While all eyes and ears are fixed on the fate and future of the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles’ controversial tush push play, NFL owners have reportedly decided on other significant rule changes on the docket for this week’s owner meetings in Florida.
Perhaps the most popular comes to the overtime rules, an ever-changing Pandora’s Box of contention in the league. According to multiple NFL insiders, the league will adjust their playoff overtime rules, which will allow both teams to have an opportunity to possess the ball on offense. The overtime period will remain at 10 minutes, however, rather than the proposed expansion to 15 minutes, like in regulation time.
According to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, the proposal passed unanimously, 32-0.
The proposal, which came from the Philadelphia Eagles, amends rule 16, section 1 of the NFL’s rulebook.
The NFL played with a sudden death overtime for 36 years, from 1974, just a few years after the NFL AFL merger, to 2010, when it changed the rule so that the game would only end if the first team to possess the ball scored a touchdown, rather than allowing a first-possession field goal to end the game. The overtime was condensed to 10 minutes in 2017, and in 2022. Playoff overtime rules were altered to allow both teams to possess the ball regardless of the result of the first offensive drive after the Kansas City Chiefs’ 42–36 win over Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in that year’s playoffs.
NFL owners approved a modification of the dynamic kickoff that will place the ball after touchbacks at the 35-yard line and a tweak to the regular-season overtime period to mirror postseason rules, sources told ESPN’s senior NFL insider Adam Schefter on Tuesday.
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The kickoff proposal, submitted by the competition committee, was separated into two parts by owners Tuesday.
While owners approved moving the touchback spot from the 30-yard line to the 35-yard line, proposed changes to onside kick rules were tabled by owners for more in-depth discussion at meetings scheduled for May. The committee proposed some simple alignment tweaks and also suggested eliminating the requirement that onside kicks can occur only in the fourth quarter.
The league has also reportedly approved expanded replay assist, a proposal by the league’s competition committee, allowing them to “advise the on-field officials on specific, objective aspects of a play and/or to address game administration issues when clear and obvious video evidence is present.”
The Detroit Lions proposal to eliminate the automatic first down on defensive holding and illegal contact penalties did not pass.
Other proposals passed by owners on Tuesday, included:
• A resolution from one of the most respected franchises, the Pittsburgh Steelers, to allow some direct contact between pending free agents and teams that are pursuing them during the three-day negotiating window that precedes the opening of the league year.
• A change submitted by multiple teams that would allow preparing K-balls that are used for kicking before game day as teams are allowed to do with the balls that are used on other plays.
• Proposals by the competition committee allowing two players to be designated to return from injured reserve if they are placed on IR when rosters are reduced trimmed down to the required 53, granting playoff teams two more returns from IR spots in the postseason, and using point differential as the third tiebreaker on waiver claims.
All rule changes require a 75% vote share and agreement, 24 NFL clubs, to pass.
