From knuckle-ball kickoffs to special balls, here is a snapshot into the state of special teams as the NFL enters Week 6 of the 2025 season.
The Kansas City Chiefs had taken a 28-24 lead on "Monday Night Football" when kicker Harrison Butker approached his kickoff with 1:45 left in the game. Not wanting to give the Jacksonville Jaguars the ball at the 35-yard line with a touchback, he tried to place the ball in the designated "landing zone" (from the goal line to the 20-yard line).
He missed to the right sideline and Jaguars rookie returner Bhayshul Tuten let the ball bounce out of bounds. Instead of the 35, the Jags now started at their own 40.
The mishap and the result, a Jaguars victory thanks in part to the short field, was another example of the effect entropic special teams play – blocks, long field goals, new balls and more blocks – has wrought throughout the NFL over the first month of the 2025 season.
The Los Angeles Rams had a field goal blocked in Week 2 against the Tennessee Titans, then two more in the fourth quarter the next week against the Philadelphia Eagles, the latter of which would have won the game with zeros on the clock. On “Thursday Night Football” Oct. 2, Rams kicker Joshua Karty had a critical extra-point attempt in the fourth quarter blocked when San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Jordan Elliot generated interior pressure and deflected the kick. That kept the game tied instead of giving the Rams the lead. The Niners won in overtime.
Butker had only followed in Karty's footsteps. To start overtime of the Rams' eventual loss, Karty failed to deliver one of his “knuckleball” kickoffs – designed to take time off the clock and force an awkward pickup for the receiving team off the ground when ideally deployed – into the landing zone. That gave San Francisco the ball at the 40-yard line. Three first downs later, and Eddy Piñiero kissed his 41-yard shot six minutes into overtime off the left upright and through, to give the Niners a 26-23 lead that held up as the final score.
The game combined old-fashioned, game-changing special teams plays – a block, for example – with the drama the NFL intended by installing the dynamic kickoff prior to the 2024 season. Special teams is the phase of the game that is minimalized compared to offense and defense. But the first several weeks of this year have proved its importance in a league in which the slimmest of margins makes the difference.
From stunts to knuckle-ball kickoffs to special balls, here's a snapshot of the state of special teams as the NFL enters Week 6.
Special teams blocks come fast and furious in NFL's first month
The Eagles targeted the same area of the Rams’ blocking interior with two of the most physically imposing players in football in Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis. They each blocked one of Karty’s fourth-quarter field goals, with Davis returning his for a touchdown as time expired in a 33-26 Week 3 win. Five games came down to kicks that Sunday, as three blocks in quick succession during the early afternoon slate swung outcomes and dominated headlines.
Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay later revealed the complexity in what may be perceived as a simple rush toward the kicker. Carter did a “loop around” to generate pressure in a way that might throw off the blockers – similar to the stunts Carter and Davis run while attempting to sack the quarterback. Carter still gained some penetration and told Clay he felt wind go past his hand.
“It kind of confirms what he sees out there,” Clay said.
In a Week 4 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Eagles blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown. There have been 18 total blocks (counting field goals, extra points and punts) through Week 5, with 16 occurring from Weeks 1-4 – the second most for the first four weeks of the season since 1991.
Sometimes, it’s “the luck of the week,” Kansas City Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub said referring to the uptick in blocks during Week 3. Everybody’s trying to block every kick. He saw kicks with a lower trajectory than normal – longer field goals require a lower launch angle – and plenty of blocking issues.
“You got to get that fixed during the game,” Toub said. “If you have one you got to get it fixed right away because they are going to keep coming back at it. I think they did that in that ‘A gap.’ I think it was just one of those weeks where there were a lot of them. Going into our game by the time we played we already knew there (were) a bunch of blocks, and we said, ‘Hey, let’s join the crowd.’”
Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp said that, historically, more blocks occur in the first few weeks of the season compared to the rest of the year, although it rises again in the final weeks of the season. Early on, Fipp said, the blocking becomes better based on playing against a live rush more. Later in the season, as personnel rotates, the freshness once again benefits the defensive side.
