Last season, the NFL overhauled its kickoff rules by eliminating the surprise onside kick. 

This meant that teams could no longer catch their opponents off guard by kicking an onside kick whenever they wanted, regardless of whether they were winning or losing. 

As part of the new rule, teams may only attempt onside kicks if they are losing in the fourth quarter, and they need to let the officials know before the attempt. 

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell cited a high percentage of injuries on the onside kicks for wanting to make that change. 

At first, I didn’t like this change as I have had memories of watching surprise inside kicks. My favorite one was in Super Bowl XLIV, where the New Orleans Saints performed an onside kick to open the second half against the Indianapolis Colts while trailing 10-6. 

This play caught the Colts off guard, and this prevented one of the league’s best quarterbacks, Peyton Manning, from adding to the lead. This play has been nicknamed “the ambush.” 

However, the decision to eliminate the surprise onside kick has in fact helped make the game safer. The lowest number of concussions were reported at being 17% down from 2023 and 43% down from the 2021-23 average. 

While we may miss the onside kick’s unpredictability, safety is the most important part of sports. 

However, many fans, coaches and analysts feel that with the onside kicks no longer allowed to be a surprise, the receiving teams now have an easier task of recovering the ball and the stats from last season back this up. 

Heading into week 15 of last season, there had only been three recoveries out of the 41 onside kick attempts. The percentage of recoveries is an extremely low 7.3%. 

This has prompted the league to consider the fourth-and-20 alternative. 

The Philadelphia Eagles first proposed this idea after the 2023 season, but most of the owners voted against the concept. 

So, this upcoming season may see even more changes and it may in fact include the permanent elimination of the onside kick. 

A month ago, I was going through my Instagram feed, and I saw a post about this concept being brought back up for this upcoming offseason. The post came with a poll, and most people, including myself, voted yes to having this play passed. 

In an interview with NBC, NFL executive Troy Vincent expressed his support for the elimination of the onside kick because of its success rate. 

“We need to look at that,” Vincent said. “That’s a dead play. That is a ceremonial play. Very low recovery rate. When we look at the kickoff and maybe where the touchback area should be during the offseason, we need to revisit the onside kick.” 

Since 2013, stat analysts have found that the fourth down success rates go down by distance and that fourth downs of 15 or more yards have a success rate of 13.9%. 

Remember, onside kicks now have a success rate of 7.3% so why not give the fourth-and-20 play a try? 

What would be even crazier is if the team trying to convert, ends up not only gaining all 20 yards, but they end up scoring the game-winning touchdown. 

Some fans feel that the pass heavy teams will have an unfair advantage. But, if the defense knows the situation they are in, then is this play going to be as easy as kicking an extra point or a field goal within the desired range? 

The NFL is expected to hold a vote on whether to make this change at its annual league meeting from March 30-April 2. 

Drew Farrell can be reached at 581-2812 or at atfarrell@eiu.edu.