As usual, some rule changes are coming to the NFL this fall.
NFL owners met this week at the annual NFL owners’ meetings in Florida, where the league’s competition committee presented rule change proposals.
One of those proposals was to ban the Philadelphia Eagles’ signature play, the tush push.
While owners decided to postpone the tush push vote until May, according to The Athletic, owners did agree to a handful of rule changes.
Here are three NFL rule changes to study before the 2025 season.
New overtime rules
The NFL is continuing to tinker with its overtime rules three years after the Kansas City Chiefs’ 42-36 win over the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs put the rules in the spotlight.
At the time of the Chiefs-Bills game, overtime playoff rules said a game would end if a touchdown was scored on the first possession of overtime.
Following that season, the league changed the rules to give both teams a chance to score a touchdown. If that rule had existed a few months earlier, the Bills could have tried to score a touchdown to tie the game.
That 2022 rule change only applied to the playoffs, but now, the regular season overtime rules will resemble it.
Both teams will have a chance to score a touchdown if a game goes into overtime in the regular season, but overtime will only last 10 minutes, not 15 like originally proposed, per The Athletic.
Implementing an eye from the sky on first downs
Starting this fall, first downs will be measured by Sony’s Hawk-Eye cameras, according to Yahoo! Sports. Six 8K cameras will be used to track the ball and measure its distance.
These cameras will replace the chain gang who manually measures the downs. The chain gang will still be used on the field “in a secondary capacity‚” according to a press release from the NFL on Tuesday.
The Sony cameras will be able to determine a measurement in 30 seconds, saving the NFL 40 seconds for each measurement, per the release.
Moving touchbacks — again
Last season, the NFL instituted its new dynamic kickoffs to increase returns and reduce injuries.
In 2024, returns increased from 2023’s record-low 21.8% to 32.8%, according to The Associated Press. The rate of concussions sustained on kickoffs also dropped by 43% with the change.
Kickoffs will change again this season.
Touchbacks will move up to the 35-yard line, an increase of 5 yards. This was done to encourage NFL kickers from kicking fewer touchbacks, thus increasing the number of kickoff returns.
“Moving a touchback 5 yards closer to an eventual score would encourage kickers to hit the landing zone between the receiving team’s goal line and 20-yard line, as any ball caught there necessitates a return,” according to NFL Network.
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