The NFL is considering changing regular season overtime rules to decrease the advantage for teams that win the toss.
Under the current rules, there is no guarantee both teams get an opportunity to possess the ball, as a team can win the coin toss and score a touchdown on its first drive to win the game.
The overtime rules are different in the playoffs, where both teams get a chance to have a possession even if the offense scores a TD on the opening drive.
Postseason changes came after the Buffalo Bills lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in a divisional round game in January 2022.
Speaking at the NFL Combine this week, league executive Troy Vincent said that it’s now ‘time to rethink the overtime rule’ for the regular season.
Bringing those rules in line with the playoffs, as well as with extending the period to 15 minutes, are said to be possible solutions.
According to the Associated Press, under current rules, receiving the ball first has become more of an advantage than pre-2011, when overtime was a sudden-death period.
Receiving teams won 56.8% of games in overtime from 2017 to 2024, up from 55.4% from 2001 to 2011.
If the postseason rules are implemented in the regular season, those statistics could swing again.
While the playoff overtime rules have not been used extensively, they did come into play in Super Bowl LVIII in 2024, when the San Francisco 49ers’ decision to receive the kickoff was put under the microscope following their loss.
In previous years, taking the first possession was a no-brainer, as the team who scored the first overtime touchdown would win the game.
However, knowing what’s needed to stay alive on their guaranteed possession was the theoretical advantage for Kansas City in the Super Bowl, especially when it came to fourth-down decisions.
After the 49ers settled for a field goal on their overtime possession, the Chiefs took over and drew up a perfect play in a critical moment that saw Patrick Mahomes gain eight yards on fourth-and-one from their own 42-yard line.
They proceeded to score the game-winning touchdown nine plays later, lifting back-to-back Super Bowls.
In the days following Super Bowl LVIII, 49ers players including Arik Armstead and Kyle Juszczyk admitted to not knowing the exact overtime format that was used in the postseason.
But if it is adopted for the regular season moving forward, players and coaches will need to get up to speed quickly.
Meanwhile, the NFL is also set to use its virtual measuring system to determine first downs in 2025.
The Hawk-Eye system will serve as the primary method of measuring line to gain, and while the chain gang will still be on the sidelines, it will be used as a secondary method to determine the measurements.
“We used this in the background last season,” Kimberly Fields, the NFL’s senior vice president of football operations, said this week.
“The goal for 2025 is to continue to train our techs, who are the ones who will be utilizing the technology, finalizing all of our officiating processes and procedures around virtual measurements and testing the graphics for the broadcast and in-stadium, so fans in the stadium and fans watching on television can see what we’re doing.
“The chain crew will still be there as backup.”
With the NFL discussing rule changes ahead of 2025, the tush push play mastered by the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles has also been a hot topic this week.
The Green Bay Packers have proposed banning it, and some opponents have argued the play is too dangerous, but Vincent said the league found no injuries on the play in 2024.
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