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TRAILING THE TAMPA Bay Buccaneers in Week 3, New York Jets defensive end Will McDonald IV did not line up at his typical edge spot.
Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin was stepping up to attempt a 43-yard field goal. But McDonald had other plans, lining up across from right guard Elijah Klein.
On the snap, McDonald leaped over Klein and long-snapper Evan Deckers. Both blockers stayed low, so McDonald — an accomplished long jumper and high jumper in high school — went high.
He blocked the kick, lucked out with a great bounce and returned it 50 yards for a go-ahead touchdown in the final two minutes. Despite the effort, the Jets lost the game on an ensuing last-second field goal.
“I feel like it was kind of a legendary play for me, probably the best play I’ve ever made in my NFL career,” McDonald, a 2023 first-round pick, said.
“Our special teams coordinator [Chris] Banjo does a good job of identifying the guys that can go make a play for us,” Jets coach Aaron Glenn said. “It just so happened during scout team, Will [McDonald] wanted to rush the kick. … Banjo and I looked at each other and said listen, ‘We might give this guy a chance,’ and we did.
The NFL has seen 31 blocked kicks (16 field goals, seven extra points, eight punts) through 11 weeks, the most since the 2014 season (38). It’s a steady increase from Weeks 1-11 in 2024 (27) and 2023 (18). In the first six weeks of the 2025 season alone, there were 20.
The influx in blocks begs the questions: How do NFL players prepare to block kicks? What is the preferred technique to block a kick? And are there special rules they have to follow? And why is there an increase this season?
They’ve discovered the art of blocking a kick starts days before a game when scouting an opponent’s tape and then trickles into putting that practice into action.
“I know the league loves it; it means the game is more fun,” Jets veteran kicker Nick Folk said. “They don’t want run this, pass this. Special teams plays, when they happen, they’re momentum changers. They’re game changers.”
There are rules players need to follow when trying to defend kicks or punts, such as players cannot:
The Eagles blocked a pair of field goals and a punt and turned two of those into touchdowns all within the first month of the 2025 season.
It helps to have two standout defensive tackles in Davis and Jalen Carter wreaking havoc in the middle of the formation. But it’s the prep work during the week — and the buy-in from starters such as Carter and Davis — that help make those moments happen.
“[Assistant special teams coordinator Joe Pannunzio] is always talking to us during our special teams meeting, tells us when going through [a] field goal block who the fish is, what side is the best side to rush,” said Carter, who had a field goal block of his own in that game.
The Eagles’ blocked punt came in Week 4 against the Bucs. Cameron Latu pierced through the middle of Tampa’s formation to get his hand on the ball and Sydney Brown scooped it up and ran 35 yards for the touchdown to stake Philadelphia to an early 7-0 lead.
Coach Nick Sirianni’s reaction was yelling “I told you!” as he sprinted down the sideline during the play.
“We go through our game plan early on in the week, and have an inkling when we could possibly get [a block],” Eagles special teams coach Michael Clay said.
Take field goal block prep: Pannunzio and senior defensive assistant/defensive line coach Clint Hurtt address the unit on Wednesday to give a primer.
“I mean a lot of it goes into all the work that [special teams assistant] Tyler [Brown and] Joe puts into scouting,” Clay said. “But at the end of the day, everything looks great on paper, everything looks great on my whiteboard until we could properly execute it like we did. … It’s all to the players.”
THE CHICAGO BEARS’ Josh Blackwell blocked a potential game-winning field goal by the Las Vegas Raiders with less than a minute to play in a Week 4 game — and it wasn’t the by-product of luck or circumstance.
The four-phase special teamer had been preparing all week with information on an opposing player’s tell.
Because he saw 12 blocked kicks across the NFL through the first three weeks, Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower had players focus their attention on noticing small tendencies that could change the trajectory of the game.
“We study the hell out of the league,” Hightower said. “The boys, they’re on top of it. There were some eye-opening moments in the meeting this week with that.”
So when Las Vegas kicker Daniel Carlson lined up to boot a 54-yard field goal, Blackwell’s eyes locked in on Raiders long-snapper Jacob Bobenmoyer.
