The aftershock of the NFL handing Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair a three-game suspension for his hit on Trevor Lawrence as the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback was sliding in Week 13 is still making waves around the league.
CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones reported on “The NFL Today” on Sunday that the NFL likely won’t change its quarterback slide rules. Jones also said the league’s message to quarterbacks is “you can’t rely on the defender to protect you.”
CBS Sports rules expert Gene Steratore, an NFL official for 15 years, offered a referee’s perspective on when quarterbacks break the pocket, saying a game official needs to anticipate “a potential slide if the quarterback is not headed toward out of bounds.”
Steratore explained the determination for referees: “When does this quarterback start to break and begin his slide, and at the same time, trying to see where is that defender is closing on him? Has he [the defender] committed before he [the quarterback] started that dip of his hip? Or he has he not? Then, in those fractions [of seconds], making that judgment as to whether he started to slide, was hit, so on and so on.”
Steratore then went on to say to say what scares him about quarterbacks sliding is that they don’t have much of an opportunity to brace themselves when they do get hit on their way down.
Some of the NFL’s top defenders feel like there is a “gray area” with the rules remaining as they are. Dallas Cowboys star pass rusher Micah Parsons is among that crowd.
“I just think the NFL should do a better job clearing up the gray area,” Parsons said Thursday. “If a quarterback acts like he’s going out of bounds, he should go out of bounds, that’s where you should mark him at. If he’s acting like he’s going to slide, that’s where you should mark him at. Because at that point, it’s the contact issue.
“You see a lot of guys taking advantage and getting extra yards off that. “[Patrick] Mahomes wins games off that. We can’t act like these aren’t game-changing opportunities and plays that they’re extending drives on. So those are momentum changers. They definitely have to clear up the gray area because it’s just a tough situation.”
