The NFL is flirting with another overtime rule-change that would fix a problem that has haunted the NFL postseason

• The NFL is once again looking at changing the rules of overtime.
• Proposed rules could ensure that both teams get a possession in overtime.
• The proposed rule changes come after several teams lost overtime playoff games without touching the ball.

In what has become something of a tradition around this time of the off-season, the NFL once again is considering changes to the rules of overtime.

As the NFL's competition committee meets this week, the coaches, owners and NFL executives that make up the committee are hearing out two proposed changes to the current overtime rules.

The first, proposed by the Colts and Eagles, simply ensures that each team gets a possession in overtime, even if the first team to touch the ball scores a touchdown.

The second, proposed by the Titans, would allow the receiving team in overtime to win the game on the opening possession, but only if they scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion to go along with it, adding a bit of a risk-reward element to the decision.

It would take an affirmative vote from 24 of the 32 owners in the league to change the rule. According to reports, there is momentum building for a potential change.

"I think it passes easy," one team executive told Peter King of NBC Sports.

NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay was a bit more restrained in his assessment of the current moment.

"I think my history on this rule tells me that 24 votes is not easy to get," McKay said, per ESPN. "But I do think the statistics absolutely warrant an examination of whether overtime rules need to be further modified."

Ten years ago, the league changed its rules to bring an end to "sudden death" overtime, which a team could win with just a field goal. Instead, the team that received the opening kickoff of the extra period could only win on their first possession with a touchdown, with a subsequent "sudden death" period starting should the drive fall short of the end zone.

But in the decade that followed, the tweak to the rule has proven a half-measure, especially in the playoffs. Of the 12 postseason games that have been played under this iteration of overtime rules, 10 have been won by the team that won the opening coin toss, including seven won on the opening possession of the extra period.

Raising the stakes is the fact that these games have often been high-flying affairs featuring the biggest stars in the NFL. In the 2018 AFC Championship, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs scored three touchdowns and a field goal as the clock expired to force overtime against the New England Patriots, only for Mahomes to watch from the sidelines as Brady and the Pats won the toss and marched the field for a game-winning score, robbing the Chiefs' offense of a chance to hold serve.

In this year's past postseason, it happened again, this time with Mahomes on the winning side of the equation. After the Bills and Chiefs traded blows during the most thrilling final two minutes in the history of the NFL, Kansas City won the overtime coin toss and drove the field to punch their ticket to the AFC title game. As Mahomes marched toward victory, Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who had thrown two touchdowns in the final two minutes to get the game to overtime, didn't have the chance to keep his team in the game.

In both cases, the rule proposed by the Colts and Eagles would have ensured that one of the most exciting players in the NFL had a say in the outcome of overtime.

While McKay said there was "a lot of momentum" for a tweak to the rules of overtime, any measure that takes the agreement of 24 of the NFL's 32 owners is no easy task. And it's worth noting that while many high-profile overtime games have ended with a slight thud, losing the coin toss is not a death sentence as it stands.

Just one week after the Chiefs beat the Bills in overtime by keeping the Buffalo offense on the sidelines during the extra period, Mahomes and the Chiefs won the overtime coin toss again, this time against the Bengals in the AFC Championship Game.

With a ticket to the Super Bowl hanging in the balance, the Bengals defense held strong, intercepting Mahomes and driving for a game-winning field goal.

For those hoping to avoid upending the current overtime structure, the AFC title game points to a clear solution — just play defense.

But as simple as "just play defense," may be, it's difficult to deny that the coin toss is still having an outsized effect on games, given the 10-2 record coin-toss winners have in overtime playoff games.

It's not the first time a team has offered a proposal to de-prioritize the overtime coin toss. In the 2021 off-season, the Ravens proposed a "spot and choose" overtime system in which one team would pick the spot of the ball to start the extra period, and the other team would decide if they'd prefer to play offense or defense from that spot.

It's a clever solution, if not a bit gimmicky. While that rule change did not come to pass, a year later the league is still debating ways to give every team a fair shake in the extra period.

As the Colts and Eagles have proposed, the winning solution may be the simplest of all — give both teams a shot with the ball and let the rest sort itself out.