NFL Rule Changes: Explaining Hip-Drop Tackling, Kickoffs for 2024 Season

Flag on the play! As the 2024 NFL season kicks off, new league-wide rules will take effect and force fans to punt on some previous knowledge. The game-changing adjustments follow a months-long process of surveying teams, coaches and league executives, reviewing proposals from the NFL Competition Committee and winning the majority vote of approval by team owners. Before the first whistle of the season blows, secure your NFL tickets and study up on the new NFL rule changes for the 2024 season below.

2024 NFL Rule Changes

Hip-Drop Tackle

Defenses will take the field for the 2024 season with one less move in their arsenal. In March 2024, NFL team owners voted unanimously to ban the hip-drop tackle, a technique in which a player ends a play by wrapping their arms around the ball carrier, rotating their hips and dropping their weight on the other player’s legs. After analyzing over 20,000 tackles over the last two seasons, the league determined hip-drop tackles were 20-times more likely than other types of tackles to result in a lower body injury.

Starting in the 2024 regular season, a hip-drop tackle will result in a 15-yard personal foul penalty and an automatic first-down. Players cited for an illegal hip-drop tackle during a post game review will receive a fine the following week.

Dynamic Kickoff

One of the league’s new rule changes affects kickoffs. In an effort to both promote more action during kick returns and limit common injuries, the league introduced new dynamic kickoff rules modeled after scrimmage gameplay. For every free kick, the defending team’s kicker still launches the ball from their 35-yard line, but the receiving team now takes formation in a Setup Zone between their 30- and 35-yard line while the receiving team lines up five yards away at the 40. Aside from the kicker, only two receivers positioned between the endzone and their 20-yard line can move on-field before the ball touches a player or the ground.

This rule change also raises the importance of where the ball lands on a kick return. A kickoff is now deemed fair and must be returned when it reaches the receiving team’s Landing Zone between the goal line and 20-yard line. If a ball touches the Landing Zone and rolls into the endzone, a receiver can either continue the play or take a down for a touchback to the 20-yard line. When the ball lands inside the endzone and stays inbounds, it can be returned or downed for a 30-yard touchback. For kickoffs that fall out of bounds or ahead of the Landing Zone, the ball is dead and the receiving team starts the next play at their 40-yard line. Any over-kicked ball that ends up beyond the endzone results in an automatic touchback to the 30-yard line.

Also quite notably, onside kicks are now only allowed during the fourth quarter of games and teams are required to alert officials of one beforehand. If an onside kick lands past the Setup Zone, the kicking team receives an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and the receiving team automatically starts from the 20-yard line.

An illegal free kick places a five-yard penalty on the kicking team. Any penalties from the play prior to kickoff will not affect the location of a team’s Setup or Landing Zone. However, the kicker’s placement may be moved If the kicking team receives a foul call on the previous play.

2024 NFL Rule Amendments

The 2024 NFL rule changes came along with several major amendments to existing laws. Approved by at least three-quarters of the league’s owners, the following changes were initially submitted by the NFL Competition Committee unless stated otherwise:

• Teams only need to win one challenge, instead of two, to receive a third challenge; proposed by the Detroit Lions organization in 2023 and 2024, passing on its second attempt.
• Offensive fouls will be enforced on plays where both teams have committed fouls and the ball possession changes, such as with interceptions or fumbles. Typically, only defensive fouls had been used to determine penalties and possession of the ball.
• Referees’ replay review has been extended to determine if a passer was down or out of bounds before throwing a pass and whether the play clock ran out before the offense snapped the ball.