Sources tell CBS Sports the NFL has determined the tackle on which Chris Godwin suffered a dislocated ankle was indeed a hip-drop tackle.
The tackle is at least the ninth such instance of the now-prohibited hip-drop tackle the NFL has sought to eradicate from the game. But by the start of Week 8, there have been zero on-field penalties for the play.
Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith is facing a fine of $16,883 for what would be his first offense of the new rule, and Smith is able to appeal that fine with the league.
The league has said the hip-drop tackle has an injury rate 20-25 times higher than that of other tackles. It spent more than a year monitoring the play and coming up with how to define it so that it could be legislated out of the game.
The NFL rulebook defines the hip-drop tackle technique as a defender either grabbing or wrapping a runner with both hands or arms, then unweighting 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.”
The tackle is supposed to be flagged for a loss of 15 yards and a first down. So far, not one of the at least nine tackles that were later identified as hip-drop violations has been penalized on the field. It’s possible other tackles in Week 7 were deemed hip-drop tackles, which would increase the total.
Sources predicted in the offseason there wouldn’t be many flags thrown, in large part because of the difficulty in officiating the play with so many elements in real time. But some question whether a fine after the fact is sufficient for such a play.
“That is no disincentive,” one team executive said this week. “For all the reasons they want to take it out of the game, I don’t see a fine that’s sparingly applied — at best — doing what they want it to do.”
Godwin’s injury is by far the most significant seen this season with the tackle. Houston running back Joe Mixon missed three games earlier this year after he was the victim of the tackle. Last year the NFL saw between one-to-two hip-drop tackles per week, and the pace is the same through the first seven weeks of this season.
NFL EVP of football operations Troy Vincent said earlier this month that teams have been “outstanding” with sending in video to the league trying to learn more during the season about what is and is not a hip-drop tackle.
Back in March, the NFL Players Association released a statement ahead of the league outlawing the tackle by asking the NFL to reconsider its position.
“While the players have consistently advocated for health and safety advancements, any prohibition on the ‘hip-drop tackle’ technique is unfair to players and unrealistic to implement,” the union said in a statement. “It places defensive players in an impossible position by creating indecision in the mind of any tackling player, puts officials in an unreasonable situation that will result in inconsistent calls on the field, and confuses our fans.”
The Godwin tackle occurred with about one minute left as the Buccaneers attempted a “Monday Night Football” comeback against the Ravens. Godwin caught a Baker Mayfield pass and was in the process of getting yards when Smith brought him down from behind on a play that resulted in such a gruesome injury that ESPN opted against showing replays.
Godwin led the league in receptions (50), was second in receiving yards (576) and was tied for third-most touchdowns (5) in the league at the time of his injury. He will now miss the rest of the regular season and is set to become a free agent this March, shortly after his 29th birthday.
