NFL owners approve big rule changes for 2025: Kickoff and overtime to be modified, ‘Tush Push’ ban tabled

The NFL is going to look slightly different in 2025 after the league’s 32 owners approved several major rule changes at the annual league meeting on Tuesday. 

One rule that won’t be changing right now is the “Tush Push.” The owners were expected to vote on a possible ban of the play, but talking things over, a decision was made to table the conversation until the next league meeting in May. CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones reported that the NFL’s 32 teams were split exactly down the middle with 16 teams opposing a ban. A proposal needs 24 votes to pass, so if the “Tush Push” is going to be banned, eight more teams will have to change their mind about the play. 

Not surprisingly, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni led the charge of teams hoping to keep the “Tush Push.” If you want to know where other teams fell in the debate, we’ve got that here. 

With the “Tush Push” out of the way, let’s take a look at some of the biggest rule changes that have been voted through at the meeting: 

Overtime change coming for regular season

The NFL owners have voted to align the regular-season overtime rules more closely with the postseason overtime rules. Under the OT rules in the postseason, the period is 15 minutes long and both teams are guaranteed a possession, even if the team that gets the ball first scores a touchdown. 

Both teams will now be guaranteed a possession during overtime in the regular season, but the OT period will only be 10 minutes long. Under the previous regular-season rule, the team that got the ball first could win the game by scoring a touchdown on their first possession, but that’s no longer the case

Touchbacks will be moving out to the 35-yard line

Under last year’s rule, the touchback was at the 30-yard line, but starting with the 2025 season, the touchback will be moved out to the 35-yard line. The change is being made with the hope that it will discourage the kicking team from simply booting the ball out of the end zone on a kickoff knowing that the return team will automatically get the ball at the 35-yard line. Getting the ball at the 35 is huge, because that means a team would need to gain just 20 to 25 yards to get into field goal range. The league’s internal data shows a 65% to 75% return rate if the touchback is moved to the 35, more than double the rate in the 2024 season. 

There was also a proposal that would have allowed onside kicks to be attempted by a losing team at any point in a game (instead of just the fourth quarter), but that proposal has been tabled. 

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Replay assist can now help with even more penalties

With owners approving the expansion of replay assist, five new penalties can now be overturned by the booth: hitting a defenseless player, face mask, horse-collar tackle, tripping and roughing/running into the kicker. One notable aspect of this proposal is that replay assist will not call penalties that weren’t flagged on the field. For instance, if an obvious face mask is missed on the field, replay assist can’t go back and tell the referee to throw a penalty on the play. However, if a face mask flag is thrown on a play where a face mask penalty didn’t actually happen, then replay assist can step in to have the flag picked up. The NFL is limiting the scope of replay assist to objective penalties that can be overturned with “clear and obvious” video evidence. 

Flexing rules for Thursday night games to undergo a slight change

For the past two years, the NFL has been able to flex any Thursday night game held between Week 13 and Week 17, but the league had to give 28 days notice. However, that’s no longer the case. The owners have voted to trim that number down to 21 days, which means the NFL can now wait longer before deciding whether to flex a Thursday game. We’ve got the full details on this new policy here. 

NFL modifies uniform policy

If you love throwback jerseys, then you’re going to love this new policy: NFL teams can now wear their throwback or alternate uniforms a total of four times per season. Under the previous policy, that number was just three. Teams will also now be allowed to wear their alternate pants in the postseason, which wasn’t permitted under the old policy. One other thing that was approved is that teams will be able to wear their alternate helmet with their regular uniform. You can check out our full story on the uniform changes here. 

Proposal to change playoff format gets tabled

Under this proposal, a wild-card team could be seeded higher than a division-winning team if the wild-card team has a better record. All division winners would still be guaranteed a playoff berth, but they wouldn’t be guaranteed a home playoff game. If this rule had been in place last season, the 14-3 Vikings would have been the third seed in the NFC instead of the fifth seed. Apparently, quite a few teams liked this idea. Instead of voting it down, the owners decided to table it until the next league meeting in May, so it could get approved then. Jones noted that more teams than you think were open to it. 

The NFL’s next league meeting is May 20-21 in Minnesota, so if there’s a vote on the new playoff seeding format or the “Tush Push,” that’s when they’ll take place. 

The NFL also made a few announcements that didn’t involve any rule changes and one of those involved the 2025 schedule. The league revealed that there will be a Christmas tripleheader in 2025. The holiday, which is on a Thursday this year, will feature two games on Netflix and one on Amazon.