The NFL’s controversial new roughing the passer rule, explained

It’s not easy to record a sack in the NFL, and the pass rushers who have managed to do so have had difficulty avoiding personal fouls along the way.

Earlier in the offseason, the league added an article to its roughing the passer rules that bans defenders landing on a quarterback. That’s a difficult violation to avoid and it’s created a storm of criticism from defenders and quarterbacks alike.

What is the new rule?

Here is the new aspect of the rule under the microscope, via Rule 12, Section 2, Article 9 of the NFL rulebook:

A rushing defender is prohibited from committing such intimidating and punishing acts as “stuffing” a passer into the ground or unnecessarily wrestling or driving him down after the passer has thrown the ball, even if the rusher makes his initial contact with the passer within the one-step limitation provided for in (a) above. When tackling a passer who is in a defenseless posture (e.g., during or just after throwing a pass), a defensive player must not unnecessarily or violently throw him down or land on top of him with all or most of the defender’s weight. Instead, the defensive player must strive to wrap up the passer with the defensive player’s arms and not land on the passer with all or most of his body weight.

In response to concerns about the application of the rule, the NFL Competition Committee met on a conference call after Week 3, but announced “no changes” to that part of the rule. However, it did provide points of clarification about “techniques that constitute a foul.”

Why is it controversial?

There are a few significant reasons why the rule has drawn widespread criticism:

1. It’s a difficult penalty for players to avoid, regardless of intent: The goal of a pass rusher is to get to a quarterback as fast as possible and bring them down, so landing on them is often — if not usually — more of an inevitability than an intentional act to injure. Rolling off of the quarterback in mid-air can be impossible.
2. Sacking quarterbacks is becoming extremely difficult: Making any contact with a quarterback’s helmet is a penalty and hitting them below the waist is a penalty. Now it’s difficult for pass rushers to hit a quarterback in the midsection without landing on them and earning a penalty.
3. It has been inconsistently applied: As has been the case with other controversial NFL rules in the past, it’s a difficult rule for officials to enforce and each play can be interpreted differently. Packers linebacker Clay Matthews was penalized for hits on quarterbacks in three consecutive weeks that were all questionable calls. But a sack of Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers that appeared to qualify as a roughing the passer penalty wasn’t called.

What has the NFL said about it?

Publicly, the NFL has explained its calls and tried to move forward with its new rules, but team owners on the NFL Competition Committee were concerned enough behind closed doors to meet for a discussion:

That meeting ultimately didn’t result in much of a difference.

What have players said?

Unsurprisingly, many defenders have spoken out with criticism of the rule change. Here’s a quick sampling of the opinions of a few star defensive players:

But it’s not just defenders who are mad — even quarterbacks have come forth with criticism.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said “I can’t imagine the fans at home are enjoying it too much.” The Texans’ Deshaun Watson said some of the calls are “just crazy” and “let’s just play football.” Aaron Rodgers said the rules are headed in the wrong direction.

Some more criticism came after Dolphins defensive lineman William Hayes suffered a torn ACL that happened because — according to the Dolphins — he was trying not to fully land on Raiders quarterback Derek Carr. Days later, Carr said he’d rather Hayes just landed on him instead of getting injured.

What are some examples of the penalty?

When the NFL announced Thursday that the rule won’t be changed, it provided a video with examples of the rule in action:

The problem, though, is that it dodged many of the controversial rulings of the first three weeks. Namely, Clay Matthews — the de facto face of unfairly treated pass rushers — isn’t in the video at all.

Here is the play that drew Matthews a roughing the passer penalty in Week 2:

And here’s the play that earned Matthews a penalty in Week 3:

The play that resulted in a torn ACL for Hayes, who claims he was trying to avoid landing on Carr didn’t draw a flag, but certainly could have by the definition of the rule:

It appears as though the rule is here to stay — at least through the remainder of the 2018 season. The question is whether the NFL Competition Committee asked officials to dial back the amount of calls, and if more significant changes are made in 2019.