The NFL’s new rule giving the receiving team the ball on any fair catch of a kickoff inside the 25-yard line has had an unintended consequence: Encouraging two-point conversions.
The rule, which was intended to reduce the number of returned kickoffs and therefore the number of injuries on high-speed collisions, has also resulted in a different strategy when the defense commits a penalty on a touchdown play that the offense can choose to apply either to the kickoff or the conversion.
In the past, teams often chose to apply the penalty on the ensuing kickoff, and then kick the ball high and short of the goal line, in the hopes of pinning the kickoff returner deep in his own territory. But with the new rule, a kickoff returner in that situation would just signal for a fair catch and take the ball at the 25.
So now teams are applying the penalty half the distance to the goal line on the conversion, and going for two.
For example, in last week’s game against the Bills, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence was roughed while throwing a touchdown pass. The Jaguars could have applied the 15-yard penalty to the kickoff and kicked from the 50-yard line. Instead, they applied the penalty half the distance to the conversion, lined up their offense on the 1-yard line, and successfully got two points to take an 8-0 lead.
Michael Lopez of the NFL’s Data & Analytics department notes that there have already been 11 two-point conversions from the 1-yard line this season. At the same point last season, there had only been two two-point conversion attempts from the 1-yard line.
That’s not what the rule was designed to do, but it’s been a byproduct, and one that adds a little excitement by adding some two-point conversions.
