NFL Overtime Rules Explained: Regular Season vs. Playoffs

By 4Football Staff · September 10, 2026 · 3 min read

Both teams now get the ball in overtime all year — but the regular season can still end in a tie and the playoffs cannot. Here is how each version works.

For years the complaint was simple: win the coin toss, score a touchdown, and the other offence never touches the ball. The league changed that for the playoffs in 2022 and, beginning with the 2025 season, extended the same principle to the regular season. The two versions are now close cousins, with one important difference — the clock.

What is the same in both

• A coin toss decides who receives. The visiting captain calls it.
• Both teams are guaranteed a possession, even if the first drive ends in a touchdown.
• If the score is still level after each team has had the ball, the game becomes sudden death: next score of any kind wins.
• A defensive score ends it immediately. If the team that kicks off returns a fumble or interception for a touchdown, or records a safety, the game is over — the guarantee is an opportunity to possess the ball, not a promise of points.
• There are no coach's challenges; every review is initiated by the replay official.

Regular season

• One overtime period of 10 minutes.
• Each team gets two timeouts.
• If the score is tied when the 10 minutes run out, the game ends in a tie.

That short clock creates a real strategic wrinkle. A long, methodical opening drive can consume most of the period, leaving the second team very little time to answer. So although both teams are entitled to a possession, the team with the ball second may be working against the clock as well as the scoreboard.

Playoffs

• Periods are 15 minutes, and they keep coming until somebody wins. There are no ties.
• Each team gets three timeouts per half, where two overtime periods make up a "half", with a short intermission between periods and a longer one after the second.
• If the first period ends while the second team's guaranteed possession is still in progress, play simply continues into the next period.

Should you take the ball or kick?

Under the old sudden-death rules receiving was an obvious choice. Now it is a genuine decision:

• Going second means you know exactly what you need — a field goal to tie, a touchdown to win — and you can use all four downs accordingly. That informational edge is why many analysts favour kicking off, especially in the playoffs where the clock is not a factor.
• Going first gives you the third possession if both teams score the same, and that possession is sudden death. In the regular season it also lets you drain the 10-minute clock.

Expect coaches to split on this for years, and expect the choice to depend on weather, how each defence is playing, and how much time is left.

Two-point conversions get more interesting

Because the second team knows the target, a touchdown in response to a touchdown raises a question: kick the extra point to extend the game, or go for two and end it? A team that trusts its offence more than its tired defence may well prefer one play from the two-yard line to another full possession for the opponent.

Quick reference

Ties still count in the standings as half a win and half a loss — which is why you will occasionally see a record like 9-7-1 on our standings page, and why a single tie can quietly decide a tiebreaker in December.