Every offseason, as the NFL brass meets to amend their operations for the upcoming year, the Philadelphia Eagles somehow always find a place at the top of the To-Do list. For a long time, it has been their signature tush push that gives them a bigger advantage over the other 31 NFL teams. In May 2025, it was them using a contract structure loophole to turn big deals into manageable expenditures. Two weeks into the 2026 regular season, they are back to the top of the list after hacking the league’s dynamic kickoff rules. 

In their Week 2 win over the Tennessee Titans, you must have noticed that every time but one, when kicker Jake Elliott went on the field for a kickoff, punter Braden Mann followed to serve as his holder. Instead of keeping the ball on the tee, Mann held it on the ground at a specific launch angle. The Atlanta Falcons did the very same thing in their Week 1 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Interestingly, neither team was wrong for doing it. After all, the rules are quite ambiguous. But to put an end to this, the league called an emergency meeting with one outcome already presumed.

According to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, NFL special teams coordinators met last night to clarify the kickoff rule that the teams have either misunderstood (or found a loophole in) through the first two weeks of the season.

NFL’s dynamic kickoff rules from 2024 state: “If the ball falls off the tee twice, the kicker will be allowed to use a kicking stick (closest covering official will pick up the stick immediately after the kick). A 12th man also is permitted to hold the ball in windy conditions but must run off the field after the ball is kicked.”

The next obvious questions are: Did Mann run off the field after the ball was kicked, and were there windy conditions in the matchup?

The answer is yes, Mann did run off the field after the kick to bring the total number of players back to 11 before the drive started. But there were no windy conditions as such to make that 12th man decision. More importantly, though, is that the rule remains ambiguous.

You read the rule right from the NFL’s official page. It never mentioned that even in the presence of a 12th man, the ball should be on the tee. Et Voila!

With the loophole, Elliott asked Mann to hold the ball at a specific launch angle that gave him the best shot at a ‘dirty ball,’ essentially a low knuckleball that is difficult to field. It could’ve given them a potential field-position advantage. The issue extended further than expected as the Chicago Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower bashed the Eagles too.

The Bears are planning to keep the Birds chained, but might be too late

The Philadelphia Eagles will be traveling to Chicago to go against the Bears on Monday. But with their tush push already an advantage, the hosts do not wish for the visitors to manipulate dynamic kickoff rules. And so, their special teams coordinator was already up in arms about it on Friday.

“Two years we talked about it, where you could use a holder,” Hightower said to the media yesterday. “It evolved to weather-related only. This past year it changed to you can use it at any time. But . . . the intent of the rule is the ball is supposed to be on a tee when you have a holder out there. It’s not to be used like you’ve seen it used here lately.

“We’re all getting together on that shortly, and we hope to get that fixed and corrected within the language of everything done in the rulebook.”

While the meeting is already called to finalize what the terms used in the official rule actually mean, it might be too late for the Bears.

It is presumed that no matter what the conclusion of the meeting would be, the new definition would not be applied this week itself. With the Eagles already flying to Chicago for their Monday matchup, the Bears have already lost that one bet. If you think about it, though, this is not the only rule that needs changing.

NFL kickoff rule mess needs to be cleaned up

The NFL changed the kickoff setup in 2024, but the new system created an unusual problem when a penalty moves the kickoff to the 50-yard line.

Normally, an NFL kickoff starts from the kicking team’s 35-yard line. But if the kicking team gets a 15-yard penalty before the kickoff, the kicker has to move back and kick from the 50-yard line.

The unusual part is that only the kicker moves back. The rest of the kickoff setup stays in the same place. So, the kicker is at the 50-yard line, but the landing zone and restraining lines are still positioned as they would be for a normal kickoff from the 35, creating an opportunity for teams.

When kicking from the 50, a team could simply kick the ball out of bounds on purpose rather than trying to make a normal kickoff. Under the existing rules, that would give the receiving team the ball at its own 25-yard line.

The NFL Competition Committee wants to take away that advantage. Under the proposed rule, if a kickoff is taken from the 50 and the ball goes into or through the end zone without being returned, the receiving team would get the ball at its own 20-yard line instead.

In simple terms, the NFL is trying to make sure teams cannot use a penalty and the kickoff rules together to create an easier or more favorable outcome. The proposal would also make the possible starting positions after an unreturned kickoff simpler. Meanwhile, Trump has a problem of his own with the new dynamic kickoff.

“I do have to say, I’ll probably get myself in a little trouble for this. I hate the new kickoff in football,” Trump said in a telephone interview with The Athletic in November 2025. “I think it’s so terrible, I think it’s so demeaning, and I think it hurts the game. It hurts the pageantry. I told that to (NFL commissioner) Roger Goodell.”

With the NFL continuing to adjust its kickoff rules and fix situations that create unintended advantages, it will be interesting to see how these changes affect the way teams approach kickoffs and how soon.