NFL kickoff returns are back; Cowboys’ contract talks with Dak Prescott take a turn

This is an article version of the CBS Sports HQ AM Newsletter, the ultimate guide to every day in sports. You can sign up to get it in your inbox every weekday morning here.

🏈 Good morning to everyone but especially …

NFL RETURN SPECIALISTS

Kickoff returns are back like never before. NFL owners approved a drastic overhaul of kickoffs, breathing life back into a play gone stale. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before, unless you watched the XFL. The following will be on a one-year trial run in 2024:

• Teams will kick from the same spot — their own 35. The 10 players on the coverage team, though, line up at the receiving team’s 40, and nine players on the return team would line up in the “setup zone” between their own 35- and 30-yard lines. Neither unit can move until the kick hits the ground or a returner.
• The returning team has up to two returners in the “return zone,” which stretches from the goal line to the 20-yard line.
• There are no fair catches.

As for the kick itself …

• If the kick fails to reach the return zone, the returning team gets the ball at its own 40.
• If the kick goes through the end zone or is downed inside the end zone on the fly, the returning team gets the ball at its own 35.
• If the kick lands in the return zone and then travels into the end zone and is downed in the end zone, the returning team gets the ball at its own 20.
• If the ball is fielded in the return zone, it must be returned.

Here it is in picture form.

Returns had gone by the wayside as the NFL got better injury data. In 2009, the league made wedge blocking illegal. In 2011, it moved the kickoff line up to the 35. And in 2016, it started spotting touchbacks at the 25. Last year, only 22% of…