What is a hip-drop tackle? Why the maneuver is banned for the 2024 NFL season.

If you watched any of the NFL preseason games, you likely noticed that the game looks a little different this year. The new look continues the league's efforts to improve players' safety:

◾ Guardian caps, optional soft shell additions to a helmet designed to absorb impact

◾ A new kick-off rule designed to limit high-speed player collisions

◾ A ban on the hip-drop tackle, a technique with much higher risk of injury compared to traditional tackles.

Next Thursday's kickoff of the NFL season featuring the Baltimore Ravens at the Kansas City Chiefs (8:20 ET, NBC) will feature a player who was injured now banned hip-drop tackle: Mark Andrews. He suffered a cracked fibula when he was tackled from behind on Nov. 16 and missed 10 weeks from the injury.

What exactly is a hip-drop tackle?

In a hip-drop tackle, the defensive player approaches from behind or the side, wraps his arms around the offensive player and becomes dead weight while dropping to the ground. Often, the defensive player's body lands on the offensive player's legs. According to NFL executive Jeff Miller, it poses a 25-times higher risk of injury than a normal tackle.

Rich McKay, chairman of the NFL's competition committee, calls the hip-drop tackle the cousin of the horse collar: "What's happening on the hip-drop is the defender is encircling, tackling the runner and then swinging their weight and falling on the side of their leg, which is their ankle or their knee."

"A hip-drop tackle is so dangerous," said Dr. Robert Glatter, a former sideline physician for the New York Jets and assistant professor of emergency medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, Northwell Health in New York. "The defender essentially swings their full body weight as they fall on their ankle, leg or knee. This leaves the lower body at risk for serious ankle and ligament damage."

Some players and the NFLPA have complained that the hip-drop tackle, which has led to a handful of high-profile injuries, is too loosely defined and will require referees to make highly subjective calls.

“I think it really compromises the quality of the game on multiple levels,” the Washington Commanders’ Austin Ekeler, vice president on the union’s leadership team, said during Super Bowl week.

How did Mark Andrews get injured by a hip-drop tackle?

The hip-drop tackle notably sidelined Ravens tight end Mark Andrews last season. Andrews' injury occurred during the first quarter of Baltimore's Nov. 16 game with Cincinnati. Andrews left the game after Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson tackled him from behind.

Andrews suffered a cracked fibula and ligament damage to his right ankle but somehow returned to action Jan. 28 — 10 weeks after the injury.

Ankle fractures are classified into three main categories, according to the Danis-Weber classification system:

Other notable injuries from hip-drop tackles

In Week 4 of last season, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith suffered a knee injury during a Monday night game when Isaiah Simmons hip-drop tackled him. Ironically, referees flagged Smith for a personal foul when he got into a scuffle with Simmons after the play.

"A dirty play," Smith told ESPN’s Lisa Salters after the game. "There’s no place in the sport for that. And you know, hopefully something happens. But other than that, the grace of God allowed me to come back into this game."

Other recent injuries of note caused by the hip-drop tackle:

• Cowboys running back Tony Pollard suffered a fractured leg and ankle in January and was knocked out of an NFC divisional playoff game at San Francisco.
• Kansas City Chiefs MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered a high ankle sprain that same weekend during the AFC divisional playoff. Mahomes' injury could have been worse. "While a 'high ankle sprain' or injury to ligaments above the ankle can result from such a tackle, associated fractures involving the fibula can also occur related to the rotational or twisting type of injury," Glatter said.

During league meetings during October in New York, an NFL executive Jeff Miller contended that the injury rate linked to hip-drop tackles is 25 times higher than for a normal tackle. That’s an uptick from the “20 times higher” figure NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent cited during the spring.

Recent rules created to protect players

If the league were to impose a rule against the hip-drop tackle, it wouldn't be the first time it has cracked down on risky defensive plays. Among them:

Horse-collar tackle: During the 2005 off-season, NFL owners voted to ban the play in which a defender grabs the inside collar of the back or the side of the shoulder pads or jersey and pulls the runner down. Such a tackle leads to ligament tears and tibia and fibula fractures. Other details of the tackle:

• It does not apply to a runner who is in the tackle box or a quarterback still in the pocket.
• A player doesn't have to be to pulled to the ground for the tackle be considered illegal. If his knees are buckled by the action, it's a foul.

Helmet to helmet: In 2018, the league imposed a helmet rule that bans players from lowering their heads and making forcible contact with their helmet. The foul can happen on any part of the field, and in some cases, the player can be disqualified.

Contributing: Jarrett Bell