Following months of discussion over the advantages of winning the first possession, the league announced Wednesday that two separate overtime adjustments have been proposed by NFL teams. While the powerful competition committee of the NFL has not yet endorsed the proposals, they can be voted on by rule later this month at annual league meetings.
The Indianapolis Colts Philadelphia EaglesHave suggested that each team be allowed at most one possession in overtime. The Tennessee TitansThe proposal is that each team should get at least one possession.
For rule changes to be effective, they must be approved by 24 of 32 teams.
The existing overtime rule in the league, which was last updated 2017 and does not require two-point conversion, is very similar to the Titans proposal. It was criticized for the advantage it gives teams to win overtime coin toss. The issue was then brought back into the public eye when the Kansas City ChiefsEliminated the Buffalo BillsFrom the divisional playoff round last year by scoring a touchdown during the opening possession in overtime
Brandon Beane, Bills general manager, said this month at the scouting Combine that he preferred a fixed time for overtime regardless of scoring. It was similar to basketball and other sports which avoid sudden death. However, the NFL didn’t make such a proposal in the Wednesday packet. The NFL did not indicate that they were planning to include the proposal in their Wednesday packet. Baltimore RavensIn recent years, a variety of overtime proposals were made by, which included an analytics-based “spot” and “choose” method. No submissions have been made for 2022.
Next week, the competition committee will make a decision on whether it wants to endorse a proposal from a club or not.
It’s possible for the competition committee or owners to compromise and allow postseason games to be changed. According to league data, 50% of teams that win the coin-toss have won since 2012 when the requirement for an opening possession touchdown was introduced for regular season games. This number has increased slightly to 54%, since the league cut overtime to a maximum time of 15 to 10 mins in 2017.
However, playoff games have seen a significant increase in their popularity. Seven out of twelve postseason overtime matches have been won in the first possession since the change to the format. The team that won the first coin toss won 10 of the 12 games.
Four teams filed a resolution to modify the league’s Anti-Tampering Policy so that teams could retain their player personnel staff throughout the draft. Teams would then be allowed to interview non-executives with other teams.
The team would be able to continue their preparations for drafts and not lose staff during the crucial period of offseason between the end the season and draft. However, they could no longer block any movement after that time.