The hip-drop tackle ban was one of the biggest stories in the NFL with multiple players reacting to it.
On Monday, NFL owners unanimously voted to approve a rule that banned the tackling technique. Now, teams will be given a 15-yard penalty if such tackles occur.
The fallout from the rule change had some revisiting comments made by New England Patriots captain David Andrews on the technique last December.
The Patriots were impacted directly with running Rhamondre Stevenson getting injured with a hip-drop tackle against the Los Angeles Chargers. The injury forced him to miss the rest of the season, and the running back depth in New England took a major hit.
Yet, despite the injury to Stevenson, Andrews didn’t condemn the defensive technique.
“It’s the defense’s job to tackle guys, and I don’t think people are doing that with malicious intent,” said Andrews, via Patriots insider Zack Cox. “Eventually, you keep taking away certain plays, taking away certain plays, taking away this, taking away that, what’s going to be left of the game? Look, it’s an unfortunate reality of this game, and no one wants to see that. Guys on other teams don’t want to see guys get hurt. We don’t want to see guys get hurt. But it’s an unfortunate reality of playing in the NFL — playing football at any level.”
David Andrews on the hip-drop tackle back in December, after Rhamondre Stevenson was injured on one vs. the Chargers:
“There’s been a lot of rule changes since I came into the league, right? We used to be able to cut on the perimeter. (Defenders) used to be able to cut us on the…
— Zack Cox (@zm_cox) March 25, 2024
The NFL will have its work cut out trying to enforce the rule change consistently, especially at full speed. Regardless, this is just another case of defenders having to adapt to efforts to protect the offensive players.