The NFL changed its regular-season overtime rules for the 2025 season and they carry into 2026. The short version: a touchdown on the first drive no longer ends the game.
Regular Season vs. Playoffs
| Regular season | Playoffs | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | One 10-minute period | 15-minute periods, as many as needed |
| Both teams possess | Yes | Yes |
| Can end in a tie | Yes | No |
| Timeouts | Two per team | Three per half |
How a Regular-Season Overtime Runs
After a three-minute intermission, the referee tosses a coin and the visiting captain calls it.
Both teams are guaranteed an opportunity to possess the ball. If the receiving team scores a touchdown, it kicks off and the other side gets its chance to answer. Once both teams have had the ball, whoever leads wins. If it is still tied after that, the next score of any kind wins it.
There is no point-after attempt if the game ends on a touchdown, and coaches cannot challenge in overtime; the replay official initiates all reviews.
The One Exception
If the kicking team scores a safety on the receiving team’s opening possession, the game ends immediately and the kicking team wins. That is the only way a team does not get its guaranteed possession.
The Clock Still Matters
Ten minutes is the maximum, and it does not stop for the guarantee. If the first team’s drive eats most of the period, the second team may get the ball with very little time, or the clock may expire before it gets the ball at all. In the playoffs, a team that has not completed its guaranteed possession keeps the ball into a second period. In the regular season it does not.
If nobody scores, or the teams trade scores and time runs out, the game is a tie.
How It Got Here
Sudden death ran from 1974 to 2010 across a 15-minute period. In 2010 the league moved to modified sudden death, where a first-possession field goal gave the other team a chance but a touchdown ended it. The period shrank to 10 minutes in 2017.
After Kansas City beat Buffalo 42-36 in the January 2022 divisional round without Buffalo touching the ball in overtime, owners guaranteed both teams a possession in the playoffs. In 2025 they extended that to the regular season, while keeping the period at 10 minutes.
Related
NFL games today · NFL standings
The Bottom Line
Both teams get a possession, the period is 10 minutes, and a tie is still possible. A safety by the kicking team on the opening drive is the only way the second team never sees the ball.