ESPN - The NFL appears to have fixed concerns with the kickoff. Now the league will have to hope it doesn’t break again.

A year after a major overhaul and six months after a seemingly minor tweak, teams have returned 78.3% of kickoffs during the first four weeks of the season -- the highest rate over that period in 19 years. The NFL has seen 519 kickoff returns, the most through Week 4 in its history.

Coaches have reacted strongly to moving the touchback from the 30-yard line in 2024 to the 35 this season, refusing to concede the additional 5 yards. The return rate has more than doubled from last season and has more than tripled the 2023 rate. Health data is not yet available, but if the concussion rate established during the first phase of the overhaul in 2024 carries over, the NFL will have achieved its goal of revitalizing the play while reducing its injury risk.

“’Mission accomplished’ would be the way I would describe it,” said Walt Anderson, the NFL’s officiating rules analyst. “It has certainly brought the play back into the game, and it seems to be in a very consistent pattern.”

Historically, the standard in pro football was to return kickoffs. From 2000 to 2010, the return rate was 85%. It began to decline, however, as the NFL connected its high-speed collisions with a higher rate of concussions. Rule changes designed to incentivize touchbacks began chipping away at returns. By 2022, nearly three out of every four kickoffs (73%) went for touchbacks.

Pulling from ideas first introduced by the now-defunct XFL in 2020, NFL special teams coaches worked with the competition committee to realign most players involved in the kickoff play downfield to reduce the violence of collisions. The rule reversed the decline, increasing the return rate to 32.8% in 2024 from 21.8% in 2023. But coaches still mostly preferred the touchback, with the ball placed at the 30-yard line, after seeing data that the average return was bringing the ball to the 28.8-yard line. They were willing to concede that additional 1.2 yards, but this season they are not willing to sacrifice 6.2 yards after owners agreed to move the touchback to the 35.