New NFL rule change should greatly benefit recent Bengals draft pick as he enters an extremely important offseason
A year after fundamentally changing kickoffs, the NFL is making another tweak to the play. NFL owners have approved a rule that puts the ball on the 35-yard line following a touchback. The previous rule placed the ball on the 30-yard line. The meaning of this change is simple. Now that touchbacks award the receiving […]
A year after fundamentally changing kickoffs, the NFL is making another tweak to the play.
NFL owners have approved a rule that puts the ball on the 35-yard line following a touchback. The previous rule placed the ball on the 30-yard line.
The meaning of this change is simple. Now that touchbacks award the receiving team an additional five yards of improved field position to start each drive, teams kicking off will be more incentivized to ensure its kicks will be returnable. According to The Athletic's Paul Dehner Jr., special teams coordinators originally pushed for this last year but were turned down.
Five yards may not seem like much, but it does make a big difference. Per football data scientist Tej Seth, the expected points of a new drive starting at the 35 is 0.32 greater compared to the drive starting at the 30.
According to Stathead, 63.75% of kickoffs in both the 2024 regular season and playoffs resulted in touchbacks, a 9.4% decrease from 2023. Kickoff coverage and return units will become more valuable if touchbacks do continue decrease in frequency in 2025, making the individual players composing those units more valuable as well.
One Cincinnati Bengals player specifically stands out as someone with much to gain.
Bengals WR Jermaine Burton can take advantage of new touchback rule
Burton's rookie season was far from a success. The third-round pick from the 2024 NFL Draft was a healthy scratch for multiple games, and recorded just four receptions for 107 yards. Most of his production actually came on kickoff returns as Cincinnati turned to him for the role after Charlie Jones suffered a season-ending injury in Week 8.
Burton ended up leading the Bengals in kickoff returns (13), return yardage (378), and boasted a strong average of 29.1 yards per return, which exceeded the league average by 1.5 yards per attempt.
Retaining that role, especially with its heightened importance, is entirely in Burton's best interest heading into 2025.
It's not a guarantee that Burton will be on the Week 1 roster. Director of player personnel Duke Tobin made it sound like Burton will have to fight to stick around this offseason following a concerning first year in the league.
"He's done nothing, and he's going to have to start doing something quickly," Tobin said of Burton in January. "We knew we were taking a risk. We felt comfortable that we could help him through some of the challenges he's had in the past, and we're going to continue to try to help him. But this is professional football, and you have to take accountability, and you have to be accountable to your teammates, your coaches, and the team that you're playing for, and he has to figure that out. He's got to figure that out fast."
It'll be difficult for Burton to break through as a receiver now that Tee Higgins is indeed sticking around with Ja'Marr Chase for the foreseeable future, and Mike Gesicki and Andrei Iosivas are locked in for the next couple of seasons as ancillary options.
He needs to create value in some way. Might as well be the way he did late last year.
Burton will have competition for the job. Jones figures to have a shot at taking it back from him, and he's not exactly safe to make the team either. Jones, a former fourth-round pick from the 2023 draft, has been injured for nearly half of his two-year career thus far and has even fewer receiving yards (69) than Burton despite arriving in town a year earlier.
More names could enter the equation, but Burton and Jones figure to be the frontrunners for now. Expect this to be one of the main competitions come training camp. It could end up prolonging Burton's time on the Bengals altogether.
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