Over the years, the NFL has made a concerted effort to protect its most important players: the quarterbacks. There have been other safety measures out in place to protect other positions, too, but roughing the passer is being called more now 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, then Chris Jones was called for roughing against the Raiders on Monday night.
Neither call looked warranted.
Aaron Donald has sacked quarterbacks 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 to 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 for taking them to the ground too hard.
It’s put pass rushers in nearly impossible spots, which is why so many are complaining about the recent calls. There simply isn’t much else they can do.
