INDIANAPOLIS — The NFL is considering changing overtime rules in the regular season to decrease the advantage for teams who 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 it was a sudden death period. Receiving teams won 56.8% of games in overtime from 2017-24, up from 55.4% from 2001-11.
Both teams currently have 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’ loss 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.