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The artwork of blocking a kick within the NFL

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The art of blocking a kick in the NFL

  • NFL NationNov 22, 2025, 06:00 AM ET

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TRAILING THE TAMPA Bay Buccaneers in Week 3, New York Jets defensive finish Will McDonald IV didn’t line up at his typical edge spot.

The rating was 26-20 and the Jets had simply scored 14 unanswered factors within the fourth quarter.

Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin was stepping as much as try a 43-yard discipline purpose. However McDonald had different plans, lining up throughout from proper guard Elijah Klein.

On the snap, McDonald leaped over Klein and long-snapper Evan Deckers. Each blockers stayed low, so McDonald — an completed lengthy jumper and excessive jumper in highschool — went excessive.

He blocked the kick, lucked out with a fantastic bounce and returned it 50 yards for a go-ahead landing within the remaining two minutes. Regardless of the trouble, the Jets misplaced the sport on an ensuing last-second discipline purpose.

“I really feel prefer it was sort of a legendary play for me, in all probability the most effective play I’ve ever made in my NFL profession,” McDonald, a 2023 first-round choose, stated.

It was the primary time since 1997 that the Jets scored on a blocked discipline purpose try.

“Our particular groups coordinator [Chris] Banjo does a great job of figuring out the blokes that may go make a play for us,” Jets coach Aaron Glenn stated. “It simply so occurred throughout scout workforce, Will [McDonald] needed to hurry the kick. … Banjo and I checked out one another and stated pay attention, ‘We would give this man an opportunity,’ and we did.

“Playmakers make performs and that is what this recreation is all about.”

The NFL has seen 31 blocked kicks (16 discipline objectives, seven further factors, eight punts) by 11 weeks, probably the most for the reason that 2014 season (38). It is a regular improve from Weeks 1-11 in 2024 (27) and 2023 (18). Within the first six weeks of the 2025 season alone, there have been 20.

The inflow in blocks begs the questions: How do NFL gamers put together to dam kicks? What’s the most popular approach to dam a kick? And are there particular guidelines they need to comply with? And why is there a rise this season?

Our NFL Nation reporters have tracked the prolonged arms which have blocked kicks flying over gamers’ heads, the close to discipline purpose makes an attempt that ricocheted off crossbars because of good protection and the punts that by no means went anyplace in an effort to disclose the technique that goes into blocking a kick and why there may need been an early-season improve by 11 weeks of the common season.

They’ve found the artwork of blocking a kick begins days earlier than a recreation when scouting an opponent’s tape after which trickles into placing that apply into motion.

“I do know the league loves it; it means the sport is extra enjoyable,” Jets veteran kicker Nick Folks stated. “They do not need run this, go this. Particular groups performs, after they occur, they’re momentum changers. They’re recreation changers.”

What are the principles to blocking a kick?

There are guidelines gamers have to comply with when making an attempt to defend kicks or punts, reminiscent of gamers can not:

  • Bounce or stand on a teammate or opponent to dam or try to dam a kick.

  • Place a hand on a teammate or opponent to realize extra peak to try to dam an opponent’s kick or try to leap by a niche to dam an opponent’s kick.

  • Choose up a teammate to try to dam an opponent’s kick.

  • Run ahead and leap throughout the road of scrimmage in an apparent try to dam a discipline purpose until the leaping participant was in a stationary place inside 1 yard of the road of scrimmage when the ball was snapped. A participant who’s greater than 1 yard behind the road of scrimmage earlier than or on the snap, could run ahead and leap, supplied he doesn’t cross the road of scrimmage or land on gamers.

  • Block a defender beneath the waist whereas one other participant is engaged with the defender (above the waist), often known as a chop block.

The results of breaking these guidelines is a 15-yard penalty.

The technique

The Eagles blocked a pair of discipline objectives and a punt and turned two of these into touchdowns all throughout the first month of the 2025 season.

Probably the most dramatic was within the waning moments of Week 3’s intense matchup between the Eagles and the Los Angeles Rams, the place the 6-foot-6, 336-pound Jordan Davis blocked a 44-yard Joshua Karty discipline purpose try with three seconds remaining, scooped it up and rumbled 61 yards for the landing to safe a 33-26 win.

It helps to have two standout defensive tackles in Davis and Jalen Carter wreaking havoc in the course of the formation. Nevertheless it’s the prep work in the course of the week — and the buy-in from starters reminiscent of Carter and Davis — that assist make these moments occur.

