NFL to Review Overtime, Replay, and First-Down Tech

A few rule changes may be on the horizon in the NFL.

Just two days after acknowledging that the league will look at the legality of the “tush push”, league executive Troy Vincent said Wednesday that the NFL is considering changing overtime rules in the regular season.

“It’s time to rethink the overtime rule,” Vincent said at the NFL scouting combine.

Vincent said a main focus of reviewing the rule is to decrease the advantage for teams that win the coin toss. Prior to the implementation of the current overtime rules ahead of the 2011 season, overtime was sudden-death. Following complaints that a field goal could end the game on the first drive of overtime, the league changed the rules — barring a touchdown on the first possession of overtime, the other team would have a possession of its own.

Per Vincent, the competition committee agreed that the regular season OT rules need to be looked at. Since 2017, teams that received the ball to start overtime have won 56.8% of games. The NFL recently changed OT rules for the postseason following a controversial end to a Divisional Round game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills in 2022. One of the greatest games in NFL history, the tilt saw three lead changes in the final two minutes of regulation. After Kansas City tied the game on the final play of the fourth quarter, it won the coin flip in OT and scored the game-winning TD less than five minutes later — Buffalo didn’t have an opportunity to possess the ball. In the aftermath of that game, the NFL amended the playoff OT rules to give both teams a chance to have a possession even if the offense scores a touchdown on the opening drive.

One potential outcome is adjusting the regular season rules to match that of the postseason, as well as extending the OT from 10 to 15 minutes. Additionally, according to the NFL’s senior vice president of football operations Kimberly Fields, the league plans to use its virtual measuring system to determine first downs in 2025.

“We used this in the background last season,” Fields said. “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.”

Officials would continue to spot the ball, with the tracking system notifying the officials immediately if a first down was gained after the ball is spotted by hand.

According to Vincent, other possible topics of conversation include the expansion of the replay assist to include more fouls — including roughing the passer, unnecessary roughness, face mask, tripping, illegal crackback block and horse-collar tackles — as well as addressing onside kicks and a permanent kickoff rule. Last year’s implementation of the dynamic kickoff was not well-received by many, and the revised onside kick rules resulted in the lowest recovery rate since 2001 (3-of-50).