The NFL has made rule changes in recent seasons hoping to minimize head injuries across the sport.
Based on the data collected by the league for the 2024 regular season, they are working.
Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president overseeing player health and safety, told reporters during a Thursday conference call this season featured the fewest concussions on record for a single season since the league began electronically tracking them in 2015.
Overall, there was a 17% decrease in concussions between the 2023 and 2024 NFL seasons, according to Miller.
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Miller explained the NFL’s new dynamic kickoff rule was partly to thank for the decrease in head injuries. Concussions were down by 43% on kickoffs while the injury rate on the returns matched injury rates on plays from scrimmage, per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. Previously, the injury rate on kickoffs was 2-4 times higher than it was on plays from scrimmage.
While the number of concussions suffered on kickoffs in 2024 matched the eight suffered in 2023, per NFL.com’s Judy Battista, that number remained stagnant amid a 57% increase in kickoff returns.
With that in mind, the NFL’s dynamic kickoff will likely be here to stay. The league did not clarify what additional changes it might seek as it looks to keep concussions trending downward.