Dolphins Urged to Kick Off Into the Field of Play

Miami has allowed the NFL’s highest kickoff return average, 33.6 yards, while also leading the league in touchback rate. The two trends have become linked: after a 90-yard return by Cincinnati in Week 5, the Dolphins increasingly sent kickoffs deep into the end zone to prevent long returns.

Miami has recorded touchbacks on 12 of 27 kickoffs, a 44.4% rate. That is well above Baltimore’s second-place mark of 27%. In the past two games, eight of the Dolphins’ nine kickoffs were touchbacks, with the other an onside kick. Their rate over the first five games was 23.5%.

A touchback on a kick that flies into the end zone gives the opponent the ball at its 35-yard line. A kick that lands in the designated landing area and then reaches the end zone can instead result in possession at the 20. Miami’s opponents have begun post-kickoff drives at an average of the 37.25-yard line, only slightly beyond the 35-yard line.

Of Miami’s 13 kicks that were not touchbacks, five were returned past the 35. The analysis argues that kicking into the field of play could improve field position on the other eight and provide more game experience for the coverage players. It also notes that only two of the last 10 returns gave opponents possession beyond their 36-yard line.

Kicker Zane Gonzalez replaced Riley Patterson, and both Gonzalez and punter Bradley Pinion have handled kickoffs in the past two games. The analysis urges Miami to avoid letting the Cincinnati return dictate its approach and to resume targeting the landing zone.