While April 1 might not be an ideal date to make any sort of announcement, the NFL has confirmed it has changed the regular season overtime rules to match the postseason.
The NFL has descended upon Palm Beach, Florida this week for the Annual League Meeting, with coaches and owners discussing a number of high-profile rule changes, including one that could see the Philadelphia Eagles signature ‘tush push’ banned following a proposal by the Green Bay Packers.
April 1 is of course April Fools day, which left some fans on social media wondering if the NFL had actually decided to change the rules around the regular season overtime period.
However, it has now been confirmed by multiple NFL insiders the motion proposed by the Eagles has passed unanimously 32-0. Taking to X, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport wrote: “A couple rules changes passed: The NFL will now allow both teams to posses the ball in overtime, but amended to 10 mins. Expanded replays assist has also passed.”
Previously, the rules for both the regular season and overtime were the same; scoring a touchdown ends the game. However, following the dramatic 2021 NFL season playoff match-up between Kansas City and Buffalo in the AFC Divisional Round, a game the Chiefs won in overtime 42-36, the NFL opted to change the postseason overtime rules to allow both teams to possess the ball even if a touchdown was scored on the first possession.
Had the rules been in place that day back in January 2022, Josh Allen would have been afforded the opportunity to tie the game up against the Chiefs at Arrowhead with sudden death to follow if the Bills did score.
However, they did not. But should a game end up going to overtime in the regular season now, then it will be done so using the same rules as the postseason playoff games – only with the regular season game overtime running for 10 minutes compared to the postseason’s 15 minute period.
The first NFL postseason game to be played under the new rules implemented in 2022 was Super Bowl LVIII which saw the Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was criticized heavily for not having his team ready for overtime, with San Francisco bizarrely opting to receive the ball after winning the coin toss.
By allowing the Chiefs and Mahomes to get the ball second, they gave Kansas City more information to utilize when it came to playcalling and decision-making on fourth down. The 49ers eventually kicked a field goal on their possession of overtime, which meant Mahomes and co. knew a touchdown would win the Super Bowl for the Chiefs.
(
Getty Images)
“None of us have a ton of experience with it,” said Shanahan after the game, which was won by the Chiefs when Mahomes hit Mecole Hardman Jr. on a three-yard touchdown pass.
“But we went through all the analytics and talked to those guys. We just thought it would be better. We wanted the ball third. If both teams matched and scored, we wanted to be the ones who had the chance to go win.”
He added: “Our biggest thing is we knew both teams were going to get the ball at least once, so we wanted to make sure if we won the toss, we would be the team that got it the third time.
“[We] got that field goal, so [we] knew we had to hold them to at least a field goal, and if we did, we thought it was in our hands after that.”