“[Assistant special teams coordinator Joe Pannunzio] is at all times speaking to us throughout our particular groups assembly, tells us when going by [a] discipline purpose block who the fish is, what aspect is the most effective aspect to hurry,” stated Carter, who had a discipline purpose block of his personal in that recreation.

The “fish” Carter mentions is the weak hyperlink the Eagles look to use on the road.

The Eagles’ blocked punt got here in Week 4 towards the Bucs. Cameron Latu pierced by the center of Tampa’s formation to get his hand on the ball and Sydney Brown scooped it up and ran 35 yards for the landing to stake Philadelphia to an early 7-0 lead.

Coach Nick Sirianni’s response was yelling “I advised you!” as he sprinted down the sideline in the course of the play.

“We undergo our recreation plan early on within the week, and have an inkling after we might presumably get [a block],” Eagles particular groups coach Michael Clay stated.

It is a workforce effort.

Take discipline purpose block prep: Pannunzio and senior defensive assistant/line of defense coach Clint Hurtt deal with the unit on Wednesday to offer a primer.

Then the group meets on Fridays to speak about which participant provides them the most effective likelihood at attacking a kick. Clay credited professional scout Terrence Braxton, who does the advance work for the particular groups coaches and lets them know which aspect of the road may be susceptible.

“I imply plenty of it goes into all of the work that [special teams assistant] Tyler [Brown and] Joe places into scouting,” Clay stated. “However on the finish of the day, every part seems to be nice on paper, every part seems to be nice on my whiteboard till we might correctly execute it like we did. … It is all to the gamers.”

THE CHICAGO BEARS’ Josh Blackwell blocked a possible game-winning discipline purpose by the Las Vegas Raiders with lower than a minute to play in a Week 4 recreation — and it wasn’t the by-product of luck or circumstance.

The four-phase particular teamer had been getting ready all week with data on an opposing participant’s inform.

As a result of he noticed 12 blocked kicks throughout the NFL by the primary three weeks, Bears particular groups coordinator Richard Hightower had gamers focus their consideration on noticing small tendencies that would change the trajectory of the sport.

“We research the hell out of the league,” Hightower stated. “The boys, they’re on prime of it. There have been some eye-opening moments within the assembly this week with that.”

So when Las Vegas kicker Daniel Carlson lined as much as boot a 54-yard discipline purpose, Blackwell’s eyes locked in on Raiders long-snapper Jacob Bobenmoyer.

Throughout a gathering early in Week 4, Blackwell acquired a tip from Bears long-snapper Scott Daly, who had scoured movie on Bobenmoyer. It was delicate, however Daly observed a inform: Bobenmoyer would typically transfer the ball earlier than snapping it on PAT makes an attempt and discipline objectives.

Daly knew if Blackwell might get a bounce on the snap, he’d have an opportunity to dam a kick.

“For these kicks, it comes all the way down to an inch,” Daly stated.

When the sector purpose block unit trotted onto the sector with Chicago forward by one level, Bears coach Ben Johnson turned his consideration to Hightower, who was strolling the teaching employees by the chance Blackwell, the fourth-year cornerback, was about to have.

Throughout Carlson’s two prior kicks, Blackwell got here near getting a hand on the soccer. Hightower knew this time could possibly be completely different.

“[Hightower was] sort of narrating it in actual time and he is like, ‘Yeah, Blackwell goes to get this one for us, he’ll come by,'” Johnson recalled. He was proper. Blackwell go off the left fringe of the protection and threw his hand up as he dived to dam the Raiders’ discipline purpose try. The Bears beat the Raiders 25-24 whereas bettering to .500 headed into their Week 5 bye.

Blackwell described the second as an “out-of-body expertise.”

“I used to be on cloud 9,” Blackwell stated. “I used to be going to get this one. I received this one.”

AT THE START of the fourth quarter in Week 6, Washington Commanders nostril deal with Daron Payne blocked Bears kicker Jake Moody’s 48-yard discipline purpose try. The block put the Commanders at their very own 37-yard line, and so they discovered the top zone seven performs later when Jayden Daniels related with Zach Ertz for a landing.

The Commanders had finished their half by scouting the Bears’ shaky kicking room — which noticed Moody, who was launched by the 49ers, begin rather than an injured Greg Santos — and mixed that with glorious execution.

“We felt good going into the sport relying on each of the kickers that we might have seen,” particular groups coordinator Larry Izzo stated. “… At occasions they hit the ball low. And so it comes all the way down to getting a fantastic get off, driving your legs, getting your arms up, and also you need to try this persistently each time. And when that matches up with a decrease kick like we had within the recreation, that is what results in the blocks.”

