One of the big controversies of the offseason was the passing of a rule that outlawed the hip-drop tackle. It was deemed a dangerous play that posed an increased risk of injury to ball carriers. Defensive players had a field day at the passing of the rule, wondering how the heck they are supposed to do their jobs anymore. The NFL hasn’t enforced the rule very much during games, opting to levy fines instead. Today, the first hip-drop tackle penalty was imposed during a game.
The penalty involved two former Pittsburgh Steelers. It happened in the Carolina Panthers game against the Arizona Cardinals and former Steelers UDFA rookie Jacoby Windmon got penalized for using the illegal maneuver on former Steelers RB James Conner.
Fortunately Conner was not injured on the play, but the penalty flag was thrown and 15 yards were given to the Cardinals.
Here is the rule per the NFL operations page:
It is a foul if a player uses the following technique to bring a runner to the ground:
(a) grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms; and
(b)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
It can probably be debated if Windmon fit that criteria, especially to be the first person penalized during a game for such an infraction. There have been other, clearer examples of hip-drop tackles this season.
Just last week against the Philadelphia Eagles, there were two examples that could have been called. Zack Baun was fined (but not penalized) for a hip-drop tackle on Pat Freiermuth. Meanwhile, James Pierre appeared to have a pretty clear hip-drop tackle that was neither penalized nor fined.
It briefly looked like it injured Eagles WR A.J. Brown.
It was just a matter of time before there was a flagged hip-drop tackle. It’s probably a good thing that it didn’t come in the playoffs to create even bigger controversy.
Windmon is a UDFA and will likely receive a fine. His game checks aren’t very large, so that fine should hurt a little bit, especially right during the holidays.
He was initially signed by the Steelers after the draft and ended up on their practice squad after the roster cutdowns. The Panthers poached him off the practice squad and he’s appeared in six games for them with six total tackles (and counting) including today. One sixth of his career tackles have now been penalized for the new hip-drop rule.
