Aaron Donald wants to see roughing the passer penalty tweaked, 'but that ain't my call'
Over the years, the NFL has made a concerted effort to protect its most important players: the quarterbacks. There have been safety measures out in place to protect other positions, but roughing the passer is being called now more than ever before.
The league has come under major criticism in the last week after two defenders were called for roughing the passer, even though they did nothing more than sack the quarterback. First, it was Grady Jarrett on a pivotal play against Tom Brady and the Bucs — and then Chris Jones was called for roughing against the Raiders Monday night.
Both calls were highly controversial.
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Aaron Donald has sacked a quarterback more than 100 times in his career, and he's had to tweak the way he takes them down. He was asked Thursday if 'roughing the passer' needs to be tweaked — and while he feels it does, he knows there's nothing he can do.
"Yeah, but that ain't my call," he said. "I saw the one on Brady. That's tough, but there's nothing I can do about it. You just keep playing and right now, the rules are the rules. Hopefully, we can do something to change that so we can, as rushers, be able to just play."
Donald said all he can do is play football and "hopefully you don't get flagged and you sack the quarterback the right way." That's easier said than done because defenders can get penalized for hitting them too high, too low and/or taking them to the ground too hard.