So far as what his workforce seems to be at going into the sport, Izzo stated: “What you are finding out each week is the opponent’s discipline purpose safety. You are trying on the personnel, you are on the lookout for guys which have points with their approach and also you’re trying on the kicker as nicely by way of simply what their [operation] time is.”

After which gamers have one purpose when placing it in motion in the course of the recreation:

“You need to be below 1.3 [seconds],” Izzo stated. “… You may’t undergo the snapper like they used to go. So that they’re protected. So completely different gaps are being attacked, however once more, it nonetheless begins within the A spot and B hole. These are extra, that is the place it is at often.”

Izzo stated anybody can block a kick, it simply comes down to at least one factor: “On the finish of the day, the key sauce to blocking discipline objectives is effort and want. And when you’ve gotten a unit that is dashing with effort and want and so they get their arms up, you get a low kick, you are going to have an opportunity. That is the important thing.”

The approach

Some blocked kicks start within the movie room, when a particular groups coach notices a possible weak point within the opponent and places his gamers in place to use it. Different occasions, a participant merely makes a play.

The Seattle Seahawks have had examples of each this season.

In Week 1 towards the San Francisco 49ers, security Julian Love shot by the hole between the deal with and wing to dam a 36-yard discipline purpose try by Moody, who was lower by the 49ers a day later.

Whereas that play was extra about Love’s timing and energy than the rest, the punt that Seattle blocked two weeks later towards the New Orleans Saints owed a tip of the cap to particular groups coordinator Jay Harbaugh and assistant particular groups coach Devin Fitzsimmons.

That they had their punt return unit ready for a sure Saints formation that would go away security D’Anthony Bell unaccounted for off the correct edge. When New Orleans confirmed that look pre-snap, Seattle checked to a block that set the desk for Bell.

“It was me blocking all of it week,” Bell stated. “So I am like, hopefully they do not change what they do and so they go away me free, which they did, and I find yourself blocking the punt.”

Getting in place to dam a kick is one factor. There’s additionally an artwork to getting your hand on the ball. Or in Bell’s case, your physique.

“We truly apply taking the ball off the foot,” he stated. “… Loads of occasions, you’ll be able to miss that ball and it will possibly go proper previous you. I feel I simply took the right angle, had good eyes, saved my arms down and it ended up hitting me proper within the chest, so I used to be in a fantastic spot.”

Love, whose blocked discipline purpose try final season towards the New England Patriots regarded just like the one he had within the opener, stated adrenaline is often pumping an excessive amount of to really feel any ache when the ball hits him.

“Final yr, I feel it did jack up my finger,” he stated. “However within the second I used to be hyped.”

VIKINGS SPECIAL TEAMS coordinator Matt Daniels laughed and shook his head.

“I did not have Levi Drake Rodriguez as [NFL] Particular Groups Participant the Week on my bingo card,” Daniels stated.

However that is precisely the award Rodriguez earned for the NFC in Week 9 after blocking a 45-yard discipline purpose try within the fourth quarter of the Vikings’ 27-24 upset of the Detroit Lions.

A reserve defensive lineman in his second NFL season, Rodriguez slipped between Lions long-snapper Hogan Hatten and guard Kayode Awosika, raised his arms and redirected an admittedly low kick from the Lions place-kicker Jake Bates. Cornerback Isaiah Rodgers picked up the ball and returned it 41 yards, setting the Vikings up for a discipline purpose of their very own that proved to be the distinction within the recreation.

“We needed to have it,” Rodriguez stated. “I used to be simply doing my job on that play, getting good penetration, getting my arms up. You may’t take these performs off as a result of they imply quite a bit.”

Daniels acknowledged Bates was kicking low sufficient within the recreation that linebacker Dallas Turner got here off the sector after an additional level try and predicted the Vikings would get a block earlier than the sport was over. Daniels additionally identified that Awosika’s blocking effort was “just a little bit questionable on that play truthfully, the place he did not absolutely end.”

However Rodriguez nonetheless adopted the three parts that Daniels emphasizes for each opposing discipline purpose try: penetration, separation and elevation.

“It was undoubtedly a low kick,” Daniels stated. “However shoot. We have nonetheless received to discover a option to get our arms up and create some penetration and get there. Little doubt.”

The purpose, Daniels stated, is to maneuver upfield between 1.5 and a couple of yards.

“If you happen to’re in a position to obtain that, you are going to have a reasonably good likelihood to get your arms on the soccer.”

