NFL rules change: Some forms of hip-drop tackles illegal
Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews (89) sprints for the end zone as Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson (55) falls on his ankle while trying to bring him down. Credit: TNS/Karl Merton Ferron
ORLANDO, Fla. — The NFL voted unanimously on Monday to make illegal some forms of hip-drop tackles that have an increased injury rate for ballcarriers, but it held off on approving a drastic change to kickoffs that would emulate the way that play is executed in the XFL.
The new rule makes it a 15-yard penalty if a defender “grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms” and then “unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee.”
Because all three elements have to be seen by an official for a flag to be thrown, NFL Competition Committee chairman Rich McKay and executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent suggested that most infractions will receive warning letters and fines after review rather than on-field penalties.
“This will be a hard one to call on the field,” McKay said. “ . . . We want to make it a rule so we can deal on the discipline during the week.”
McKay also said the “swivel technique” is not used very often.
The NFLPA spoke out last week against banning the tackling technique, but given the injury rate, the owners moved forward with the rule change.
“When it is used, it is incredibly injurious to the runner. The runner is purely defenseless,” McKay said. “Yes, we outlawed the hip-drop, but what you may think are the drag-from-behind where he falls, that’s still a tackle. This is only that tackle where the player is lifting themselves in the air and then falling on the legs.”
The competition committee’s proposal for kickoffs would have the 10 players on the kicking team other than the kicker (still at his own 35-yard line) lined up at the receiving team’s 40. No more than two players on the receiving team would be in the “landing zone” inside the 20 and no one other than the kicker and returners would be allowed to move until the ball hits the ground or a receiving player. Touchbacks would be marked at the 30 and fair catches would not be allowed.
McKay said a vote could come before the annual meeting wraps up on Tuesday.
The only other significant rule change that passed would give a team a third replay challenge if it is correct on any of its first two challenges. Previously, a team had to be correct on both of its two allotted challenges before receiving a third.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
