The NFL’s kickoffs continue to change and KaVontae Turpin should continue to thrive.
At the moment there is an NFC East team who has a serious advantage on a certain play, a play that was up for serious discussion during the recent NFL owner meetings in Florida. No, I am not talking about the Philadelphia Eagles and the tush push. What I am hinting at is the Dallas Cowboys, KaVontae Turpin, and how the league is continuing to mold and adjust the kickoff play.
On Tuesday, the league’s owners voted on a modification of the kickoff that was completely changed last year to the new dynamic version of the play. While there were no changes to the onside kick format, what is different is that touchbacks on kickoffs will now have teams start at their own 35-yard line.
The key upshot here: Touchbacks will now come out to the 35 instead of the 30, which in theory will discourage teams from kicking so many balls out of the end zone and lead to more returns. With injury rates down on the dynamic kickoff, this was the next step. https://t.co/YFgJzS8izq
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) April 1, 2025
Touchbacks have been significantly altered over the course of the last decade or so. It is highly likely that you remember a world where one resulted in you starting with the ball all the way back at your own 20-yard line. That was when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I believe.
The league moved things up five yards at first to the 25-yard line, and obviously then to the 30. Again, over the last decade (ish) we have seen 15 yards added from the place that we always knew kickoffs to land. Consider that in those days you had 80 yards to reach the endzone and now you only have 65. That is a reduction of 18.75%!
As Tom Pelissero notes in his post, the idea/logic here from the owners is that this adjustment will discourage teams from booting balls into the endzone and giving teams a touchback’s worth of field position. Assuming this winds up being the case, it will lead to more opportunities for KaVontae Turpin.
Consider that Turpin had a career-high 27 kickoff returns last season. He had his first touchdown, who doesn’t remember it, and had a significantly higher yards per return average than either of his first two seasons.
KaVontae Turpin Yards Per Kickoff Return (number of returns)
- 2022: 24.2 (21)
- 2023: 29.2 (10)
- 2024: 33.5 (27)
It certainly helps that Turpin’s longest return was 99 yards last year, but the overall point stands. Teams being forced (theoretically) into putting the ball in his hands at that moment in time should lead to the Cowboys having more opportunities for success.