THE BROWNS HANDED the Inexperienced Bay Packers their first loss in Week 3. A play that made it doable got here from defensive lineman Shelby Harris, who blocked a go-ahead discipline purpose try. It was Harris’ sixth blocked discipline purpose try since getting into the NFL in 2014, which is tied for many within the league with Houston Texans defensive finish Denico Autry.

“You bought to look, clearly, the place they’re kicking the ball,” Harris stated after the Browns’ 13-10 win. “Is the ball going to be tailing to the left, is it going to be tailing to the correct? Relying on that, you bought to assume they are going to attempt to make it by the center, so relying on what aspect of the road you are on, that determines actually what hand must rise up to dam it too.

“All the things could possibly be excellent and you continue to do not get it. … All the things labored out excellent.”

Browns particular groups coordinator Bubba Ventrone believed the spate of blocked kicks on the time is a by-product of items working by rising pains within the early a part of the season.

“I do see there that, like, earlier within the season, I really feel such as you see extra of that kind of factor taking place,” Ventrone stated. “Groups are nonetheless making an attempt to determine their personnel. You may have younger gamers enjoying and/or blocking. So, I feel that that elements.”

Why the rise in blocks?

Main into the Dallas Cowboys’ Week 4 recreation towards the Packers, C.J. Goodwin, the Cowboys particular groups’ captain, made a prediction within the assembly room: Juanyeh Thomas was going to dam a discipline purpose try.

He was partially right.

Thomas’ block got here on an additional level attempt early within the second quarter, not a discipline purpose. Markquese Bell scooped up the free ball and ran for the primary 2-point conversion the Cowboys have had off a blocked kick.

“Truthfully, should you have a look at the sector purpose makes an attempt throughout the league, for actual, you’ve gotten a quote, unquote leaker, which is just like the smooth aspect,” Thomas stated. “And I really feel like all people throughout the league is attacking that aspect now. That is one thing I have a look at each week.”

Cowboys particular groups coordinator Nick Sorensen stated Thomas had been near blocking quite a lot of kicks, together with the Packers’ first discipline purpose try.

“First is perception — that you will get there as a result of it could possibly be anyone that is dashing on that aspect,” Sorensen stated. “Then it is his get off after which it is end. He was simply lacking it as a result of as soon as he landed after he jumped by, he wasn’t getting vertical. So it was like, ‘Dude, you are so shut. When you hit it, you bought to get vertical.’ Then he did and he received it.”

Thomas and Sorensen had been fast to credit score Goodwin, who lined as much as his left and engaged with the skin protector, and Donovan Ezeiruaku, who chewed up one other blocker to offer Thomas the lane to dam the attempt. It was his second block in three seasons.

Goodwin had a idea when requested why there are extra blocked kicks than in earlier years.

“We’re simply taking it extra critically now,” Goodwin stated. “We’re understanding that the trouble that we put into it is not simply on recreation day. It is movie research and energy. So should you assume that approach each time, you are going to get a block or two.”

Folks, who has kicked for 5 NFL groups and been within the league since he was drafted within the sixth spherical by the Cowboys in 2007, shared his personal theories in regards to the improve in blocks this season, starting from good particular groups schemes to not sufficient preseason strain.

“A few of it, I feel, is scheme. Truthfully, there’s been some nice schemes going, like Will [McDonald]. It was excellent. Nice bounce, nice timing. Punt blocks? I do not know why. … Loads of it is approach.”

On punt blocks, Folks theorized that punters “need to hit it far to maintain their common excessive and typically when guys need to hit it far, they take just a little extra time to attempt to try this. And particular groups coaches may be just a little extra aggressive with dashing punts.”

That reasoning additionally applies to kickers making an attempt to hit longer discipline objectives. The danger of an extended discipline purpose is that the kicks are available in low.

“As an offense or a discipline purpose unit, imperfect operations drive low kicks on these longer makes an attempt,” stated Texans particular groups coach Frank Ross, whose workforce has blocked a punt and a discipline purpose in 2025. “We’re seeing kicks in the course of the sector. So, to get it there, the trajectory is decrease. You have received a possibility to get extra photographs on purpose, blocking it along with your arms up. I feel that is a part of the recipe there.

“However, it would simply be just a little little bit of a fluke the place we have knocked some down across the league. We have now to make it possible for each time we stroll out as a discipline purpose unit, it is factors. So, that requires excellent operation and excellent blocking execution.”

ESPN reporters Wealthy Cimini, Tim McManus, Courtney Cronin, Daniel Oyefusi, Brady Henderson, Kevin Seifert, John Keim, Todd Archer and DJ Bien-Aime contributed to this report.

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