A hip-drop tackle is when a defender grabs the ball carrier with both hands or wraps him up, then swings his own hips around and drops his body weight onto the runner's legs, trapping them at or below the knee. The NFL banned it before the 2024 season. It is a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down.
Updated Sept. 17, 2026.
The technique has three parts, and all three have to be there for a flag. The defender grabs the runner with both hands or wraps him with his arms. He then unweights himself, meaning he swivels and drops his hips and lower body so he is no longer on his feet. Finally he lands on the runner's legs and traps them at or below the knee. A normal wrap-up tackle from behind, or a tackle where the defender simply falls forward, is not a hip-drop.
The league banned it because of what it does to ankles and knees. The runner's leg is pinned under the defender's full weight while the runner's momentum is still going forward, which is how you get the high-ankle sprains and broken fibulas that ended several seasons in 2023. League data showed the play caused injuries at many times the rate of an ordinary tackle. Owners voted unanimously to outlaw it in March 2024.
On the field it is a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty with an automatic first down, and the defender can be fined or ejected. Officials were told to call it only when the full technique was clear, so in the first season most enforcement came as fines after the game rather than flags during it. Defenders are coached to stay on their feet and drive through the tackle instead of swinging around the runner.
Ravens tight end Mark Andrews broke his fibula and tore ankle ligaments on a hip-drop tackle by Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson in November 2023. The play was shown at the league meetings the following March when the owners voted to ban the technique.
Fifteen yards and an automatic first down, called as unnecessary roughness. The defender can also be fined by the league after the game, and a flagrant one can get him ejected.
The owners voted unanimously to ban it at the March 2024 league meeting, and it has been illegal since the 2024 season.
The defender's whole body weight lands on the runner's leg while the leg is pinned and the runner is still moving forward. That twists the ankle and knee under load, which is how it caused so many high-ankle sprains and fibula breaks.
Category: CBA & League Rules. Part of the StickToTheModel NFL Encyclopedia.