NFL Reportedly Passes Onside Kick Rule Change, Expands Opportunities for Teams

NFL owners reportedly voted in favor of a change to the onside kick rule at the league's spring meeting in Minnesota on Wednesday.

According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the new rule will allow teams to declare for an onside kick at any point in a game if they are trailing. Onside kicks will also be taken from the 34-yard line instead of the 35-yard line.

In conjunction with the implementation of new kickoff rules last season, teams were limited to only being able to declare for an onside kick if they were trailing in the fourth quarter.

Since the new kickoff formation introduced last season was markedly different from the one used previously, the option to go for a surprise onside kick was eliminated.

That is still the case even with the new rule since the kicking team must announce ahead of time that they are attempting an onside kick.

Surprise onside kicks were typically more effective than traditional ones, with the most famous example occurring in Super Bowl XLIV when the New Orleans Saints recovered a surprise onside kick against the Indianapolis Colts coming out of halftime.

The Saints were trailing 10-6 at the time, but the recovery shifted momentum, and they went on to win 31-17.

In addition to eliminating surprise onside kicks, the NFL has taken steps to make onside kicks safer over the past several years, including the requirement that there must be five players on each side of the ball.

As a result, recovering onside kicks has become one of the lowest-percentage plays in the NFL.

Of the 50 onside kicks attempted last season, only three were recovered by the kicking team for an overall success rate of just 6 percent.

Although the new onside kick rule will give teams a bit more freedom, it isn't likely to have much of an impact on how often teams recover them.

Additionally, it probably won't lead to many or any more onside kicks than usual since it is exceedingly rare for teams to attempt onside kicks before the fourth quarter outside of the now-banned surprise onside kicks.