Brett Veach says Andy Reid is working on a proposal to change NFL overtime rules

The Chiefs head coach appears to be involved in formulating an improvement to the NFL’s overtime setup

Since both NFL conference championship games went into overtime this past season — including the Kansas City Chiefs’ 37-31 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game — the subject of NFL overtime rules has been a topic of offseason discussion.

Back in January, I ran through some of the ideas being put forth as ways NFL overtime could be improved.

Now there is evidence that the Chiefs are making an effort to get the NFL to make a change.

In his appearance before the media during the NFL Scouting Combine on Wednesday, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid — whose quarterback Patrick Mahomes never had a chance to touch the ball during overtime against the Patriots — said that it’s something the league is considering.

“They are talking about them and we’ll see how all that rolls,” Reid said. “We all have our opinions, we’ll just see how it goes. The league makes the right decision. They have to listen to a lot of voices coming at them from various angles, but they’re aware of it and looking at things.”

Later — when asked about a potential expansion of replay rules — Reid said he had “been able to sit in on a couple of meetings with that,” suggesting that he’s been involved in the Competition Committee process that is the starting point for all rule changes that are submitted to the owners for approval.

Appearing on the PFT Live with Mike Florio podcast on Friday morning, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach was asked if the team would be submitting a proposal to ensure both teams would possess the ball in overtime.

Veach said while he has been too busy with free agency and the draft to be involved, he was aware that Reid is working on it.

”Everybody wants a chance for guys to do what they do,” Veach added. “I don’t really see the downside of having that — especially when you have a player like Patrick Mahomes. It would have been a lot of fun, and I think a lot of people — if they weren’t already tuned in for a great game — they certainly wouldn’t have wanted to miss that overtime. It would have been fun. But again, that’s something the league will work out. Those guys are smarter than me, so they’ll figure out what the best plan of attack is.”

Whether or not the people running NFL are smarter than anybody — much less Brett Veach — is sometimes open to question. But if you believe the overtime rules need to change, this is encouraging news.

We don’t yet know exactly what any proposal under consideration might contain. As I noted last month, there are lots of different ways overtime could be improved. This will be something to watch as the offseason proceeds.

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