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Renovation of Tennessee Titans Defense Gets More Challenging with NFL's Prohibition of Tackling Technique

Tennessee Titans defenders no longer can use the "swivel hip-drop tackle" to bring down ball carriers. The NFL says the new rule will reduce serious injuries. The players union is opposed to the change.

Nubyjas Wilborn

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Tennessee Titans v Kansas City Chiefs / David Eulitt/GettyImages
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NASHVILLE — Dennard Wilson's task of rebuilding the Tennessee Titans defense may have gotten a little harder this week with an NFL rule change that prohibits the swivel hip-drop tackle.

The league unanimously passed the new rule, saying it would eliminate a dangerous play and reduce injuries. The NFL Players Association is opposed to the change and some former defensive players said tackling got that much harder.

The name of the technique may be unfamiliar to football fans, but they would know this tackle when they see it. Here's the NFL Competition Committee description:

  • If the defender "grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms and unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner's leg(s) at or below the knee." (See the video below.)

The specific hip-drop tackle, as per Jeff Miller, a league executive, increases the risk of injury by 25 times the rate of a standard tackle. It was used 230 times in the previous season, resulting in 15 players missing time with injuries. The committee believes that these tackles are similar to horse-collar tackles that were prohibited before the 2005 season.

“This is elimination of a swivel technique that doesn't get used very often and when it is used, it is incredibly injurious to the runner," Competition Committee Chair McKay said Monday during a press conference. "The runner is purely defenseless. Yes, we outlawed the hip drop. But what you may think [of], the drag from behind when he falls, that’s still a [legal] tackle. This is only that tackle where the player is lifting himself in the air and then falling on the legs.”

When he was playing for the Dallas Cowboys, new Titans running back Tony Pollard suffered a fractured fibula and high ankle sprain in a January 2023 playoff loss against the San Francisco 49ers on a hip-drop tackle.

Pollard hasn't made any public comments after the ruling, but there has been plenty of chatter from current and former players.

Free agent running back Kenyan Drake was injured on one of the plays in question and agrees with the new regulations. "I don't care about popular opinion," Drake said on X after the ruling. "I lost my right ankle and a quarter of the '21 season to this type of tackle. Something had to give and I'm glad it's not anybody legs/ankles anymore."

The NFLPA issued a statment against the new rule.

"The players oppose any attempt by the NFL to implement a rule prohibiting a 'swivel hip-drop' tackle," the players union said via X. "While the NFLPA remains committed to improvements to our game with health and safety in mind, we cannot support a rule change that causes confusion for us as players, for coaches, for officials and especially, for fans. We call on the NFL, again, to reconsider implementing this rule."

Several prominent former players shared the sentiment.

Violations are subject to a 15-yard penalty and automatic first down. Enforcement against the tackle also can include fines.

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Nubyjas Wilborn
NUBYJAS WILBORN

Nubyjas Wilborn covers the Titans for AllTitans.com. Wilborn previously worked for Newsweek as a trending sports reporter. He covered Auburn sports for AL.com, the Pittsburgh Pirates for the Post-Gazette, Atlanta Braves for the Marietta Daily Journal, and preps for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. 

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