Making the hip drop tackle illegal is the latest rule change that has nearly everyone up in arms.

At the NFL Annual Meeting in Orlando this week, a vote was passed to ban the tackle, which now would result in a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down. How this impacts the Bucs and a defensive head coach such as Todd Bowles remains to be seen.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

Each year it gets tougher and tougher to play defense in the NFL as the league tries create more offense and generate more points on the scoreboard. Some rules have been put into place understandably for player safety, such as illegal hits to the head. But others seem unreasonable in believing a defender that is traveling at full speed can abide by certain rules, such as avoiding putting their weight on a quarterback when making a sack.

In today’s game defenders can’t even touch a receiver more than five yards down the field or make a big hit over the middle. Any physical play has that underlying thought of, “Is a flag going to be thrown?”

It feels like the hip drop tackle may fall into that category as well. Defenders have to find a new way to actually bring down the player with the ball, as every year it legally gets more difficult to do so.

What Does Todd Bowles Think Of The New Rule?

At said NFL Annual Meeting in Orlando on Tuesday, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles shared his thoughts on the new rule. Based on how he and his coaching staff teaches tackling, Todd Bowles doesn’t believe this will be much of an adjustment.

“No, because we don’t teach it, we don’t preach it and we don’t do it,” Todd Bowles said if this will cause any drastic changes. “So it’s really not a big deal for us as far as getting ready for something that we don’t do. If it does happen, it’s definitely not going to be intentional. It just makes you more aware. We’ve been aware. We don’t tackle that way, and we don’t teach it that way. It’s not going to change – it’s not going to change things.”

While Todd Bowles doesn’t see much of an issue with the new rule, not all of his players feel the same way. Returning Bucs safety Jordan Whitehead commented on X after the announcement saying “Tell the offense they can’t use a stiff arm then” in frustration over the rule.

He also had a since deleted post articulating that most of the people that made this rule “probably haven’t played football.”

Fellow Bucs cornerback Christian Izien, who Todd Bowles deployed as the starting nickel last season as a rookie, also took to social media to voice his displeasure. He simply posted “lol” in a quote tweet from ESPN’s Adam Schefter. On Instagram he had a story that said, “They stay making my job harder than it already is.”

Izien also retweeted a post from former Pewter Reporter Jon Ledyard talking about the topic based in reference to how bad these rules have gotten over the years.

Clearly, not everyone is thrilled over this decision, including the NFLPA. NFL officials already have a difficult time figuring out what a catch is and what exactly is roughing the passer, so there’s definitely going to be growing pains with this new rule as well.

Future Hall of Famer J.J. Watt was very up front with how much he disliked the new rule regarding the hip drop.

New Kickoffs Are Coming To The NFL

Bucs GM Jason Licht and owner Joel Glazer – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The hip drop rule wasn’t the only major change at the 2024 NFL Annual Meeting that Tampa Bay and Todd Bowles has to deal with. In better news, there’s going to be a brand new look at kickoffs for NFL games. The league adopted the kickoff rules from the XFL in an effort to bring back kick returns, but doing so in a safer manner that reduces or eliminates concussions.

For this new rule, kicks will still be from the 35-yard line, but players on each team – except for the kicker and the returner – will be lined up 10 yards apart and near the returner at the returning side’s 40- and 30-yard lines. No player can move until the returner touches the ball or the ball hits the ground in the landing zone (which is the 20-yard line to the goal line), and no fair catch can be made.

All kicks must be returned or if the ball rolls from the landing zone into the end zone it can be downed for a touchback at the 40-yard line.

This rule was implemented to prevent full-speed, head-on collisions during these plays where previously this would occur as players were running over 40 yards down the field to make the tackle. It also brings back the excitement of more kick returns, which had dwindled throughout the years with teams booming the ball into the end zone. It brings a dynamic back to kick returns and overall special teams that was necessary.

At the meetings, Bucs owner and c0-chairman Joel Glazer gave his opinion on the decision.

“The biggest one was the kickoff,” Glazer said. “A lot of discussion about that, but I think as a league everyone decided that it’s an exciting play that needs to be put back in the game. I think anytime you can make the game more exciting, we’re in favor it.”