Twenty-nine teams voted to change the overtime rules for the postseason. Three teams did not. Per multiple reports, the nays consisted of the Bengals, Vikings, and Dolphins.
Earlier this year, the Bengals overcame the prior overtime rule in an AFC Championship win over the Chiefs, intercepting Kansas City on the opening drive of the extra session and thereafter scoring the first points. In 2020, the Vikings benefited from the rule, scoring a first-drive touchdown to beat the Saints in overtime of a wild-card game.
The Dolphins rarely have been to the playoffs since Dan Marino retired. So they have no recent experience, one way or the other, with the playoff overtime rule.
Via TheAthletic.com, the Vikings objected to the fact that the team that takes possession after a first-drive touchdown has unlimited time to score. The Bengals, in contrast, often vote against anything and everything. When the overtime rule first changed in 2010 to prevent a first-drive win based on a field goal, the Bengals and three others opposed the measure. In 2019, the Bengals were the only team that voted against making pass interference calls and non-calls subject to replay review. (The league abandoned that approach after one year, given — frankly — the inability of the league office to properly apply a consistent replay standard to interference calls and non-calls.)
Given that the league made the rule change permanent, the three holdouts won’t get a chance to recruit six others to join them in 2023. To scrap the current rule, at least 24 teams must vote to change it.