NEW ORLEANS — Brad Smith just became much less dangerous for the Jets.

With strong-legged kickers all the rage, NFL owners all but guaranteed a boon in touchbacks and a lot fewer highlight-reel returns by Smith and fellow return specialists Devin Hester and Joshua Cribbs yesterday by voting to move kickoffs up to the 35-yard line starting next season.

Even so, the move on the final day of the league’s annual meeting wasn’t a total loss for lovers of special teams. Led by Patriots coach Bill Belichick, fired-up head coaches forced owners to dramatically scale back their planned overhaul of the kickoff rules.

Hoping to cut down on injuries, the league’s competition committee also wanted to outlaw the two-man “wedge” block and move post-touchback possessions up to the 25-yard line (from the current 20) until protests from the coaches caused them to backpedal and abandon those two proposals.

In addition to moving the kickoff to the 35, where it had been until 1994, the owners also decided to require all players on kickoffs to be within five yards of the kickoff line to lessen the “running starts” that cause so many violent collisions.

But even those two changes weren’t overwhelmingly popular. The measures passed by vote of 26-6 — just two more than necessary — and were still greeted by outrage from Cribbs, the Browns’ ace kick returner.

“This means it will be touchbacks all over the place,” Cribbs said. “They’re essentially taking returners out of the game.”

Cribbs might have a point. There were just four kickoff returns for touchdowns in 1993, the last season in which the 35-yard line was used, compared with 23 kickoff TD returns with the 30-yard line last year.

Other rules and procedural changes enacted yesterday:

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All scoring plays — not just those in the final two minutes of each half — will be subject to replay review by the booth instead of requiring a coach’s challenge.

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Coaches can still get a third challenge if the first two challenges are successful.

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All playing fields must be green in color after the league became concerned about a rogue franchise imitating Boise State’s blue-colored surface.

Another effort by the owners to cut down on injuries would have mandated suspensions for overly violent hits on defenseless receivers, but that proposal was tabled until at least May after objections from Steelers owner Art Rooney II.

Rooney is upset with the proposal because he feels it is aimed specifically at big-hitting — and frequently fined — Steelers linebacker James Harrison.