The debate over what constitutes roughing the passer has dominated the early portion of the NFL season, and the people in charge of making and amending rules for the league sound like they are starting to second-guess themselves.
Judy Battista of NFL.com reports that there are several members of the NFL’s Competition Committee who are “uncomfortable” with the amount of flags thrown for roughing the passer through the first three weeks of the season. It’s possible a change to the rule could be coming, but league officials are concerned about the optics of walking back a rule they implemented for safety reasons.
I'm told this morning a number of members of the Competition Committee are uncomfortable with the roughing the passer calls, particularly the Clay Mathews one from the Vikings game. Committee call next week, but members are unsure if anything will change this year.
— Judy Battista (@judybattista) September 25, 2018
Why is it possible there will be no change to roughing the passer calls this season? Because there is a feeling it could be difficult for the league to pull back on a safety-related rule.
— Judy Battista (@judybattista) September 25, 2018
When this point of emphasis was made in March, this is clearly not how the Comp. Committee envisioned it. Question may be how Roger Goodell views it and what tweaks can be made that don't diminish the player safety part of it while also eliminating the gratuitous calls.
— Judy Battista (@judybattista) September 25, 2018
As Battista noted, members of the committee are particularly troubled by the roughing the passer calls against Clay Matthews. The Packers linebacker has been flagged in each of the first three games, and the two most recent baffled football fans and players. While the new rule states that a defender cannot land with his body weight on a quarterback, it’s hard to tell how Matthews could have avoided that with his sack of Redskins quarterback Alex Smith on Sunday. The same was true when he sacked Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins with what most felt was a textbook football hit the week before, and that personal foul negated an interception that likely would have sealed a win for Green Bay.
Four flags were thrown for roughing the passer in Monday night’s game between the Steelers and Buccaneers, and those four calls were tied for the most in an NFL game since 2001. Even Ben Roethlisberger said he was “surprised” by the first call that benefitted his team, and he’s not the first star quarterback to express concern over the rule change.
While the NFL wants to prove that safety is a top priority, you can understand the concern over how much negative attention the roughing the passer changes have garnered.
