What is a hip-drop tackle and how is the ban going to be enforced?

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For the 2024 season, the NFL outlawed the hip-drop tackle. What is a hip-drop tackle?

The specific type of tackle has been called by the Competition Committee as a “swivel hip-drop tackle,” and the new rule defines it as:

• A defender wraps up the runner.
• The defender swivels his hips or rotates into the ball carrier and “unweighs” himself (leaves his feet so the defender is completely off the ground).
• The defender lands on the runner’s feet or legs.

The above three elements have to present in order, and will happen in quick succession. The NFL has a video showing what a hip-drop tackle is.

OK. This looks like about 20% of all tackles. Smaller defenders will no longer be able to wrap up a runner at the hips, leave their feet and “ride” him down. But, the NFL wants to protect the ball carrier from the next generation of the horse-collar tackle. The NFL doesn’t like a ball carrier folding up and the defender landing on the runner’s legs. Despite this, the players union registered its continued opposition to the rule when it was proposed.

This could get ugly.

This will be an almost impossible play to officiate. Hip-drop tackles happen quickly. Officials have to judge three elements in quick succession and then make the call. The frustration level will be sky high. There will be challenges in having adequate sightlines to see all three elements. There will be two out of three elements met. The team on offense will scream for a foul, but there is no foul. Or the official may flag this as a foul, and now the team on defense will scream that the official should have kept their flag tucked away.

The officials are taught many times to err on the side of safety. In other words, if the official thinks there is a safety foul, they flag it and it turns out to not be a safety foul, the official won’t get a downgrade. We don’t know if the hip-drop tackle will be treated as such.

The NFL can also fine the defender after the game, even if the officials miss the call. In fact, fines could be first option of enforcing the rule. In the first season of the crown-of-the-helmet rule, the officials did not call it once on the field, but the NFL issued fines that season. Will the NFL enforce this new rule more through fines than flags?

The challenge is for the officials to make the calls consistent crew to crew and game to game. NFL officials are the best in the world, but this is going to be a tall order.