During a meeting early in Week 4, Blackwell received a tip from Bears long-snapper Scott Daly, who had scoured film on Bobenmoyer. It was subtle, but Daly noticed a tell: Bobenmoyer would sometimes move the ball before snapping it on PAT attempts and field goals.
During Carlson’s two prior kicks, Blackwell came close to getting a hand on the football. Hightower knew this time could be different.
“[Hightower was] kind of narrating it in real time and he’s like, ‘Yeah, Blackwell is going to get this one for us, he’s going to come through,'” Johnson recalled. He was right. Blackwell burst off the left edge of the defense and threw his hand up as he dived to block the Raiders’ field goal attempt. The Bears beat the Raiders 25-24 while improving to .500 headed into their Week 5 bye.
AT THE START of the fourth quarter in Week 6, Washington Commanders nose tackle Daron Payne blocked Bears kicker Jake Moody’s 48-yard field goal attempt. The block put the Commanders at their own 37-yard line, and they found the end zone seven plays later when Jayden Daniels connected with Zach Ertz for a touchdown.
The Commanders had done their part by scouting the Bears’ shaky kicking room — which saw Moody, who was released by the 49ers, start in place of an injured Greg Santos — and combined that with excellent execution.
“We felt good going into the game depending on both of the kickers that we could have seen,” special teams coordinator Larry Izzo said. “… At times they hit the ball low. And so it comes down to getting a great get off, driving your legs, getting your hands up, and you want to do that consistently every time. And when that matches up with a lower kick like we had in the game, that’s what leads to the blocks.”
“You want to be under 1.3 [seconds],” Izzo said. “… You can’t go through the snapper like they used to go. So they’re protected. So different gaps are being attacked, but again, it still starts in the A gap and B gap. Those are more, that’s where it’s at usually.”
Izzo said anyone can block a kick, it just comes down to one thing: “At the end of the day, the secret sauce to blocking field goals is effort and desire. And when you have a unit that’s rushing with effort and desire and they get their hands up, you get a low kick, you’re going to have a chance. That’s the key.”
Some blocked kicks begin in the film room, when a special teams coach notices a potential weakness in the opponent and puts his players in position to exploit it. Other times, a player simply makes a play.
In Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers, safety Julian Love shot through the gap between the tackle and wing to block a 36-yard field goal attempt by Moody, who was cut by the 49ers a day later.
They had their punt return unit prepared for a certain Saints formation that could leave safety D’Anthony Bell unaccounted for off the right edge. When New Orleans showed that look pre-snap, Seattle checked to a block that set the table for Bell.
“It was me blocking it all week,” Bell said. “So I’m like, hopefully they don’t change what they do and they leave me free, which they did, and I end up blocking the punt.”
Getting in position to block a kick is one thing. There’s also an art to getting your hand on the ball. Or in Bell’s case, your body.
“We actually practice taking the ball off the foot,” he said. “… A lot of times, you can miss that ball and it can go right past you. I think I just took the perfect angle, had good eyes, kept my hands down and it ended up hitting me right in the chest, so I was in a great spot.”
Love, whose blocked field goal attempt last season against the New England Patriots looked similar to the one he had in the opener, said adrenaline is usually pumping too much to feel any pain when the ball hits him.
“I didn’t have Levi Drake Rodriguez as [NFL] Special Teams Player the Week on my bingo card,” Daniels said.
But that’s exactly the award Rodriguez earned for the NFC in Week 9 after blocking a 45-yard field goal attempt in 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 field goal of their own that proved to be the difference in the game.
“We had to have it,” Rodriguez said. “I was just doing my job on that play, getting good penetration, getting my hands up. You can’t take those plays off because they mean a lot.”
Daniels acknowledged Bates was kicking low enough in the game that linebacker Dallas Turner came off the field after an extra point attempt and predicted the Vikings would get a block before the game was over. Daniels also pointed out that Awosika’s blocking effort was “a little bit questionable on that play honestly, where he didn’t fully finish.”