The latest roughing the passer flashpoints in the NFL have sparked the same familiar refrain online: the rule may be bad, but the officials got it right.
That’s not how this should be read, at least not according to the rulebook language being cited.
The discussion was reignited by two specific calls - one on Buffalo Bills edge rusher Gregory Rousseau against Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, and another in the Miami-Kansas City game involving Patrick Mahomes. In the Bills-Chargers play, with 2:51 left in the first quarter, Rousseau was flagged after Herbert released the ball as the rusher was finishing the tackle.
Rousseau wrapped Herbert up, the two went to the ground, and Rousseau let go before landing with his hands no longer on the quarterback. Even so, officials threw a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty because of the league’s body weight emphasis.
The point of contention is the NFL’s own wording. The rulebook says a rushing defender cannot “unnecessarily or violently throw him down or land on top of him with all or most of the defender’s weight.” But it also says the defender must “Instead” strive to fall to the side of the passer’s body, or brace his fall with his arms to avoid landing on the passer with all or most of his body weight.
That word - “Instead” - is the key here. It sets up two different outcomes: one that should draw the flag, and one that should not. Under this reading, if a defender makes the effort to fall to the side or brace himself with his arms to avoid full body-weight contact, the penalty should not be called.
That’s why the argument that the officials simply enforced a flawed rule doesn’t hold up here. The rule’s final sentence is doing real work.
It’s not just describing what dangerous contact looks like; it’s spelling out what a defender can do to avoid a foul. The distinction hinges on the defender’s effort, not just the final result of the hit.
The rule itself has been in the NFL rulebook since 1995, with added emphasis since 2018 after the injury to then-Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. But in the examples being debated, the claim is that the defenders did what the rule says they should do: they tried to brace their falls with their arms to avoid landing with all or most of their body weight.
So this is not simply a case of “the rule is dumb, but that’s the rule.” The argument here is that the rule was applied incorrectly.
If the final sentence of the rule were absent, or if the word “instead” weren’t there, the broader interpretation would make sense. But as written, the language creates a choice between the foul and the non-foul scenario.
If you want to get literal, let’s get literal.
I won’t bill any hours for this.
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