Making the hip drop deal with unlawful is the newest rule change that has almost everybody up in arms.
On the NFL Annual Assembly in Orlando this week, a vote was handed to ban the deal with, which now would lead to a 15-yard penalty and an computerized first down. How this impacts the Bucs and a defensive head coach similar to Todd Bowles stays to be seen.
Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Picture by: USA Right now
Every year it will get harder and harder to play protection within the NFL because the league tries create extra offense and generate extra factors on the scoreboard. Some guidelines have been put into place understandably for participant security, similar to unlawful hits to the pinnacle. However others appear unreasonable in believing a defender that’s touring at full pace can abide by sure guidelines, similar to avoiding placing their weight on a quarterback when making a sack.
In right this moment’s recreation defenders can’t even contact a receiver greater than 5 yards down the sphere or make a giant hit over the center. Any bodily play has that underlying considered, “Is a flag going to be thrown?”
It feels just like the hip drop deal with might fall into that class as properly. Defenders need to discover a new technique to truly deliver down the participant with the ball, as yearly it legally will get tougher to take action.
What Does Todd Bowles Assume Of The New Rule?
At mentioned NFL Annual Assembly in Orlando on Tuesday, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles shared his ideas on the brand new rule. Primarily based on how he and his teaching employees teaches tackling, Todd Bowles doesn’t imagine this can be a lot of an adjustment.
“No, as a result of we don’t train it, we don’t preach it and we don’t do it,” Todd Bowles mentioned if this can trigger any drastic modifications. “So it’s actually not a giant deal for us so far as preparing for one thing that we don’t do. If it does occur, it’s positively not going to be intentional. It simply makes you extra conscious. We’ve been conscious. We don’t deal with that method, and we don’t train it that method. It’s not going to vary – it’s not going to vary issues.”
Whereas Todd Bowles doesn’t see a lot of a difficulty with the brand new rule, not all of his gamers really feel the identical method. Returning Bucs security Jordan Whitehead commented on X after the announcement saying “Inform the offense they will’t use a stiff arm then” in frustration over the rule.
He additionally had a since deleted put up articulating that most people that made this rule “most likely haven’t performed soccer.”
Inform the offense they will’t use a stiff arm then
— jordan whitehead (@jwhite_333) March 26, 2024
Fellow Bucs cornerback Christian Izien, who Todd Bowles deployed because the beginning nickel final season as a rookie, additionally took to social media to voice his displeasure. He merely posted “lol” in a quote tweet from ESPN’s Adam Schefter. On Instagram he had a narrative that mentioned, “They keep making my job tougher than it already is.”
Izien additionally retweeted a put up from former Pewter Reporter Jon Ledyard speaking in regards to the matter primarily based in reference to how dangerous these guidelines have gotten over time.
Clearly, not everyone seems to be thrilled over this resolution, together with the NFLPA. NFL officers have already got a tough time determining what a catch is and what precisely is roughing the passer, so there’s positively going to be rising pains with this new rule as properly.
Future Corridor of Famer J.J. Watt was very up entrance with how a lot he disliked the brand new rule relating to the hip drop.
New Kickoffs Are Coming To The NFL
Bucs GM Jason Licht and proprietor Joel Glazer – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR
The hip drop rule wasn’t the one main change on the 2024 NFL Annual Assembly that Tampa Bay and Todd Bowles has to cope with. In higher information, there’s going to be a model new take a look at kickoffs for NFL video games. The league adopted the kickoff guidelines from the XFL in an effort to deliver again kick returns, however doing so in a safer method that reduces or eliminates concussions.
For this new rule, kicks will nonetheless be from the 35-yard line, however gamers on every workforce – apart from the kicker and the returner – can be lined up 10 yards aside and close to the returner on the returning aspect’s 40- and 30-yard traces. No participant can transfer till the returner touches the ball or the ball hits the bottom within the touchdown zone (which is the 20-yard line to the objective line), and no honest catch might be made.
All kicks have to be returned or if the ball rolls from the touchdown zone into the tip zone it may be downed for a touchback on the 40-yard line.
This rule was carried out to forestall full-speed, head-on collisions throughout these performs the place beforehand this might happen as gamers had been operating over 40 yards down the sphere to make the deal with. It additionally brings again the joy of extra kick returns, which had dwindled all through the years with groups booming the ball into the tip zone. It brings a dynamic again to kick returns and total particular groups that was essential.
On the conferences, Bucs proprietor and c0-chairman Joel Glazer gave his opinion on the choice.
“The most important one was the kickoff,” Glazer mentioned. “Lots of dialogue about that, however I believe as a league everybody determined that it’s an thrilling play that must be put again within the recreation. I believe anytime you may make the sport extra thrilling, we’re in favor it.”
