The NFL breaks can feel long sometimes, but every offseason allows teams to have enough time to make changes. Not only on their rosters, but also to discuss new rules. In 2025, a new modification is making Baker Mayfield happy, as his Tampa Bay Buccaneers were affected by a particular rule during a game against Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs last season.
In April, NFL owners passed a rule change that will allow both teams to possess the ball in overtime during the regular season. Until last season, regular season games were over if the team that possessed the ball first in overtime scored a touchdown.
This situation gave the coin toss too much weight on the potential outcome of games, with the results often proving crucial in playoff seedings. The Bucs suffered the old rule against Mahomes‘ Chiefs last year, which is why Mayfield is celebrating this change.
“I’m pretty excited about it; it gives us a chance if you don’t win the coin toss. So, I mean, I think that’s the way it should be,” Mayfield admitted in a recent interview with Chiefs Wire‘s Ed Easton Jr. “It shouldn’t be based on a flip of the coin. Both teams should get a chance, and may the best one win.”
The coin toss that sealed Mayfield, Bucs’ fate against Mahomes’ Chiefs in 2024
Mayfield has a big reason to be in favor of this change, since he found himself on the losing side of the previous rule last year. On November 4, 2024, losing a coin toss translated in a regular-season loss for his Buccaneers before they could even touch the ball.
With the Bucs losing 24-17 to the Chiefs in the fourth quarter, Mayfield orchestrated a late, 71-yard drive that ended up in a touchdown when there were just 27 seconds remaining.
Tampa Bay went for the extra point to tie the game and force overtime instead of trying its luck with a two-point attempt to potentially turn the score around, but the overtime rules that existed until then favored the Chiefs.
Kansas City won the coin toss, and Mayfield’s reaction said it all. The moment he found out Mahomes would get the ball first, he knew the game was practically over. And he wasn’t wrong. The Chiefs star drove his team all the way to the end zone, resulting in a 30-24 win for the hosts at Arrowhead. It hurt then, but with the rule change, Mayfield now knows there will always be a chance in future overtimes.