NFL considering changing regular-season OT rules to match the postseason

The NFL is considering changing the regular-season overtime rules to match those of the postseason.

If the rule changes for 2025, both teams will be given an opportunity to possess the ball regardless what happens on the first possession. As it stands now, if the team possessing the ball first scores a touchdown, the game ends.

In 2024, the team winning the coin toss in overtime went 12-4 and overtime lasted only 11.6 plays. The first-drive touchdown percentage was 37.5 percent.

"You saw from a [Competition] Committee standpoint, consistently across each member, it was time for us to rethink and relook at overtime," Troy Vincent, the executive vice president of football operations, said. "Should it be the same overtime rules as it is in the postseason? This is one when you think about themes coming out of the season, overtime would be one that I would say is one that universally the committee thought we need to address this."

The regular-season overtime in 2025 would return to 15 minutes after being reduced to 10 minutes in 2017. An overtime game would become sudden death after both teams have possessed the ball.

It was in 2022 that the league tweaked the overtime rule for the postseason to allow both teams a possession.

Vincent said the change "would not add that many more plays."

"The coaches were just, 'It should be the same [as the postseason],'" Vincent said. "They felt there shouldn't be a rule for the regular season that's different from the postseason. They just wanted a consistent rule. Let the guys play."

The rule change will require the vote of 24 owners to pass.