NFL Owners voted on Tuesday at the Spring League Meeting in Chicago to shorten the length of overtime in the preseason and regular season from 15 minutes to 10 minutes, according to NFL.com.
Ownership also voted to allow teams to bring two players back from injured reserve in a season and to eliminate a step of roster reductions.
The overtime change was first proposed at the Annual League Meeting in March because teams felt that participating in a full-length overtime period the week before a Thursday game created a competitive disadvantage.
Two games in 2016 (Washington at Cincinnati and Seattle at Arizona) ended in ties.
**NFL.com reported** from NFL Research that there have been 83 overtime games in the past five seasons and that 22 of those have lasted at least 10 minutes into the extra session. According to the report, the average elapsed time in overtimes of those 83 games is 7 minutes, 43 seconds.
The Vikings have played in seven overtime games in the past five seasons, including one that lasted all 15 minutes, a 26-all tie with Green Bay in 2013.
Vikings overtime games in the past five seasons:
2012: Vikings defeat Jaguars 26-23, 3:54 elapsed
2013: Vikings tie Packers 26-26, 15:00 elapsed
2013: Vikings defeat Bears 23-20, 13:17 elapsed
2014: Vikings defeat Buccaneers 19-13, 17 seconds elapsed
2014: Vikings defeat Jets 30-24, 4:39 elapsed
2015: Vikings defeat Rams 21-18, 5:40 elapsed
2016: Lions defeat Vikings 22-16, 6:39 elapsed
Injured reserve expansion
Ownership also voted to allow each team to bring back up to two players from the injured reserve list in a season.
Teams previously were allowed to bring back one player designated for return.
Now, two players will be eligible to return to practice if they have been on injured reserve for at least six weeks and can return to games eight weeks after being placed on injured reserve.
Adrian Peterson, who suffered a torn meniscus in Week 2, returned to action in Week 15 last season.
Roster reduction change
In previous years, teams have reduced rosters from 90 players at the opening of training camp to 75 players during the preseason before finalizing their 53-man rosters to start a season.
Owners voted to eliminate the mandatory reduction from 90 to 75 players. Now, teams will go from 90 to 53 players.
