Patriots Safety Jabrill Peppers Sounds Off On NFL Rule Change

Talk this past season around banning the hip-drop tackle disgusted New England Patriots safety Jabrill Peppers.

Those feelings haven’t changed for Peppers now that the NFL went ahead and outlawed the polarizing play for the upcoming season. The league made the rule change last month to decrease the risk of injury by stopping defenders from putting their body weight on the lower body of opposing offensive players in an attempt to bring them down. Doing so now will result in a 15-yard penalty.

Peppers, known for his hard-hitting style, has plenty of frustration and questions about the new rule.

“I don’t like it. I don’t know how you officiate it,” Peppers told reporters Tuesday, per MassLive’s Chris Mason. “It’s a 15-yard penalty. Is it a personal foul? So if somebody does it twice do they get eliminated from the game? I just have a lot of questions about it. What are they looking for? What draws the flag? Because if this is going to be like how it is when we hit a guy really hard — the optics of it and you flag it — rather than some sort of protocol that they have to throw the flag? We don’t know.”

Peppers, who started 15 games for the Patriots last season, knows there will be an acclamation period for both players and referees when it comes to the new rule.

But regardless, Peppers sees it just as another impediment he and other defenders in the league will have to face.

“You’ve just gotta adapt,” Peppers said. “As a defender, I’ve never had to worry about the health of the guy I’m tackling. Obviously, you don’t wanna lead with the crown of your helmet, but typically, if you hit somebody in the strike zone, however, you get him down is how you get him down. But like with anything, we’ll have to adapt. You don’t want to hurt the team getting 15-yard penalties. I don’t think, me personally, I’ve had any tackles that are hip-drop tackles. I’m more of a kind of wrap and roll type of guy. But in certain situations, you’ve gotta get the guy on the ground, you’ve gotta get him on the ground. As long as you do it legally, no grabbing him by the horsecollar or the facemask.

“Now this is just another obstacle for us. The defensive guys will adapt. I’m just curious when we’re going to start getting some rule changes in our favor.”