Lions One Special Teams Weakness That Must Be Addressed

The Detroit Lions could be negatively impacted by a new NFL kickoff rule change.

Under the new rule, the ball will be placed at the 35-yard line after a touchback. The intended consequence is teams are expecting there to be far more kickoff returns.

For Detroit, the one special teams statistic that was not as stellar as the team would like is the opponents average per kickoff return.

In 2024, the Lions special teams unit gave up a average of 31.1 yards per kickoff return.

According to the team website, "This is the only area where Detroit wasn't among the NFL leaders on special teams. Detroit was top three last year in kickoff and punt returns and average punt return yards against. Only Indianapolis (34.8), Tennessee (32.1) and Arizona (31.4) allowed a higher kickoff return average than Detroit last year."

Special teams coach Dave Fipp expressed he is fired up about the new rule and expects teams to see more benefits from attempting to return kickoffs.

"I think as you guys saw at the end of the year, the average drive start 29.5 or something like that, so it's really, there was really no benefit to obviously kicking the ball off or returning it," Fipp explained. "But this year, if you said the average is a 29.5 and the touchback’s the 35, then obviously, statistically, it's saying, 'Okay, we need to return the ball.' Or if you're on kickoffs, they really dictate the play. You need to kick it off and force these guys to return it."

League coaches are expecting that returns will be in the 70-75 percent range this upcoming season. Last season, Detroit only returned a total of 15 kicks.

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