Baltimore Ravens, John Harbaugh Agree With Hip-Drop Ban: 'Bad Play'

Few teams were hit harder last season due to the hip drop tackle than the Baltimore Ravens. Their head coach is happy to see the play go away.

Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews (89) fights a tackle from Cincinnati Bengals linebacker / Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY

There may not be a team happier to see the hip-drop tackle banned across the NFL than the Baltimore Ravens. That's because few teams were hit harder because of that play than Baltimore.

On their way to the AFC Title game, All-Pro tight end Mark Andrews was hit by Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson in which the defender landed on Andrews' ankle. The play cost Andrews two months of the NFL season and left the Ravens scrambling to figure out a way to win through the air.

Now, the hip-drop tackle that Wilson put on Andrews on November 21st is banned, and with it, the safety of offensive players has once again been protected.

No one appears happier about it than Ravens head coach John Harbaugh.

"It’s really a bad play, and it needed to be out," Baltimore's head coach stated in the team's pre-draft media availability. "And guys are going to tackle just fine without the quote-unquote hip-drop tackle, because they tackled just fine without it for 100 years of football before that, when you never saw it, really."

Harbaugh also pointed to how the play was only used over the last few seasons with the incorporation of techniques used in rugby to bring ballcarriers down. That, along with the fact NFL players were successful without it, pushes Harbaugh to believe the game won't be tarnished by this latest rule.

"It’s a three-part movement, [and] you’ve got to execute that play. You’ve got to be close enough to that ball carrier to actually get him around the hips, pull him close to yourself, swing your hips through and drop on the back of his legs," Harbaugh explained. "So, when you drop down on the back of his legs, it’s a mass ... And it’s 25 times more likely to have a serious injury. "

Andrews did return to the field for the Ravens during the AFC Title game - a 17-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, but things could have been different if the star tight end had been healthy leading up to the game, instead of recovering from a broken ankle.

At the very least, it's why the Ravens appear to be the happiest when it comes to seeing this play banned outright.