Two years ago, the NFL banned the hip-drop tackle. And while plenty of fines have been imposed for a technique that can cause lower-extremity injuries for ball carriers, fouls continue to be rarely called during games.
During a Friday media session regarding health and safety issues, NFL chief football administrative officer Dawn Aponte said that roughly 30 fines were imposed during the 2025 regular season, with two hip-drop penalties called.
“We’re also hearing from players and clubs that they would like to see this called more on the field, so that’s something that we’ll discuss with the [Competition] Committee and officiating,” Aponte said.
Given the separate comment that replay review could become available to call safety-related fouls, the hip-drop rule would likely become one of those penalties that could be rectified by replay, when missed in real time.
The league’s prior approach has been to caution officials not to penalize a hip-drop tackle unless it’s clear that the three key elements of the foul have been satisfied: (1) defender grabs the runner with one or both hands or wraps the runner with both arms; (2) defender “unweights” himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body; and (3) defender lands on and/or traps the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee.
As formulated, it’s only a foul if the defender lands on or traps the ball carrier’s leg(s), at or below the knee.
One solution could be to eliminate the third element, making it a foul to use the hip-drop technique even if the ball carrier’s leg(s) aren’t landed on or trapped. That would make it easier to conclude that a violation occurred.
And it also makes sense. If the goal is to eliminate the behavior, it shouldn’t matter if the hip-drop tackle actually results in the ball carrier’s leg(s) being impacted. The broader message is that it’s not acceptable to grab the runner and swivel/drop to the ground. That should be enough to trigger a penalty, regardless of whether the ball carrier gets lucky when the ensuing cluster of limbs and torsos doesn’t impact his ankles or shins or feet.
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