Special teams are the third unit, the one that comes on for the kicking plays. They take the fewest snaps of anyone on the field and they decide more games than almost anybody watching their first season would guess.
The offense tries to score and the defense tries to stop them. Special teams handle everything that involves kicking the ball, and the possession swings that come with it.
What special teams is for
Four kinds of play, and they bookend almost everything else that happens.
A kickoff restarts the game at the beginning of each half and after a score. A punt hands the ball over deliberately on fourth down, kicked as far downfield as possible. A field goal is a kick through the posts for three points. And an extra point is the one-point kick after a touchdown. What each is worth is on how NFL scoring works, and why a team would give the ball away at all is on how downs work.
The specialists
Most of a special teams unit is made up of backups from the other two squads, earning their place on the roster by running down the field at full speed. A handful of them do nothing else.
| Role | Job |
|---|---|
| Kicker | Field goals, extra points and, on most teams, kickoffs |
| Punter | The fourth-down kick, and usually holds for the kicker |
| Long snapper | Snaps the ball back accurately on punts and kicks |
| Holder | Places and holds the ball for the field goal kicker |
| Returner | Catches kicks and tries to run them back |
| Coverage players | Get down the field and tackle the returner |
The kickoff was rebuilt, and the touchback is why
The kickoff used to be the most dangerous play in football: two lines of players running at each other from thirty-five yards apart. The league redesigned it in 2024, lining the players up close together and holding them still until the ball comes down.
The clever part is not the alignment, it is the maths underneath. The rulebook now prices a touchback two different ways:
NFL rulebook, Rule 6, Section 1, Article 5. It is a touchback, and the dead ball spot is the 20-yard line if a kickoff or a safety kick:
(a) touches the ground or a player in the landing zone and is downed in the end zone by the receiving team or goes out of bounds behind the receiving team’s goal line;
It is a touchback, and the dead ball spot is the 35-yard line if, without first touching the ground or a player in the landing zone, a kickoff or safety kick:
(b) goes out of bounds behind the receiving team’s goal line;
(c) strikes the receiving team’s goal post, uprights, or cross bar; or
(d) lands at or beyond the goal line and is downed in the end zone by the receiving team.
Read those two together and you can see what the league did. A kicker who blasts it straight through the end zone, the safe old habit, hands the other team the ball on the 35-yard line. A kick that comes down in the landing zone and gets downed in the end zone only gives up the 20.
So the touchback that used to be the risk-free option is now fifteen yards more expensive than making them return it. That single change is what brought the kick return back, and it is why you now see kickers deliberately dropping the ball short rather than hammering it as far as they can.
Onside kicks, and a change for 2026
When a team is behind and running out of time, it needs the ball back without letting the other side have it. The answer is the onside kick: kick it just far enough to be legal, then try to recover it yourself.
For a while this was tightly restricted, permitted only when a team was trailing late. That changed for the 2026 season:
NFL rulebook, Rule 6, Section 1, Article 6 (Onside Kick). At any time during the game, the kicking team may declare an onside kick by notifying the Referee prior to the start of the play clock.
Two things worth noticing. It can now happen at any point in a game, not just when a team is desperate in the fourth quarter. And it has to be declared: you tell the referee first, so everyone lines up knowing it is coming. There is no such thing as a surprise onside kick under this rule, which makes recovering one a genuine feat rather than a trick.
The fair catch, and the rule almost nobody knows
When a returner is about to catch a punt with opponents bearing down on him, he can wave one arm above his head. That is a fair catch signal, and it means he gives up any right to run with the ball in exchange for not being tackled.
NFL rulebook, Rule 3, Section 9. A fair catch is an unhindered catch of a scrimmage kick that has crossed the line of scrimmage and has not touched the ground or of a free kick that has not touched the ground, by a player of the receiving team who has given a valid fair catch signal. A fair catch may be followed by a fair catch kick (10-2-4 and 11-4-3).
That last sentence is one of the strangest doors in the rulebook, and most people watching have no idea it is there.
NFL rulebook, Rule 3, Article 4 (Fair Catch Kick). A fair catch kick is a drop kick or place kick without a tee from the spot of a fair catch in an attempt to score a field goal.
In plain terms: if your returner calls a fair catch, your team may immediately attempt a field goal from that spot, as a free kick, with nobody allowed to rush it. No snap, no pass rush, no blockers needed, just a kicker and an unguarded set of posts.
It is almost never used, because the spot is usually far too deep and a team would rather have the ball. But it is live in every game, and it tends to surface once every few seasons at the end of a half, when a team catches a punt near halfway with two seconds left and nothing to lose.
Why the smallest unit swings games
Most of what special teams does is field position, which is the hidden yardage of the sport. A punt that pins the other team on their own five leaves them eighty yards from scoring. A return that comes out to the forty saves an offense two first downs before it has run a play.
Then there are the moments that settle games outright: the field goal to win it as the clock hits zero, the one that misses, the blocked punt, the kickoff run back the length of the field. The unit with the fewest snaps carries some of the biggest single swings. Ignore it and half the drama passes you by.
Where it fits
Special teams has its own coordinator, sitting alongside the offensive and defensive coordinators, and its own slice of the practice week. How the calls get made, and by whom, is in who calls the plays.
For the whole structure, the three units and how they take turns, start with how American football is played.
Common questions
What is special teams in football?
Special teams is the third unit, the one that comes on for kicking plays: kickoffs, punts, field goals and extra points. These are the plays that either change possession or put points on the board. It takes the fewest snaps of any unit and often decides close games.
What players are on the special teams unit?
The specialists are the kicker, the punter, the long snapper who snaps the ball back, the holder who sets it for the kicker, and the returner who catches kicks and runs them back. Around them are coverage players, usually backups from the offense and defense, whose job is to get down the field and make the tackle.
What is an onside kick?
An onside kick is a short kickoff that the kicking team tries to recover itself, so it can keep the ball instead of handing it over. From the 2026 season a team can declare an onside kick at any point in the game, not just when trailing late, but it has to tell the referee first, so the other team knows it is coming.
Where to go next
- How the offense works: the unit that takes over after a return
- How the defense works: the unit a punt is trying to help
- Who calls the plays in the NFL: including the special teams coordinator
- How NFL scoring works: what a field goal and an extra point are worth
- NFL downs explained: why fourth down is where the punter comes on
Kicking is Rule 6 of the official NFL rulebook, published by NFL Football Operations.