Ravens' John Harbaugh Pleased to See Hip Drop Tackle Crackdown

Defenders across the NFL likely won't agree, but John Harbaugh is glad to see the new penalties surrounding hip-drop tackles.

Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh is more than happy to play devil's advocate in the NFL's new rules surrounding hip drop tackles.

The announcement of new penalties, namely the potential charging of 15-yard penalties, surrounding such tackles are the talk of the NFL owners meetings in Orlando. These new procedures have proven to be despised among players, namely defenders, but Harbaugh believes it paves a better path forward for the game.

"I think taking the hip drop out of the game is the right thing to do," Harbaugh said on Monday, per Dominick Philippe-Auguste of WMAR. "I think (NFL commissioner) Roger Goodell and (NFL executive vice president of football operations) Troy (Vincent) are on the right path with that. The competition committee is on the right path with that. It’d be good if it does pass in my opinion.”

Mark Andrews

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Harbaugh got his wish, as the league's 32 owners unanimously passed the new rulings later in the day.

The longtime Baltimore boss had been a staunch advocate of banning hip drops after his star tight end Mark Andrews lost the second half of his season after he was taken down by such a method during a November game against Cincinnati. The new rules were reportedly enacted against the desires of the NFLPA and several defenders have spoken out against the idea.

NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay didn't want to label the de facto crackdown as a ban, more or less trying to remove the swivel that accompanies the move and often forces the runners to land hard on their hips, creating a great potential for lower body injuries.

"When it is used, it is incredibly injurious to the runner, the runner is purely defenseless," McKay said, per ESPN.com. "I've heard defenders say before and I hear them, 'Hey, you're putting me in a really tough spot, you're saying I can't hit here and what do I do?' My response has as always been, 'Well, you can't do that.' That's just because the guy you're hitting is defenseless, has no way to protect himself."