When Did the NFL Move the Extra Point Back?

The National Football League has moved the extra point back to the 15-yard line, making it a 33-yard kick. This is the second time the NFL has made this change in recent years.

Introduction

In 2015, the NFL moved the extra point back from the 2-yard line to the 15-yard line, making it a 33-yard kick. The reasoning behind the move was to make the extra point less of a certainty, thus encouraging teams to go for two points more often. The move has had mixed results, with some teams choosing to go for two points more often, while others have continued to kick the extra point at a high percentage.

The Early Years

In the early years of the NFL, the extra point was very important. It was worth one point, and it was often the deciding factor in a close game. In fact, in the first Super Bowl, the Green Bay Packers won by just a single point after an extra point.

However, as the years went on, the importance of the extra point began to decline. This is because teams started to become more aggressive on offense, and they began to score more touchdowns. As a result, theextra point became less important, and it was decided that it should be worth less points.

In 1974, the NFL decided to move the extra point back to the 15-yard line. This made it slightly harder to convert, but not by much. The main reason for this change was to make the game more exciting. After all, if a team scored a touchdown and then kicked an easy extra point, there wasn’t much excitement. However, if a team had to fight for its extra point, it made for a more exciting game.

The change didn’t have a big impact on conversion rates, but it did make for more exciting games. In fact, many fans believe that this is one of the reasons why football is so popular today.

The Modern Era

In 2015, the league moved the line of scrimmage for extra point tries back to the 15-yard line, making it a 33-yard kick. The decision was made in an effort to make the play more challenging and exciting, as well as encourage teams to go for two-point conversions more often.

Prior to the 2015 season, teams were awarded one point for a successful extra point attempt from the 2-yard line. That changed in 2015 when the NFL decided to move the line of scrimmage back to the 15-yard line, making it a 33-yard kick.

The decision was made in an effort to make the play more challenging and exciting, as well as encourage teams to go for two-point conversions more often. In 2016, 95 percent of all extra point attempts were successful, down from 99.6 percent in 2014.

The Move Back to the 15-Yard Line

In 2015, the NFL moved the line of scrimmage for extra point kicks back from the 2-yard line to the 15-yard line. This was done in an effort to make the extra point less of a “gimme” and add a bit more excitement to the game.

In the 2014 season, there were 1,267 extra point attempts made and only five of them were missed. That’s a success rate of 99.6%. Compare that to field goals, which were successful just 84.5% of the time. In other words, it was easier to make an extra point than it was to kick a field goal.

The league felt that this needed to change and they made the decision to move the line of scrimmage back for extra points. This meant that kickers would now need to make a 33-yard field goal in order to score an extra point, rather than a 20-yard chip shot.

The results? In the 2015 season, there were 1,231 extra point attempts made and 109 of them were missed. That’s a success rate of 91.2%. So while it’s not a huge difference, there is now a slight degree of difficulty when it comes to making an extra point.

The NFL isn’t done tinkering with theextra point rule just yet, either. In 2016, they experimented with moving the line of scrimmage back even further – to the 25-yard line – for two weeks during the preseason. And while it’s still too early to tell if they’ll make this change permanent, it’s certainly something that they are considering.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the NFL moved the extra point back to the 15-yard line in 2015. This change was made in order to make the extra point more challenging, and thus more exciting for fans to watch. While the new rule has not been without its critics, it has generally been well received by fans and players alike.