The NFL is doubling down on its roughing the passer rule after multiple controversial calls in Week 5.
NFL senior vice president of officiating administration Perry Fewell sent a video to all 32 teams on Wednesday, according to The Athletic’s Kalyn Kahler.
In it, Fewell specifically defended the call against Kansas City’s Chris Jones on Monday night.
“The Kansas City defender executes his rush plan in his effort to sack the quarterback,” Fewell said, per Kahler. “He lands with his full body weight on the drive to the ground. A quarterback in the pocket, in a passing posture, gets full protection until he can defend himself. This was a properly called foul for roughing the passer.”
That explanation isn’t going to make players happy, and it’s not a shock that fans don’t seem to be buying it either.
“They are entitled to defend their decision. They’re wrong, but they are entitled to defend it,” said Twitter user @NiedsG.
“Well obviously they aren’t going to admit they were wrong,” another man added.
“Our refs suck, this rule sucks and the implementation of it sucks but you’re just gonna have to deal with it,” said one fan, bluntly.
The roughing the passer rule is not changing, at least not during the season.
Hopefully, one of these calls doesn’t cost a team a critical game down the road.