NFL overtime rules 2025: both teams now get the ball

For decades an NFL team could lose in overtime without ever running a play. Win the coin toss, score a touchdown, go home. The team that lost the toss watched.

The game that broke it

In the January 2022 divisional round, Kansas City beat Buffalo 42-36 in overtime. The Chiefs won the toss, scored on their first possession, and the Bills were eliminated without touching the ball. The format had been criticized for years; that game ended the argument.

The playoffs changed that year: both teams get a possession in postseason overtime.

What changed for the regular season

On April 1, 2025, NFL owners approved extending the same guarantee to the regular season. Both teams now get an opportunity to possess the ball, even if the team that receives first scores a touchdown.

One catch: regular-season overtime is still ten minutes.

The guarantee is not absolute, and the reason is the clock. Regular-season overtime runs ten minutes. If the first team takes the entire ten minutes on its opening drive, the game ends without the other team getting a possession.

The one way a first possession still ends it

The first possession can produce an immediate winner only if the defense scores — a pick-six, a fumble returned for a touchdown, or a safety from a tackle or penalty in the end zone. In every other case, the ball changes hands.

Playoffs versus regular season

• 01Postseason: both teams possess, and there is no ten-minute cap — playoff games must produce a winner.
• 02Regular season: both teams possess, inside a ten-minute period, and a tie remains possible.

It took three seasons for the fix to travel from January to September, which is roughly the normal speed of an NFL rule change: the postseason gets the urgent version, and the regular season gets it once everyone has had time to argue.