“A day like that was obviously different,” he said.
Fipp and the Lions watched since they played the Baltimore Ravens on “Monday Night Football” that week. He was able to use the blocks as a last-minute case study to emphasize field-goal blocking.
“It’s kind of like, ‘See, I told you,’” Fipp said. “So, it kind of helped me out, gave me some credibility I guess.”
Seeing 12 blocks in the first three weeks of the season was “odd and crazy to see,” Chicago Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said. No trend – whether it was distance or hash mark or weather – emerged to him as he studied them all with his team during film sessions.
“What I can tell you is that we're watching all of that tape, and our players are watching all that tape as well,” Hightower said. “We went through all of those blocks with them as well so they could learn from it, and they could see it. Their eyes are open (to) it. Those are really good teaching moments for us as coaches and for the rest of the football team.”
Chicago’s Josh Blackwell made him look like a savant in Week 4. After receiving a tip from his own long snapper, Scott Daly, that Raiders long snapper Jacob Bobenmoyer moves the ball slightly before the snap, Blackwell perfectly timed his jump across the line of scrimmage to block Daniel Carlson’s 54-yard field goal as time expired. The Bears won, 25-24, and entered the bye 2-2 instead of 1-3.
“Just great strain, great execution, great effort, physicality,” Atlanta Falcons special teams coordinator Marquice Williams said after the barrage of blocks.
He added: “Credits to all those teams out there, the scheme, the athletes, the players, just going out there and playing with great effort. And getting their hands on the ball.”
Knucleball kickoffs and 'dirty balls'
In April, the league approved a rule change that moved the touchback on a kickoff to the 35-yard line, one year after changing touchbacks on a kickoff to the 30-yard line. Those five yards changed how the Rams treated the kickoff philosophically, Los Angeles special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn said.
The average return on kickoffs in 2024 was around the 30-yard line, essentially even with a touchback.
“Moving to the 35 now you're saying, ‘Hey, five-six yards per kick. Do we want to be doing that? We’re hoping to score a lot of points and kick off a bunch. We don't want to give 50 yards or 40 yards of field position every game,’” Blackburn said. “We’re coming with that approach.”
“People are not going to want to concede the ball at the 35-yard line,” Colts special teams coordinator Brian Mason told USA TODAY Sports during training camp.
Karty has practiced several styles of kickoffs that emphasize getting the ball on the ground. Analytically, Blackburn said, ball-to-ground time is the new hang time.
“I give credit to Karty and the way he's been able to get the ball on the ground and hit his different styles of kicks and manipulate the returners and hit it where they're not and certain things in that space,” Blackburn said before the Niners’ loss. “I’ve been really pleased. We have a lot of work to do. It's still early in the year.
“We don't want the short, but we're okay with the touchback every once in a while if it goes in the end zone untouched. That’s part of doing business if you're hitting the ball where you want it.”
Karty terrorized the Eagles with the kicks, as five returns averaged 11 yards per return and helped the Rams build a 26-7 lead before the Philadelphia comeback.
“I love the fact that every kickoff and every return is important,” Toub said.
Rams assistant special teams coach Ben Kotwica equated it to golf to help the Rams’ special teams players understand the game theory that goes into the strategy of kickoffs, Blackburn said.
“You're on a par three and the green's … the landing zone. If you hit a great ball and land it on the landing zone and wherever it goes after that, you're not trying to get in the hole at that point. Wherever it goes after that point, as long as it stays on the green, you're in good shape,” Blackburn said. “If you hit it in the end zone on a touchback, on a regular 35-yard touchback, that's like being in the middle of the green, not near the pin, or maybe you're just off on the fringe, you're okay. You can get up and down for a par versus you get the water ball is the short or (out-of-bounds). Where's your area to miss?”
Teams already need about 30 yards to be in field-goal range. Improperly executing is a risk teams take with these knuckling kickoffs, Hightower said. Starting your defense at the 40-yard line is even less ideal. But the Bears used it to keep dangerous Dallas Cowboys returner Kavontae Turpin off balance, and Cairo Santos “did a phenomenal job with those knuckle kicks.”
