Goodell Expects to ‘Make a Few Changes’ to NFL Kickoff Rules

After four weeks of the 2024 NFL regular season, commissioner Roger Goodell has seen enough of the league’s new dynamic kickoff rules that he’s apparently ready for something different.

“I think we’ll have to make a few changes on the kickoff that will, I think, lead to a lot more kickoff returns,” he said Tuesday on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football. 

Teams are returning 29.1% of kickoffs so far this season, compared to the record low of 22% in 2023. Goodell said that moving touchbacks up 5 yards to the 35-yard line “would be a game-changer right away.”

It’s extremely unlikely the NFL would make a major rule change midseason, though, given the competitive imbalances that could occur.

“I think that there will be a change,” Goodell said. “Whether we make it immediately after the season, we’re going to have a competition committee [meeting] in the next week.”

International Appeal

Goodell has not been shy about his ambitions for the league to expand its regular-season schedule to 18 games, and eventually play 16 international contests each year.

Now, he’s indicating those two moves may be connected.

Ahead of the Jets and Vikings playing in London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at 9:30 a.m. ET on Sunday—the second of five games outside of the U.S. this fall—Goodell said he’s confident the global games will continue to grow.

“I think we’ll end up going to 16 games at some point in time,” the commissioner said. “The owners have already authorized us to go to eight, but I’m confident, particularly if we’re going to do the restructuring of the season, that we would get to 16 at some point.”

Ahead of the Eagles’ 34–19 victory over the Packers in Brazil on Peacock in Week 1, Goodell said he hoped to see the NFL play 16 games abroad, rather than create an international division. Around the NFL draft in May, Goodell ramped up his most public push yet for an 18-game regular season.

“What can we do next, ultimately? And how do we continue to expand this? I do think we can do this,” Goodell said of international games on GMFB. “I think scheduling, we may have to make changes to that in some ways, probably roster sizes and some other things. But I do think it’s something we’ll do more of.”

The NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement runs through March 2030. If not already approved by then, both an 18-game season and 16-game international slate figure to be a major negotiation point for a new CBA.