NFL Offseason/Free Agency Thread

[texaspackerbacker]

I Googled this and watched the little video. It looked and sounded a lot like what young players are taught to do if you're trying to bring down somebody bigger than you. It seems to me to be just another step toward watering down the game in the name of safety. I'm against the new rule. The fact that the players association is against it should be the determining factor.

[run pMc]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2023/11/22/nfl-what-is-a-hip-drop-tackle/71660167007/

[smuggler]

Fields is a good QB, the second best running QB after Lamar Jackson, and a pretty decent passer too.

He's a good football player and a decent quarterback in a world with good quarterbacks and great quarterbacks. If Fields were a different player from the neck up, teams would be climbing over each other to get him, but no one wants to fight over a bottom-10 quarterback.

[Frozen Tundra]

I Googled this and watched the little video. It looked and sounded a lot like what young players are taught to do if you're trying to bring down somebody bigger than you. It seems to me to be just another step toward watering down the game in the name of safety. I'm against the new rule. The fact that the players association is against it should be the determining factor.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say that it is the determinative factor, but it certainly is an indicator. Their role is to look out for the players, keep them healthy and extend their careers, and the argument is that the "hip-drop tackle" puts the players at risk. Which, yeah.... it does. It's a violent game.

This is one of the ways I was taught to bring down a big running back with a head of steam when I was a linebacker, if that's how I had hold of the dude. If they ban that tackle, it's going to be one more rule that's subjectively and arbitrarily enforced, and people will be even more pissed at the referees. Teams will make a stop on third down and see it turned into a first down with a stupid and controversial penalty. and everyone will be on the warpath.

[sharpe1027]

I don't get the hip drop definition. If you can't use your body weight to bring down someone from behind, you can't really bring them down at all from behind.

[bobblehead]

I don't get the hip drop definition. If you can't use your body weight to bring down someone from behind, you can't really bring them down at all from behind.

This was my basic thought after I learned what a hip drop tackle was/is. I had never heard the term in like 40+ years of playing/watching football. If I'm fast enough I guess I could jump on him and ride him like a pony instead. How the fuck can you bring a player down from behind without a) horsecollaring him or b) hip dropping him. Will we get an NBA breakaway rule? If all defensive players are behind the player we will just rule it a TD. Breakaway speed no longer relevant.

[MadtownPacker]

I don't get the hip drop definition. If you can't use your body weight to bring down someone from behind, you can't really bring them down at all from behind.

Then you get dramatic highlight TD$ when the player breaks loose and takes it to the house.

[run pMc]

in 2030 tackling will be outlawed and it will just be flag football.

Look, I don't like seeing players get injured and falling on the back of someone's legs is dangerous, but the rules increasingly limit a defense in what they can do to stop a player or an offense...and it's a little frustrating. Can you hip drop tackle without smashing your weight on a player's ankles?

.If you can barely play defense, there is no point in doing anything except drafting offense, or better yet just make it like the Pro Bowl where nobody bothers playing defense and nobody watches it.

[Joemailman]

NFL officials responded to criticism of the proposed rule change:

According to competition committee chairman Rich McKay, the proposed rule was written to address only a subset of the rugby tackling style that has spread around the NFL in recent years. It calls for a 15-yard penalty if a defender grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms and unweights 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."

But both McKay and Vincent strongly implied Thursday that the rule would likely be enforced in ways similar to that of the "use of helmet" rule, which typically leads to warning letters and fines in the week following a game rather than by flags during the game.

"We are very quick to say, 'Listen it's hard to see all of the elements of the hip drop,' in one continuous action," McKay said. "So the number one thing we had to do is get a rule on the books that we can enforce on Monday and try to get the technique out of the game."

[Fritz]

Then you get dramatic highlight TD$ when the player breaks loose and takes it to the house.

I'd rather see this. Every fuckin' time.

[Joemailman]

Bad career move for this guy. He started every game for Lions last year.

The Detroit Lions on Thursday released veteran cornerback Cameron Sutton, who is still wanted by police in Florida because of his alleged involvement in a domestic violence case.

Sutton is facing a charge of domestic battery by strangulation, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Phil Martello, a spokesperson for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, told ESPN on Thursday that authorities have continued to try to contact Sutton's attorney.

Police have been unable to locate Sutton since March 7, when the arrest warrant was issued. Police had responded to a call early that morning at a house in Lutz, Florida, where Sutton allegedly battered a woman before fleeing the scene.

[bobblehead]

in 2030 tackling will be outlawed and it will just be flag football.

Look, I don't like seeing players get injured and falling on the back of someone's legs is dangerous, but the rules increasingly limit a defense in what they can do to stop a player or an offense...and it's a little frustrating. Can you hip drop tackle without smashing your weight on a player's ankles?

.If you can barely play defense, there is no point in doing anything except drafting offense, or better yet just make it like the Pro Bowl where nobody bothers playing defense and nobody watches it.

Just think about the QB rules. First they said no head contact so players started going low. Then you can only hit from numbers to thighs. So guys drilled them in the mid section and fell on them. Then you couldn't fall on them. I don't mind protecting a QB in the pocket, but if you leave the pocket you are a runner. All bets should be off.

[Fritz]

Bad career move for this guy. He started every game for Lions last year.

The Detroit Lions on Thursday released veteran cornerback Cameron Sutton, who is still wanted by police in Florida because of his alleged involvement in a domestic violence case.

Sutton is facing a charge of domestic battery by strangulation, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Phil Martello, a spokesperson for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, told ESPN on Thursday that authorities have continued to try to contact Sutton's attorney.

Police have been unable to locate Sutton since March 7, when the arrest warrant was issued. Police had responded to a call early that morning at a house in Lutz, Florida, where Sutton allegedly battered a woman before fleeing the scene.

The difference between the "old" Lions and the "new" Lions - and I am sorry to say this - is that in the past they'd have hung onto the guy, made excuses ("We're looking into this"), and poisoned the team. Now, they cut bait. It's uncomfortable to see them looking like a professional organization these days.

[Frozen Tundra]

Kansas City is having to make more and more decisions about who to pay. New Orleans just signed 26-year old linebacker Willie Gay for a 1 year deal worth $3-5M.

That seems like it would have been a great move for Green Bay.

[KYPack]

Gay would be a good SAM
Quay at Will