Kickoff returns are way up in the NFL this season as a result of the new rule moving touchbacks to the 35-yard line. And that may lead to a new NFL record for kickoff return yards in a season.
The current record is 2,186 yards, set by Arizona’s MarTay Jenkins in 2000. As kickoff returns became less common and touchbacks more frequent in subsequent years, no one came close to breaking Jenkins’ record: Last year’s leader, KaVontae Turpin, gained just 904 kickoff return yards, and that was actually an increase from the previous year, when Keisean Nixon led the league with 782 kickoff return yards. Forget breaking Jenkins’ record, no kickoff returner has even made it halfway to the record since 2018.
But this year there’s a great chance that the record will be broken. To break Jenkins’ record, a player would need to average 129 kickoff return yards a game over a 17-game season. In Week One, five players topped 129 kickoff return yards.
The NFL’s current leader is Baltimore’s Rasheen Ali, who had 167 kickoff return yards on Sunday. At that pace, Ali would total 2,839 kickoff return yards in 17 games. That’s probably not a realistic total. But the record of 2,186 yards is likely to fall.
