The NFL owners meetings are taking place this week and that means a lot of rule changes are taking place for the 2024 season and beyond. The most controversial decision of the meetings so far has been the banning of hip-drop tackles.
If you're not 100% certain of what this exact move is, you're not alone. According to NFL Communications, this move is when the 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(s) at or below the knee.”
Jori Epstein of Yahoo! Sports wrote a nice column on why it was banned.
"Fifteen times last season — nearly once a week in a sport where each team plays 17 regular-season games — a player was tackled via what the league is now calling a “swivel” hip-drop tackle, and that player missed game time due to the tackle."Jori Epstein
Rich McKay says hip-drop ban passed unanimously. Interesting always, & especially after PA voiced concern over excess fining.
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) March 25, 2024
Ban is specifically for “swivel” version of hip-drop, not all versions, which will be hard to officiate consistently. Here are examples voters saw today: pic.twitter.com/XYWSxpQWe4
Bills DT DaQuan Jones is not happy with recent rule change
A lot of NFL players are less than enthused about this banning but Bills defensive tackle DaQuan Jones really let it be known that he's not happy. Jones tweeted on Monday afternoon "While we are at it "making the game contactless" how about banning TEs coming cross the ball and Diving at DE's Knees? That can't be safe right?"
While we are at it “making the game contactless “ how about banning TEs coming cross the ball and Diving at DE’s Knees ? That can’t be safe right?
— DaQuan Jones (@RiDQulous_98) March 25, 2024
Jones has a point. If the NFL is trying to make the game more safe (which is going to be hard to do considering it's a violent contact sport) then why not ban what Jones is alluding to? The NFL really is making it difficult for defensive players to know what to do in key moments.
Another big complaint with this rule change is that it's going to be hard to enforce it. It's yet another headscratching decision by the NFL and don't be surprised to see players other than Jones sounding off on it.