“We'll see more of them,” Hightower said. “We work on them all the time, both kicking them and returning against them.”
As Hightower said, returners are also training to better receive those kickoffs, sometimes referred to as “dirty balls” by special teams coaches.
“As a returner, you go out and you catch balls off the jugs, off the foot, but then you work on those knuckle balls,” Williams, the Falcons' special teams cooordinator, said. “That was something that came into play last year.”
It is hard to prepare for, Houston Texans special teams coordinator Frank Roos said.
“You lower the jugs (machines) and off the live foot from your kicker,” he said, “but you can't replicate every time how each opponent's kicker is going to do it.
“Just playing center fielder, getting a good crack off the bat and make sure you're there to jump it and then not let that ball get to the ground. That's the best way to attack those.”
The 2024 season had the most explosive (40 yards or more) kickoff returns in the last eight years, but the second-lowest return rate ever. Teams could flatten out their coverage at the 40-yard line. But the new touchback rule was a game-changer.
“The placement by the kicker, it just becomes really, really important,” Broncos special teams coordinator and assistant head coach Darren Rizzi said. “You’re seeing how it becomes paramount here in these big games here at the end, these one-score games.”
Before the season, Mason said to expect “a lot more trick kicks, a lot more line-drive kicks, a lot more balls on the ground, how that looks at the beginning of the year will be interesting.”
Mason saw it coming.
Longer field goals, different balls
Count Brandon Aubrey as a fan of the prepared kicking balls (“K-Balls”).
Passed in March by the league, teams can now prepare kicking balls in advance of game day. Previously, it was the task of equipment managers to get one – if kickers were lucky – suitable for kicking.
“I think it’s a great change,” Aubrey said on Sept. 15 on “The Pat McAfee Show,” “why put in rules that are going to limit the excitement?”
Fans want long field goal attempts. And the league wants more scoring and points. The K-Ball helps on all fronts.
There’s no huge difference in the way the ball looks compared to K-balls of the past. Now there's not as much variation between the six K-balls each team can use, whereas before the K-balls could be a little bit different based on the amount of time put into managing each one before the game. Being able to practice with them during the week – the crux of the rule – familiarizes kickers with the shape and feel of the ball, Aubrey said.
Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio compared the development to Major League Baseball’s steroid era.
“These kicking balls that changed this year have drastically changed the kicking game, field goals in particular,” Fangio said. “It's almost like they need an asterisk era, like it was the live-ball era, or the asterisk for those home runs that (Barry) Bonds or (Sammy) Sosa or (Mark) McGwire were hitting. The way they have changed the ball, the NFL has drastically changed the field goals.”
Chase McLaughlin of the Buccaneers made the longest outdoor field goal on record with a 65-yarder against Philadelphia on Sept. 28. The Jacksonville Jaguars’ Cam Little made one during the preseason from 70 yards. Aubrey said his 64-yarder against the Giants in Week 2 would have been good from 72 or 73 yards out.
Through five weeks of the 2025 NFL season, kickers have made 66 of 91 attempts (72.5%) from more than 50 yards away. Long-distance kicking was actually better at the start of 2024 season when kickers made 61 of 81 tries (75.3%) from Weeks 1-4.
An important consideration when sending out the field-goal unit from that distance, New York Giants special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial said, is that if the kicker misses, the other team will gain possession on the dangerous side of the logo. Weighing the other phases of the game – special teams will always exist between offense and defense – is another factor when deciding whether to kick from distance.
“It is pretty damn cool to see the range of what these kickers are able to do,” Ghobrial said, “whether it's preseason or regular season.”
The kicking talent in the league is “almost at an all-time high,” Jets special teams coordinator Chris Banjo said. His unit pulled off a block-return for a touchdown in Week 3, when Will McDonald jumped the snap and had his block land in his lap for a 50-yard score.
McLaughlin got his redemption and delivered a game-winning 36-yard field goal as time expired. Another example of the 2025 season having a game’s balance hinge on special teams play.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NFL's special teams get chaotic with record field goals, many blocks
Category: Football
