Can a Punt Become a Field Goal?

Rule 3 of the playing rules defines each kick by how the ball meets the foot.

The difference between a punt and a drop kick is therefore one bounce. A kicker who drops the ball and kicks it in the air is punting, and a kicker who lets it touch the ground first is drop kicking.

Rule 3, Section 10 says a field goal is made by a drop kick or a place kick from on or behind the line of scrimmage, or during a fair catch kick. Rule 11, Section 4 repeats the condition for a successful field goal: the kick must be a place kick or drop kick made by the offense from on or behind the line of scrimmage, or from the spot of a fair catch. After the kick, the ball must not touch the ground or any player of the offensive team before it passes through the goal, and the entire ball must pass through the vertical plane of the goal.

A punt meets none of those conditions, because it is not one of the two permitted kicks. The rulebook names only the two kicks. The text quoted on this page does not give a separate result for a punt that crosses the goal, so this page does not say more than that it is not a field goal.

A team may line up in a punt formation and then do something else. Rule 3 defines a scrimmage kick as a punt, drop kick or place kick from on or behind the line of scrimmage, and the scrimmage kick formation as one with no player in position to receive a hand-to-hand snap. One version of it, the punt formation, has at least one player 10 or more yards behind the neutral zone.

Rule 9, Section 1 says Team A may attempt a punt, drop kick or place kick from on or behind the line of scrimmage. So the formation does not decide the kind of kick. What counts is how the kicker kicks the ball. A drop kick from a punt formation is legal and, if it goes through the goal, it is a field goal.

Rule 9 treats the three kicks together. A punt, drop kick or place kick kicked beyond the line of scrimmage, or not from scrimmage, is penalized with a loss of down and five yards from the spot of the kick. A second kick from behind the line after the ball has crossed the line costs the down and five yards from the previous spot. The rulebook adds that a second kick from behind the line is legal as long as the ball has not crossed the line and returned behind the line, and that the scrimmage kick rules apply to punts, drop kicks and place kicks anywhere on the field.

If a missed field goal or a punt touches the receivers' goal post, uprights or crossbar, the ball is dead in the receivers' end zone, and the customary rules for punts and missed field goals apply.

All wording comes from the official NFL playing rules, 2026 edition: Rule 3 for the definitions of the kicks and the field goal, Rule 9 for kicks from scrimmage and Rule 11 for the scoring of a field goal. This page quotes the rulebook and does not decide how an official rules on a particular play.

The wording here follows the 2026 edition of the playing rules. More football pages are collected on the NFL hub, the page about blocked field goals covers what happens when a kick is blocked, and the page about scores shows how often a field goal decides a game.