Timeouts explained: three per half, injuries in the last two minutes and why you can only ice a kicker once

Every NFL team starts each half with three timeouts. They stop the clock, they buy time to fix a bad play call, and late in a close game they can be worth more than any player on the field. A few rules decide how they can be used: when they can be called, what happens if a player is hurt in the final two minutes, why a coach cannot call two in a row to ice a kicker, and what happens to the ones a team never uses.

Through Week 6 of the 2026 season, the play-by-play logs 722 charged timeouts in 93 games, an average of 3.9 per team per game out of the six available in regulation. Almost nine in ten of them, 632, came in the second or fourth quarter.

The basics

• Three per half. Rule 4-5-1 gives each team three charged timeouts in each half. They do not carry over: a timeout left unused at halftime is gone.
• Only with the ball dead. A timeout can be granted only between plays. The head coach or any player on the field can ask for one. If an assistant coach signals and an official grants it by mistake, it stands.
• Two minutes, or 30 seconds. A charged timeout lasts two minutes when television uses it for a commercial break. It lasts 30 seconds when the quarter’s commercials are already used up, when it is the second timeout in the same dead-ball period, or when the referee says so.
• The clock starts on the snap. After a team timeout, the game clock does not restart until the next snap. That is the whole point of calling one late in a half.
• Overtime is different. In the regular season, overtime is one 10-minute period and each team gets two timeouts. In the playoffs, each team gets three per overtime half, the same as in regulation.

The two-minute warning is not a team timeout. It is an automatic stoppage at the end of the last play that starts before two minutes remain in the second and fourth quarters, and it costs nobody anything. Our guide to the game clock and play clock explains when the clock runs and stops on every kind of play.

When teams use them

Detail	2026 through Week 6
Charged timeouts	722 in 93 games
First / second / third / fourth quarter	46 / 328 / 25 / 304
Overtime (8 games)	19
In the last two minutes of the first half	274
In the last two minutes of the fourth quarter	154
Most per game	5.0 (Ravens, Cowboys, Seahawks)
Fewest per game	2.7 (Bears)

The busiest stretch of the game is the last two minutes before halftime. More than a third of all timeouts this season, 274 of 722, came there, as offenses stopped the clock to set up a field goal and defenses stopped it to get the ball back with time left. At halftime, 76 of the 186 team-halves had used all three first-half timeouts, and only 16 had used none.

The fourth quarter is where saving them pays off. Of the 49 games this season decided by eight points or fewer in regulation, the losing team had used all three second-half timeouts in 40.

A timeout can also be spent without a coach asking for one. A coach who throws the red challenge flag and loses is charged a timeout, and a team that is out of timeouts cannot challenge at all. Our guide to challenges and replay covers that trade-off.

Injuries in the last two minutes

Before the two-minute warning, an injury stoppage is free. The referee calls an injury timeout, the injured player has to sit out one play, and the game clock starts again as if nothing had happened.

After the two-minute warning of either half, Rule 4-5-4 changes the price, so teams cannot fake injuries to stop the clock. If the injured player’s team still has a timeout, it is charged one. If it has none left, the referee calls an excess timeout instead. The first excess timeout of a half carries no yardage penalty, but if it is charged to the offense while the clock is running, the defense can take a 10-second runoff. A second excess timeout for injury in the same half costs 5 yards for delay of game, plus the possible runoff. Either half can end on a runoff, but there is never a runoff against the defense.

There are exceptions. No timeout is charged if the injury was caused by an opponent’s foul, or if it happened on a play with a change of possession, a touchdown, a safety, a made field goal, a free kick or a try. The injured player also has to leave for one play unless the injury came from a foul or a team calls or is charged a timeout other than an excess one. The rulebook adds that the Competition Committee “deprecates feigning injuries.”

Atlanta ran into this rule in Week 5. With the Falcons and Ravens tied 23-23 and 27 seconds left in regulation, Tavius Robinson sacked Michael Penix Jr., who walked off holding his side. The play-by-play shows Atlanta’s second timeout charged at 0:27, which is what the rule calls for when a team with timeouts left has a player hurt after the two-minute warning. Tua Tagovailoa played the next snap, a 14-yard completion to Bijan Robinson, and Atlanta used its last timeout with 19 seconds left. Penix came back for third down, the Falcons punted, and Baltimore won 30-23 in overtime.

Icing the kicker and back-to-back timeouts

Rule 4-5-1 lets each team take one charged timeout in the same dead-ball period, so the offense and defense can each call one before the same play. What a team cannot do is call two of its own in a row. The second request is not allowed, and if it is granted anyway, the team loses 5 yards for delay of game and the timeout is charged.

Kickers get extra protection. If the defense tries to “freeze” a kicker before a field goal or a try by calling a second timeout in the same dead-ball period, or by calling one when it has none left, Rule 12-3-1 says the officials should ignore it and let the kick happen. It is a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct foul either way: enforced after the kick if the officials ignore the request, or as a dead-ball foul if the timeout is granted by mistake. So the classic icing move is still legal once: a single timeout just before the snap. A second one is not.

A team that is out of timeouts and calls one anyway gets the same 5-yard delay penalty if the officials grant it, and when it is the offense with the clock running after the two-minute warning, the defense can also take a 10-second runoff. Officials are supposed to tell the head coach when his team has used its last timeout of a half, so the request should be ignored before it gets that far.

A Metrodome footnote

The two-minute warning set the stage for the NFL’s single-game rushing record. In Adrian Peterson’s 296-yard game against San Diego in 2007, the Vikings led by 18 when they took over on downs at their own 10 just before the warning. Coming out of it, Peterson needed 38 yards to pass Jamal Lewis. He ran 35 on the first snap and 3 more with 1:04 left.

What to watch for

• Count them before the two-minute warning. The broadcast graphic shows how many each team has left. Late in the fourth quarter, three timeouts can be worth almost a full extra possession for the team that is behind.
• Watch for the defensive timeout before halftime. A defense that calls one after a stop on second or third down is trying to get the ball back with enough time to score.
• An injury in the last two minutes costs a timeout. Unless the injury came from a foul or the play was a score or turnover, the injured player’s team pays for the stoppage.
• One icing timeout only. A second one before the same kick is a 15-yard penalty.
• They vanish at halftime. First-half timeouts do not carry into the third quarter.

Related WhyNFL reading: Two clocks, one possession, Delay of game and the play clock, Coach’s challenge and replay, Overtime rules, Unsportsmanlike conduct, After the flag.