NFL head coach calls the hip-drop tackle a ‘bad play’ more likely to cause injuries: ‘It needed to be out’

There are mixed reviews on the rule changes the NFL will be implementing for the 2024 season. One big change is the ban of the hip-drop tackle, which will now be a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty if done by a defensive player. 

If a player “grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms; and unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg at or below the knee,” there will now be a foul.

While some players are not thrilled with the change, one head coach is glad that type of tackle will now result in a yellow flag on the field.

Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh does not believe defensive players will be at a disadvantage and said the technique makes it more likely for an injury, and a serious injury at that, to occur. 

“When you drop down on the back of his legs, it’s a mass … and it’s 25 times more likely to have a serious injury,” Harbaugh said (via ESPN). “So, it’s really a bad play, and it needed to be out. And guys are going to tackle just fine without the quote-unquote hip-drop tackle, because they tackled just fine without it for 100 years of football before that, when you never saw it, really.”

NFL executive Jeff Miller said the hip-drop tackle was used by defensive players 230 times in 2023, with 15 players missing time due to injuries from the tackling technique.

Harbaugh noted that the hip-drop tackle just recently became popular. He now encourages players to tackle like the old days. 

“When did you ever hear about the hip-drop tackle until like two years ago, three years ago, right?” Harbaugh said. “That’s because it was discovered, probably, in rugby and started being executed as a standalone technique. It’s a three-part movement, [and] you’ve got to execute that play. You’ve got to be close enough to that ball carrier to actually get him around the hips, pull…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-head-coach-calls-the-hip-drop-tackle-a-bad-play-more-likely-to-cause-injuries-it-needed-to-be-out/

Author : Shanna McCarriston

Publish date : 2024-04-10 14:02:58

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