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PFT has an interesting comment about how the new rule could affect draft strategy - or it should depending on how the rule is to be applied.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... -strategy/

It directly affects us because Pete wants to run the ball, so the question becomes if we won't see run stuffing DT's like we used to, do we need more of a scat back than a power back?
Will someone like Jaylen Samuels who played RB, FB, TE, H-back, Wildcat QB, and WR become far more valuable than maybe even Saquon Barkley?
Will it mean the OL in the NFL will evolve into more of a group of TE's who's speed is more important than power?

I haven't read the new rule, but the old rule applied only when the RB was outside the tackle box and was not enforced at all. IMO a GM would be foolish to let a brand new rule affect their draft strategy in the first year before teams get a chance to see how this is going to be implemented by the officials and what, if any, it has on offenses and/or defenses.

RiverDog wrote:I haven't read the new rule, but the old rule applied only when the RB was outside the tackle box and was not enforced at all. IMO a GM would be foolish to let a brand new rule affect their draft strategy in the first year before teams get a chance to see how this is going to be implemented by the officials and what, if any, it has on offenses and/or defenses.

The problem is nobody knows how it is to be enforced. Not even the teams.
Basic questions of how does a RB pass block? When a guy is 8 inches taller and 100lbs heavier with a head of steam, how does the RB run block without lowering his head?
How about OL play? Does lowest man still win? Can you only tackle with your arms, now and if you are still permitting shoulder tackles, a good ball carrier could stop and time it so as to have the DB contact the runner with his head first so as to
get a 15 yard penalty.

NorthHawk wrote:The problem is nobody knows how it is to be enforced. Not even the teams.
Basic questions of how does a RB pass block? When a guy is 8 inches taller and 100lbs heavier with a head of steam, how does the RB run block without lowering his head?
How about OL play? Does lowest man still win? Can you only tackle with your arms, now and if you are still permitting shoulder tackles, a good ball carrier could stop and time it so as to have the DB contact the runner with his head first so as to
get a 15 yard penalty.

Which highlights my point: How much sense does it make for a GM to adjust his drafting philosphy before we've been able to see what impacts, if any, the new rule might have?

What I'm getting at is how much of a mess the NFL has made of this.
A team could end up drafting a bunch of players that will have problems succeeding with the changes, not to mention paying big money for Free Agents.
It's not an easy thing to do in resetting your draft board to take advantage of rule changes.

NorthHawk wrote:What I'm getting at is how much of a mess the NFL has made of this.
A team could end up drafting a bunch of players that will have problems succeeding with the changes, not to mention paying big money for Free Agents.
It's not an easy thing to do in resetting your draft board to take advantage of rule changes.

Understood. And yea, the NFL sure has a knack for making messes out of things, like changing their catch rule.

The NFL has too many rule changes. One of the beauties about baseball is that it's a pretty static sport with hardly any rule changes. You can be like Rip Van Winkle, fall asleep for 50 years, then wake up and still recognize the sport. Not so with the NFL.

Let's just get it over with and turn the NFL into the FFL: "Flag Football League." The rules have become so many and so complex how in the world can any player focus on what he's supposed to do instead of what he's not supposed to do?

Old but Slow wrote:Leather helmets. Think about it.

I mentioned this once before, but my old man, who played during the leather helmet days, used to claim that face masks changed the way players tackled. It used to be that the first point of contact was the shoulder, and would place their head/neck to one side or the other of the ball carrier's body. He claimed that the face mask was counter productive, that although it protected your choppers, that it led to more serious head and neck injuries.

I'm not advocating doing away with the face mask, but it is something to think about.

RiverDog wrote:I mentioned this once before, but my old man, who played during the leather helmet days, used to claim that face masks changed the way players tackled. It used to be that the first point of contact was the shoulder, and would place their head/neck to one side or the other of the ball carrier's body. He claimed that the face mask was counter productive, that although it protected your choppers, that it led to more serious head and neck injuries.

I'm not advocating doing away with the face mask, but it is something to think about.

I think the answer lies in more technology, not less. Doug Baldwin, Russell Wilson and many other pro athletes are major investers in a new helmet company, called VICIS. These helmets do a much better job of distributing the force of a hit throughout the helmet and not to the head. Combining safer helmets with technology in helmets that measures force will allow team docters to see how hard of a blow a person's head has taken. When that blow reaches a certain level with either one hard hit, or over the course of a week or two the player may need to be evaluated or the number of blows they take limited... That's the direction I think the NFL and football goes.

Here's a link to a video that shows how much better the VICIS helmets are than other leading brands. The whole video is OK, but fast forward to the 3:58 mark to see the side-by-side comparison. First watch how the VICIS helmet (White and to the viewer's Left) distributes the force compared to the other helmet. Then re-watch and just look at the mannequin's chin in the 2 videos. Notice how much the one in the black helmet moves.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bMOMf3S_EA

That can help, but the Linemen have contact with their helmets on every play so the accumulation of hits will be a big concern unless the blocking and contact changes drastically.
On a bit of a side note, soccer players have shown in some preliminary studies to have some issues, too because of the heading of the ball and practicing doing it. If there is a correlation
it might mean a drastic change in the trenches.

NorthHawk wrote:That can help, but the Linemen have contact with their helmets on every play so the accumulation of hits will be a big concern

Right, which is why the helmets will also be able to monitor accumulation of hits and coaches/medical staff can make adjustments accordingly.

When I started, the helmet was just suspended straps that separated your scalp from the hard plastic and a technological leap was the water packs that had a habit of drenching you when you got clobbered.
Technology will be a part of the solution, but I think modifying the tackling techniques will also help. I'm not sure blocking can change a great deal without really changing the game, but maybe that's where the better helmets come into play with them absorbing the smaller repeated blows.

