Who Can Throw an NFL Challenge Flag?

Aug 10

2 min read

Updated: 5 hours ago

The head coach or the head coach’s pregame challenge designee may throw the red flag to initiate an NFL replay challenge. The designee provision does not allow any assistant to challenge independently or create extra challenges.

Part of Football 101. Explore the guide to choose your next topic.

The NFL has made a small but useful change to its replay procedure for the 2026 season. A head coach may now name a sideline assistant who is allowed to throw the red challenge flag on the coach’s behalf.

The flag must reach the field before the next legal snap or kick. The ruling must also be eligible for a coach’s challenge.

What a team needs

A team starts with two challenges and needs an available timeout to use one. An unsuccessful challenge costs a timeout. A team earns a third challenge by succeeding on at least one of its challenges; it cannot receive a fourth.

If the team commits a foul that prevents the next snap, it cannot then challenge the previous play. Having a designee ready does not bypass that restriction.

The designee helps execute the decision quickly while the head coach remains responsible for the sideline’s strategy. Throwing the flag promptly does not lower the standard for changing a ruling: replay still needs clear and obvious video evidence.

When the booth controls review

Plays beginning after the two minute warning of either half, overtime plays, scoring plays and try attempts fall within the official initiated review framework. So do specified possession rulings, including an interception, an opponent’s fumble recovery and a failed fourth down conversion.

Those are not occasions for a coach to demand an additional review by throwing the flag. A reviewable issue can be examined through the official process without spending a coach’s challenge.

A practical example

Early in the second quarter, a sideline pass is ruled incomplete. The team has a timeout and a challenge available. If the catch ruling is reviewable, the coach or pregame designee can initiate the challenge before the next snap.

Move the same play into overtime, and the replay official controls initiation. The underlying catch question can still matter, but the route to review changes.

Replay assistance is another defined process. It does not mean every disputed penalty, including ordinary pass interference judgment, is open to a coach’s challenge.