Report: NFL Competition Committee Has 'Some Sentiment' for Modifying Playoff OT Rules

After a postseason that saw the NFL's overtime structure become a hot topic, the league might just be mulling a change.

According to Mark Maske of the Washington Post, "there is at least some sentiment within the [NFL Competition Committee] for modifying overtime for the postseason to ensure that each team gets one possession."

In fact, Judy Battista of NFL.com reported the Indianapolis Colts have proposed guaranteeing each team at least one possession in overtime, a proposal that would be applied to both the regular season and the playoffs.

While any change would need approval from 24 of the league's 32 owners, individual teams can propose rule changes, and the overtime rules seem likely to be discussed even if the Competition Committee doesn't make its own recommendations for change.

"I have no question it will be brought up," the chairman of that committee, Rich McKay, told Maske. "I have no question that there will be a team or two that is going to suggest a rule change."

McKay added that he expected some teams to make proposals for overtime changes that would be postseason-specific, while other teams likely would seek to make the changes for both the regular season and playoffs.

In the NFL's current system, both teams aren't guaranteed to have the ball in overtime. If the team that receives the kickoff scores a touchdown on the first drive of overtime, the game ends. If a touchdown isn't scored on the first drive, the next team to score wins.

Those rules became a major pain point with many fans during the AFC Divisional Round matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills. After a game that was widely regarded as one of the best in NFL history ended regulation in a 36-36 tie, the Chiefs won the coin toss, received the ball and scored a touchdown to end the game without Josh Allen and the Bills offense ever taking the field.

Detractors of the current system argued that with two elite offenses squaring off like the Chiefs and Bills, the game was basically decided by that coin toss, seeing as how the teams combined to end the game with six straight scoring drives. Those people feel like both teams should be guaranteed at least one possession in overtime.

Those who have defended the current system have argued that defense is a part of the game too, and if your defense can't get one stop, it doesn't deserve to win. In a league that has become increasingly offense-focused, however, that argument rests on shakier ground.

But both teams getting an overtime possession would raise its own problems. If the score was still tied after those two possessions, would the game become sudden death? Such a system would still favor the team that won the coin toss, albeit with less of an advantage than the current system.

Last year, the Baltimore Ravens proposed a "spot and choose" system where one team would choose where to spot the ball and the other team would choose whether they wanted to be on offense or defense. So if the spot was chosen as the offense's own 20-yard line, for instance, the other team would choose whether to be on offense or defense from that mark and the game would be sudden death from there.