The NFL has overthought these kinds of things to death already.
I hope that intent figures heavily in the unwritten part of this rule, rather than every inadvertent thing getting flagged.
In a league where they're still confused what a catch is, it figures they'd come up with some stupid rule change like this, all allegedly for the sake of 'safety'. It's a joke.

Right, which is why the helmets will also be able to monitor accumulation of hits and coaches/medical staff can make adjustments accordingly.

Wouldn't that mean teams would have to have more DL/OL on the team as players are removed after too many accumulated hits?

NorthHawk wrote:Wouldn't that mean teams would have to have more DL/OL on the team as players are removed after too many accumulated hits?

I think it would certainly affect something along those lines. Maybe coaches would have to decided snaps based on where their players were on their 'hits' chart or active/inactive status based on those things. Over time it would be managed like any other injury. They may create a short term IR so that teams can hold extra players. I don't necessarily see it as a player needs to leave a game when they accumulate X number of hits, but if they are over a certain number after a game they can't return for a certain amount of time or have to undergo concussion protocol or something.

* Also I don't see it as a number of hits, I know thats what I said in this post, but I believe it will be some formula that takes hits/force/time into account.

It seems there are some interesting changes afoot.
Thanks for the link and info.

NorthHawk wrote:It seems there are some interesting changes afoot.
Thanks for the link and info.

Yeah, I think the NFL knows that it has a problem and wants to ensure the sustainability of their product, which will lead to money being poured into a solution (or at least the guise of a solution).

NFL has confirmed that any Lineman who lowers his head to initiate contact when firing off the LoS is subject to the new rule.

From PFT writer Michael David Smith:

NFL head of officiating Al Riveron confirmed to reporters today that linemen who come out of their stances with their heads down and initiate contact with the top of the helmet will be penalized.

I wonder how this will change the way they teach blocking and defending at the LoS?

Whole article:
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... lmet-rule/

Bye, bye 3 point stance..... lol

You can play from a 3 (and even a 4) point stance with your head up. In fact, you'd better not fire out of your stance with your head down ... that's a good way to ruin your neck (I speak from experience).

Good to know, guess lineman won't be affected at all then. Much hullabaloo bout nothing... lol

"According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, Riveron was asked today at the league meeting, What if a defensive lineman coming out of his stance initiates contact with his head? “Can’t do it. He’s got to get his head up,” Riveron answered.

So NFL linemen are going to have to make significant changes to the way they do their jobs: In the past, linemen frequently made contact with their helmets when coming out of their stances. Now, they can’t.

Eventually, the NFL might just get rid of the three-point stance altogether. This new rule could be a first step toward that."

Not sure why that article focused on lineman so much...

https://youtu.be/k0BqqEMobcY

Coming to regular NFL games soon...

Depending how it's enforced it could well be significantly different. We used to be coached to "get a hat on a hat", and how much of hour "M" on the side of our helmet was missing by the end of the season (obviously from head first contact) was a bragging point ... I'm just saying that the leverage of getting lower than your opponent isn't going away with this rule and linemen will still be putting a hand in the dirt. D-linemen in particular, but O-linemen as well, will just have to get used to using their hands more as first contact than their heads.

Short yardage and goal line plays might be the ones to watch for how the rules will truly be enforced.
The last thing we need is the field to look like and exploded laundromat. Too many penalties will turn people off.

Apparently they want the contact to evolve into hands and shoulders first.

Troy Vincent:

“It’s really about hands first, head to the side,” Vincent said. “Let’s get the shoulder back involved in the game, let’s make sure we get the hands back involved in the game.”

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... lmet-rule/

c_hawkbob wrote:Depending how it's enforced it could well be significantly different. We used to be coached to "get a hat on a hat", and how much of hour "M" on the side of our helmet was missing by the end of the season (obviously from head first contact) was a bragging point ... I'm just saying that the leverage of getting lower than your opponent isn't going away with this rule and linemen will still be putting a hand in the dirt. D-linemen in particular, but O-linemen as well, will just have to get used to using their hands more as first contact than their heads.

Yeah I agree, it’s going to come back to how it’s enforced. There’s holding on every play but it’s not often called. In the open field it’s much easier to see contact initiated with the helmet, but much harder to do in the trenches. It will be interesting to see how effective officials can actually be in calling this penalty.

They better not make it subject to video review or games will be 8 hours long.

We've had a lowering the head rule aimed at ball carriers like Beast for the past 3-4 years, using the helmet as a battering ram, but in all the football games I've watched since the rule was implemented, I've never seen it called.

Has anyone else seen this rule I am referring to called during a game?

RiverDog wrote:We've had a lowering the head rule aimed at ball carriers like Beast for the past 3-4 years, using the helmet as a battering ram, but in all the football games I've watched since the rule was implemented, I've never seen it called.

Has anyone else seen this rule I am referring to called during a game?

Not me. But this is a little different in that it's been a big part of the training for positional players like the play at the LoS.

We've had a lowering the head rule aimed at ball carriers like Beast for the past 3-4 years, using the helmet as a battering ram, but in all the football games I've watched since the rule was implemented, I've never seen it called.

Has anyone else seen this rule I am referring to called during a game?

North Hawk wrote:]Not me. But this is a little different in that it's been a big part of the training for positional players like the play at the LoS.

Understood that it's a little easier to teach than the proposed rule, but of all the football games that have taken place since it was implemented, you would think that there'd be at least a small number of rule violations.

Once, against Mike Robinson on a reception in the flat along the sideline against Chicago in the Mike Williams knock out game. That's the only time I've seen it enforced.

I wonder if the Linemen that have wrestling backgrounds will now be considered more valuable considering the shoulders and hand fighting will be more important.
It may be that some of the premier blockers and defenders along the lines won't be as effective with the new rules and others better off.