The NFL has already witnessed one notable special teams change ahead of the 2024 season, as the league realtered the kickoff format.
Is that the only change involving the kicking game ahead of Thursday’s season opener between the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs? Here’s everything needed to know about extra points.
How Far Do Kickers Kick on the Extra-Point Try?
Extra point tries were changed well before the new kickoff rules took place.
Gone are the days when kickers had the easy shot from the one-yard line. The ball for an extra-point attempt in the NFL is now placed at the 15-yard line, equivalent to a 33-yard field goal attempt. You get to 33 yards because there are 15 yards to the goal line, the end zone is 10 yards deep, and the holder is set up around eight yards behind the line of scrimmage.
Now when teams choose to keep their point after touchdown (PAT) unit off the field, the ball gets spotted at the two-yard line when a team attempts a two-point conversion, leaving their offensive personnel including the starting quarterback on the field.
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If a team makes an extra point, but there is a penalty on the defense, the kicking team can accept the penalty and replay the conversion. The ball would be moved half the distance to the one-yard line for the attempt.
In college football, the ball is placed at the two-yard line for extra points and two-point conversions. The kick distance is the same as a 20-yard field goal.
When Did the Extra Point Rule Change?
This rule is officially now a decade old heading into the ’24 season.
In 2014, the NFL experimented with moving the extra point distance back in the first two weeks of the preseason. In the following offseason, owners voted to move the scrimmage line for extra point kicks back 13 yards to the 15-yard line. The 2015 season was used as a one-year trial of the new rules, and the change was made permanent for the next season.
NFL Competition Committee member Rick Smith, who was Houston Texans general manager at the time, said, “We tried to add some skill to the play, which is the reason why we moved it back to the 15, and then the other element is, how do we create a more exciting play? And so to give the defense an opportunity to score, it adds an element there, as well as obviously incentivizing teams to go for two.”
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In 2014, only seven teams did not make every extra point, and the overall league average success rate was over 99%. The percentage of extra points made dropped to 94.2% after the distance was moved back in 2015.
In the eight full seasons since the change, it has been between 93% and 94.6%. The previous low in the Super Bowl era (1970) was 90.9% in 1976. Entering Week 6, the success rate for extra points was 98.2%.
The number of two-point attempts in a game has not dramatically altered since the rule change. Teams are still taking the one-point kick almost every time after a touchdown. The two-point conversion attempts per game were 11% in 2014 and have slowly increased to 25% this season. The NFL first added the two-point conversion for the 1994 season.