In the interest of seeing how recent changes to the NFL kickoff rule may change the return game, I acquired play-by-play data of all NFL kickoffs from 2015. After excluding touch-backs, returns with penalties, onside kicks with no attempted return, and end-of-game laterals, we were left with 1040 kicks returns, which I sorted by starting position then yardage to plot each return. Each line above corresponds to a single return from the starting point (catch) to finish (end of return).
I'll analyze this data in greater depth in the near future, but some observations from the figure:
-Approximately half of the kicks returned started in the end-zone
-Kicks 9 yards deep in the end-zone never made it past the 25 yard line last year.
-Returns for touchdowns are shaded toward better starting position(-1 or better), but only slightly.
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