Every year, it seems like one penalty type rises above the rest and becomes the NFL’s most controversial for the season. This season, after a scary concussion to Tua Tagovailoa and an equally scary quote from Joe Burrow, it appears “roughing the passer” is going to be that penalty in 2022.
The NFL saw two competing examples of the flag in Week 5, one of which got called and one of which didn’t.
The one that was called came in the late moments of Buccaneers vs. Falcons. With the Falcons looking to get the ball back to put together one more drive, Grady Jarrett spun Tom Brady to the ground for what looked like a routine sack. Instead, the flag was thrown, and the Buccaneers bled the clock to zero.
Brady “roughing the passer”
vs
Mahomes sack pic.twitter.com/XI73E4HPwM— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) October 11, 2022
“Monday Night Football” saw two such controversial calls. First, it was a roughing the passer call on Chris Jones for falling on top of Derek Carr, then it was a no-call when Patrick Mahomes was spun to the ground in a manner eerily similar to Brady’s hit.
This roughing the passer call is trash!!! Do you want Chris Jones to lay a pillow down and tuck him in? #ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/GS3rwYI2aA
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) October 11, 2022
Both players bemoaned the calls against them, Jarrett on his radio show and Jones at his locker. Jarrett called for the calls to be reviewable, while Jones simply asked “what you want me to do?”
The NFL is no stranger to controversial roughing calls, and the numbers are actually down through Week 6 this year. Officials have thrown the flag for roughing 38 times in 2022, down from 52 through Week 6 in 2021. So why is it so controversial again, and what’s the history of this confusing rule?
MORE: A look at NFL Color Rush jerseys, alternate helmets for 2022 season
NFL roughing the passer rule
The NFL’s reasoning on the roughing the passer penalty starts with why it’s necessary to protect the QB in the first place. From Article 11 of the NFL rulebook:
Because the act of passing often puts the quarterback (or any other player attempting a pass) in a position where he is particularly vulnerable to injury, special rules against roughing the passer apply. The Referee has principal responsibility for enforcing these rules. Any physical acts against a player who is in a passing posture (i.e. before, during, or after a pass) which, in the Referee’s judgment, are unwarranted by the circumstances of the play will be called as fouls.
There are a lot of actions that can constitute roughing; four subsections’ worth, in fact.
There’s the late hit example (subsection a):
Roughing will be called if, in the Referee’s judgment, a pass rusher clearly should have known that the ball had already left the passer’s hand before contact was made; pass rushers are responsible for being aware of the position of the ball in passing situations; the Referee will use the release of the ball from the passer’s hand as his guideline that the passer is now fully protected; once a pass has been released by a passer, a rushing defender may make direct contact with the passer only up through the rusher’s first step after such release (prior to second step hitting the ground); thereafter the rusher must be making an attempt to avoid contact and must not continue to “drive through” or otherwise forcibly contact the passer; incidental or inadvertent contact by a player who is easing up or being blocked into the passer will not be considered significant.
The body weight on the way down example (this is arguably the most controversial):
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 fall to the side of the quarterback’s body, or to brace his fall with his arms to avoid landing on the quarterback with all or most of his body weight.
Note the language of “strive to fall to the side of the quarterback’s body,” which is of course very difficult to do in game action.
Then there’s the obvious launching of the helmet, which now applies to all players:
In covering the passer position, Referees will be particularly alert to fouls in which defenders impermissibly use the helmet and/or facemask to hit the passer, or use hands, arms, or other parts of the body to hit the passer forcibly in the head or neck area (see also the other unnecessary roughness rules covering these subjects). A defensive player must not use his helmet against a passer who is in a defenseless posture—for example, (1) forcibly hitting the passer’s head or neck area with the helmet or facemask, even if the initial contact of the defender’s helmet or facemask is lower than the passer’s neck, and regardless of whether the defensive player also uses his arms to tackle the passer by encircling or grasping him; or (2) lowering the head and making forcible contact with any part of the helmet against any part of the passer’s body. This rule does not prohibit incidental contact by the mask or the helmet in the course of a conventional tackle on a passer.
And of course hitting the quarterback low:
A rushing defender is prohibited from forcibly hitting in the knee area or below a passer who has one or both feet on the ground, even if the initial contact is above the knee. It is not a foul if the defender is blocked (or fouled) into the passer and has no opportunity to avoid him.
MORE: NFL reportedly to consider changing roughing the passer rule
The NFL rulebook gives officiating a lot of power with the language it uses, but it basically breaks down to:
- Don’t hit the quarterback late.
- Don’t bring your full body weight onto the quarterback after he’s hit.
- Don’t lead with the helmet or touch the QB in the head or neck area.
- Don’t hit the QB around the knee area.
These are all pretty straightforward rules in their own right, but the way they’re applied has caused some confusion among NFL players and fans alike. Adding to this, after the quarterback throws the ball, if he stands pat or falls backwards he’s considered out of the play, and if he scrambles, his level of protection changes to any position player’s.
How many yards is roughing the passer penalty?
Roughing the passer, like any other unnecessary roughness penalty, is 15 yards from the previous spot.
It also has an automatic first down attached.
In extreme circumstances, it can lead to ejections if the contact is considered flagrant.
When did roughing the passer become a rule?
The roughing the passer penalty dates back to 1940. This was around the renaissance of passing in the NFL, when the league was becoming more pass-friendly.
It was part of a variety of other rules intended to help promote the passing game.
Roughing the passer then and now
When roughing was implemented in 1940, it looked largely the same as it does now.
The biggest difference over the years is the addition of the language preventing players from putting their body weight on a QB during a sack (which, incidentally, has become some of the most controversial language).
Otherwise, the flags for late hits were still in place.
The other change came in 2009 with the so-called “Brady Rule.” After Tom Brady was sidelined in 2008 after suffering a torn ACL in the Patriots’ season opener, the NFL added language preventing defenders from lunging at quarterbacks’ knees to prevent those kinds of injuries from occurring again.
Controversy around this rule will continue to persist, as it has for years, but the NFL is calling games this way to protect its product. Along those lines, the league’s executive vice president, Troy Vincent, said at the Oct. 18 owners’ meetings that there was “healthy conversation” about the rule but insisted no changes are imminent.
“We are not changing the philosophy around that call,” Vincent told reporters, via Jonathan Jones of CBS. “… We are not going to back off protecting the quarterback.”
Hits: 0
