NFL coach’s challenge and instant replay explained: red flags, timeouts and what can be reviewed
How many challenges a coach gets, what a failed challenge costs, which plays only the replay booth can review, what can and cannot be overturned, and the 2026 change that lets an assistant throw the red flag.
A head coach gets two challenges a game, and a third if at least one of the first two wins. Each challenge needs a timeout in the bank, a failed one costs that timeout, and the call is changed only if replay shows clear and obvious evidence that it was wrong. Scoring plays, turnovers and everything after the two-minute warning are reviewed by the replay official, not challenged by coaches.
How a challenge works
A challenge starts with the red flag. The coach tosses it onto the field before the next legal snap or kick; once the ball is snapped, the chance is gone. The referee then announces the challenge and goes to a field-level monitor, while the league’s officiating command center in New York makes the final decision, in consultation with the referee and the replay official at the stadium.
New for 2026: the flag no longer has to come from the head coach himself. Rule 15 now says the head coach or the head coach’s pregame challenge designee can throw it, and a coach who wants to hand off the job has to tell the officiating crew before the game. It does not add a second thrower; only one person per team can do it. Since the current replay system began in 1999, the head coach had been the only one allowed. Teams used 151 coach’s challenges in 2025, Kevin Seifert reported, the most since 2019.
How many challenges, and what they cost
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Challenges per game | Two to start. A third is allowed if at least one of the first two succeeds. There is never a fourth. |
| Successful challenge | The call is changed and the team keeps its timeout. |
| Unsuccessful challenge | The team is charged a timeout. If it had already called a timeout before challenging, it loses a second one. |
| No timeouts left | The team cannot challenge. Throwing the flag anyway is a 15-yard penalty, enforced between downs. |
| Out of challenges, timeouts left | The team cannot challenge; a flag thrown anyway costs a timeout. |
| Team fouls to prevent the next snap | That team loses its right to challenge the previous play. The other team can still challenge it. |
A team gets three timeouts per half, which is why challenges get scarce late in a half: a coach with one timeout left has to weigh whether a doubtful challenge is worth losing the clock stoppage.
Plays only the replay official can review
Some plays are too important to depend on a coach’s flag. For these, only the replay official in the booth or the league’s officiating department can start a review, and a coach cannot challenge them:
- Any play that begins after the two-minute warning of either half.
- Every play in overtime.
- Any play on which points are scored, plus every extra-point or two-point try.
- Interceptions and fumbles recovered by the other team.
- A ruling that the offense failed to reach the line to gain on fourth down.
- Possession by the kicking team at the end of a kickoff or punt.
- A player’s disqualification.
If a coach throws the flag on one of those plays, it counts as a challenge the team was not permitted to make and costs a timeout. The booth also has until the next snap or kick to act, so a fast snap can still beat a review.
What can be reviewed
Replay looks at facts a camera can settle, not judgment calls. The main reviewable areas are:
- Possession: catch or no catch, fumble or forward pass, recovery of a loose ball.
- Touching: whether a runner was down by contact, whether a player touched a pass or a kick.
- Goal line and boundaries: whether the ball broke the plane, whether a runner or receiver stepped out.
- Line to gain: whether the ball reached the first-down marker. A challenge here wins only if the first-down ruling itself changes; moving the ball a few inches is not enough.
- Line of scrimmage: whether a pass was thrown from beyond it.
- Players on the field: whether a team had too many men at the snap.
- Game administration: penalty yardage, the down, the spot of a foul and some clock situations. The clock can be reviewed to put time back on, but never to take it off.
Once a play is under review, everything reviewable on it can change, not just the part the coach flagged. A challenge counts as successful if any reviewable part of the ruling is changed.
What cannot be reviewed
Most fouls stay with the officials on the field. The rulebook lists as not reviewable whether a block was illegal, whether a receiver was illegally contacted, whether a pass was intentionally grounded, whether an ineligible lineman was downfield, whether a ball was illegally batted or kicked, and whether an inadvertent whistle blew. Anything not listed as reviewable is also off limits.
Pass interference is the best-known example. The league let coaches challenge it for one season, 2019, and so few calls were overturned that the experiment was dropped after that year.
“Clear and obvious”
The on-field call stands unless the video proves it wrong. That is why a referee can announce that a ruling “stands” rather than “is confirmed”: the replay did not show enough to change it, even if it did not prove the original call right either. Close plays with no decisive camera angle almost always stay as called.
Replay assist
Not every correction needs a red flag. The replay official and the officiating department can quickly step in on objective facts, such as possession, whether a pass was complete, the spot of the ball, the clock and penalty enforcement. They can also help with some fouls when the video is clear: for example, wiping out a roughing-the-passer flag when the defender never touched the quarterback’s head or neck, or a facemask call when the defender never grabbed the mask. These quick fixes happen without a stoppage and do not use a challenge.
The clock after a review
If a ruling is changed, the clock is reset to when the ball should have been dead. After the two-minute warning, if the new ruling means the clock should have kept running, 10 seconds are run off, and if fewer than 10 seconds are left, the half or the game is over. A team can avoid the runoff by using a timeout, and a timeout called after the two-minute warning is given back if the review changes the ruling.
What to watch for
- The race to the next snap. On a close catch or spot, the team that dislikes the call has to get the flag out fast, while an offense that likes the call may hurry to snap the ball before anyone can challenge.
- Timeouts. A team with one timeout left is taking a bigger risk with each challenge.
- Who throws it. Starting this season, the flag might come from an assistant instead of the head coach.
- Late in the half. Once the two-minute warning passes, coaches cannot challenge, so watch for the booth to stop play instead.
On a short week like Thursday night’s Seahawks-Broncos game, with both teams relying on quick sideline decisions, one well-timed flag or one wasted timeout can decide a close finish.
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