NFL announces potential rule changes for the 2025 season, highlighted by first downs and overtime
Feb 27, 2025, 10:05 AM
The NFL has had certain rules in place that many have thought to be on borrowed time. From the debate on whether or not Josh Allen got a first down or not in the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship Game to why the overtime rules aren’t the same in both the regular season and postseason, the NFL finally announced its plans to tweak those rules.
The first rule change the league announced it was making Wednesday was installing the use of an electronic system to monitor first downs. The chain gang will still remain on the sidelines to serve as backup if the electronic system experiences a malfunction, but this could be a huge step for the league in preventing missed calls.
Breaking: The NFL says its plan is to put its electronic system to measure first downs into motion this upcoming regular season in 2025.
The chain crew would remain on sideline as backup.
But this is finally happening. pic.twitter.com/PevSCuo7Nm
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) February 26, 2025
The United Football League introduced this method in the league’s inaugural 2024 season, and will be in place again this year so NFL fans can get a preview of what to expect. Since the league serves as a place to test innovative ideas to implement into the NFL, the same technology will most likely be used, featuring a multitude of 4K cameras positioned around any stadium.
Here’s a look at the UFL’s Tru Line Technology.
It uses six 4K optical tracking cameras throughout each stadium to measure the spot of a ball in seconds.
The NFL tested similar technology at several games last year — like the Hawk-Eye system in tennis.pic.twitter.com/cIrbcbMcLB
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) March 30, 2024
The technology is similar to the Hawk-Eye system in tennis, which uses a collection of high speed camera angles to determine if even the slightest fraction of the ball landed on the line. This technology has been very successful by removing human-error from in/out calls on all surfaces of the game.
The next rule, which hasn’t been implemented but will be discussed in the offseason, is changing the regular season overtime rules to match the postseason rules, where both teams get the ball no matter what. While the Broncos haven’t been affected by this rule since Week 11 of the 2022 season when the Raiders beat them 22-16, this change is for the better as it takes out the variability of winning a coin toss.
The Broncos played just one overtime game in 2024 in a thrilling 30-24 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 17, but that game was not a reason why this rule change was implemented, as there were five total possessions in the ten minutes of free football.
These rule changes are good for the game, as they remove variability in certain calls to help the result on the field be decided by the two teams playing, not by calls and other external factors.
