released Thursday by the league.
NFL health and safety leaders said the new kickoff alignment implemented for this season worked as intended. The format was designed to boost returns while reducing the injury rate to make it comparable to that of a play from the line of scrimmage.
“We brought that play back,” Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications, public affairs and policy, said in a video conference with reporters. “And it had a great deal of dynamism or excitement attached to it. On the injury front … the goal was to reduce the injuries on that play more in line with a run or pass play and to eliminate the two to four times injury rate that we were seeing previously. And, in fact, we did. The injury rate, whether it be the concussion rate or the overall injury rate, on the dynamic kickoff is at par with a run or pass play, which is terrific news, of course.”
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According to Miller, there were eight concussions suffered by players on kickoff returns this season. That was the same number as last season, but the number represented a 43 percent rate reduction because there were 332 additional kickoffs returned.
League leaders previously called the kickoff the sport’s most hazardous play and said they needed to find a way to reduce the injury rate to keep it in the game.
“The goal was to reduce the space and therefore the speeds on that play, which were the major contributor to injuries,” Miller said Thursday. “That play uniquely, given its formation, provided the opportunity for high-speed impacts, unquestionably.”
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The new format, in which only the kicker begins on one side of the field and his 10 teammates line up a few yards away from the players on the receiving team, was enacted on a one-year basis, meaning it must be approved again this offseason by team owners.
That’s a virtual given based on the strong support it has from Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league. Kickoff returns increased 57 percent from last season. The NFL and the league’s competition committee may make offseason tweaks to the format to attempt to further increase the rate of returns. Those could include moving the spot of touchbacks from the 30 to the 35-yard line to further discourage kickoffs into the end zone and moving the spot of the kick back five yards.
The overall number of concussions suffered by players in all preseason and regular season practices and games was down 17 percent from last season and 12 percent from the average for the 2021 to 2023 seasons. Miller attributed the reduction to “improved equipment, continued rules changes and enforcement, a culture change around head injuries.”
It was the lowest, Miller said, since the NFL adopted its current medical records system in 2015.
“The work’s not done,” said Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer. “Even though we’re really gratified about these concussion numbers that we’re sharing, we want to see the number continue to go down. We’ve spoken to you all and spoken very publicly about our desire to see head contact continue to get out of the game, avoidable head contact. And so that’s something that we’ll continue to spend a great deal of time focusing on, something that we’ll be talking a lot with our competition committee about how do we continue to remove dangerous techniques from the game.”
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