NFL considering changes to regular-season overtime rules

ESPN ^

[Red Badger]

INDIANAPOLIS -- The NFL is considering changing overtime rules in the regular season to decrease the advantage for teams that win the coin toss.

"It's time to rethink the overtime rule," league executive Troy Vincent said Wednesday at the NFL scouting combine.

Vincent said the competition committee agrees overtime rules need to be addressed. 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.

Current rules give both teams an opportunity to possess the ball in overtime unless a touchdown is scored on the first possession.

The rules are different in the playoffs. Both teams get a chance to have a possession even if the offense scores a touchdown on the opening drive. That postseason change came after the Buffalo Bills lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in a divisional round game in January 2022.

Making the overtime rules the same in the regular season is a possible solution, along with extending the period to 15 minutes.

Among other changes, the NFL plans to use its virtual measuring system to determine first downs in 2025. This wouldn't eliminate the officials who manually spot the ball and use chains to mark the line to gain. The optimal tracking system notifies officiating instantly if a first down was gained after the ball is spotted by hand.

"We used this in the background last season," said Kimberly Fields, the NFL's senior vice president of football operations. "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."

The competition committee also will review expansion of the replay assist to include more fouls, but Vincent said "there was no appetite" from the committee to use video replay to throw a flag.

A team could still propose a rule change to do that. For now, if officials miss an obvious penalty such as a face mask, replay assist can't throw a flag.

Replay assist was used in 2024 to pick up flags thrown for roughing the passer (contact with head/neck), unnecessary roughness (runner out of bounds), intentional grounding and ineligible player downfield.

Expansion under consideration for 2025 would include roughing the passer (hit below the knee), unnecessary roughness (defenseless receiver/player), face mask (contact of hand with face mask), tripping, illegal crackback block and horse-collar tackle, among others.

Vincent said the league wanted to find a way to bring back onside kicks while also installing a permanent kickoff rule after a one-year trial with what was called the dynamic kickoff.

The trial made kickoffs more exciting with higher rate of returns. Vincent said he anticipated the spot of the touchback on kickoffs being moved from the 30- to the 35-yard line.

But the changes affected the onside kick. Teams were 3 for 50, the lowest recovery rate since 2001.

"Universal consensus that we know we need to do something with this play," Vincent said.

He added there wasn't much conversation around a fourth-and-long option to keep possession, though those discussions could occur next month.

The tush push play mastered by the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles has been a hot topic this week because the Green Bay Packers proposed banning it. Some opponents have argued the play is dangerous, but Vincent said the league found no injuries on the play in 2024.

[Red Badger]

If you’re gonna have ‘OT’ at all, then why not go the full 15 minutes, regardless of who scores what or when.

I never liked the Sudden Death OT rules..................

[KarlInOhio]

The optimal tracking system notifies officiating instantly if a first down was gained after the ball is spotted by hand.

Optimal? Maybe they mean optical.

[dfwgator]

Or you just do what they do in soccer. You play the full 15 minutes, and if’s still tied you go to a “Kick Off”. You have each kicker kick from 50-yards until one makes a kick and the other misses, and repeat until there’s a winner.

[Red Badger]

I think you are correct................

[Zathras]

Two hr nap time to help older viewers?

[nitzy]

The best alternative to overtime is “criteria”.

The game is never tied. The team with criteria is always winning.

Criteria:

Highest score - If you have the highest score, you are winning
Most TDs - If it is tied 17-17 but one team has 2 TDs, 2 XPs and a FG and the other has 1 TD, 1- 2PConv, 3 FGs, the one with 2 TDs is winning
Last to score - If it is 17-17, the last one to score is winning.

Before you knock it....You should watch a competition that uses it. International wrestling uses it. It creates a constant sense of urgency. One team (or wrestler) is always doing everything they can to get the criteria. You never see wrestlers waiting out the clock so that they can get to OT.

It’s a way better system.

[Red Badger]

Too complicated for football players..................

[dfwgator]

In Texas High School Football they used Penetrations - the number of times a team drove within the 20 yard line. If that was tied, they would then use first downs.

[volare737]

I think the opening kickoff and the third quarter kickoff should be a RUBGY SCRUM with the five offensive lineman.

[volare737]

Same for overtime, the ref just rolls the ball in there. Would make for a really exciting play, especially in a close or overtime game.

[GeorgiaDawg32]

That works too, but as it is, if a team scores a TD on their first possession, game over. That ain’t fair IMO..

[OrangeHoof]

Free throws. Maybe penalty shots.

[dfwgator]

"Well I’ll tell you this; I’m enough of a sports fan that I suggest I have some rules changes I would like to suggest. I think they are some changes we could make in certain sports that would make them more exciting you know? Like in football, I would let all forty-five guys play at the same time. You know, what’s this s**t standing around watching the game? Get in there, put a helmet on and hurt somebody for C****sakes, will you? You’re not getting paid to watch and never mind lining up, just grab the ball and run like a m**********r you know? Another thing I would do in football, I would leave the injured on the field. Well they’re always talking about how it’s a big war going on out there. Fine, let the Red Cross come around and pick these a**holes up."

[dfwgator]

Up to the defense to stop them. If they get a 3-and-out, most likely that’s the ball game right there.

[Red Badger]

How about this:

Line up the way they do now, but no downfield receiver. Ball must land inbounds, not end zone. Both teams start running when the ball hits the ground, then they run after the ball free-for-all. If it bounces out of bounds or into the end zone then the receiving team gets the ball on the 20 yard line..............

[T.B. Yoits]

Whichever team kneels longer with more players wins.

[nitzy]

I don’t know if you have ever seen it used but it’s really not that complicated.

Most of the time it comes down to....who scored last? If a wrestler has a big throw or if there are multiple big throws in a match then it gets a little complicated.

As long as there aren’t a bunch of missed XPs and safeties in a game, football would be about the same.

Wrestling is a much faster pace with less time to think about it. Football is so slow paced, it would be very easy to know who has criteria. However, it would make in-game decisions a little bit trickier. It would likely cause ALOT more 2 point conversions if the coach knew that the other team tying it up 7-7 on the next drive would put them in the lead.

[FamiliarFace]

Gotta love ole George!

[dfwgator]

This is my favorite George rule:

“Here’s another suggestion for basketball, I would allow twenty-five points for any ball that goes in the basket off another guy’s head. You’d see some good fights during those close games, I’ll tell you.”

[Nifster]

Quit screwing around with what used to be an exciting game