NFL tweaks definition of a hip-drop tackle, allowing for more fines in 2025
The NFL wants hip-drop tackles out of the game completely.
Armed with data that showed that the tackling technique is 20 to 25 times more likely to cause an injury than other tackles, NFL teams voted unanimously in 2024 to ban the hip-drop.
"We were tracking about one hip-drop tackle per game and one time-loss-injury approximately every single week," said Dawn Aponte, the NFL's chief administrator of football operations. "When we implemented the rule last year, we talked about it being primarily handled during the postgame process and not necessarily with a flag on the field."
That's exactly how the rule ended up being administered.
The league issued 27 fines, 11 of which were rescinded on appeal, and the NFL confirmed that the only penalty for a hip-drop tackle shouldn't have been a foul. There were five time-loss injuries caused by the play.
Some tackles that appeared to be hip-drop tackles did not result in fines, including one by Steelers defensive back James Pierre on Eagles receiver A.J. Brown and another by Dolphins linebacker Jordyn Brooks on Texans running back Joe Mixon.
The NFL, though, has clarified the language of the hip-drop tackle for this season, which likely will result in more fines.
The league previously identified four components to a hip-drop tackle, and it now has cleaned up the wording for a simipler definition.
The first clarification would make it a foul if, in addition to all other elements, the tackler grabs the runner with either one or both hands as opposed to both hands under the current rule. The second change would make it a foul for a hip-drop tackle if, in addition to all other elements, the tackler either lands on or traps the runner’s legs.
So, this is how Rule 12, Section 2, Article 18 now reads: "It is a foul if a player uses the following technique to bring a runner to the ground:
(a) grabs the runner with one or 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/or trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee."
It will result in a 15-yard penalty if called on the field, but the league still expects more fines than penalties.
"We looked a little bit more broadly in terms of when we were seeing this hip-drop tackle behavior," Aponte said. "Even though it wasn't rising to the level of the letter of the rule, we did take a look at some of the additional time-loss injuries resulting from that. We shared the data with the [Competition] Committee. At the end, we decided that we were going to add a couple of clarifications into the language, which we hope we can use to issue those fines for those additional time-loss injuries."
Aponte said the rule led to a "significant decrease" in hip-drop tackles last season, which was the goal.
