Ravens' Mark Andrews: NFL's Rule Change Banning Hip-Drop Tackles 'Not a Bad Thing'

There were plenty of players who weren't happy with the hip-drop tackle being banned from the NFL for the upcoming season. But Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews—who was injured on such a tackle in November, suffering a fractured fibula and ligament damage—isn't among them.

"Taking that tackle out of the game is not a bad thing," he told reporters Tuesday. "I think defenses can find a way to get around that."

The NFL has defined hip-drop tackles as occurring "when a defender wraps up a ball carrier and rotates or swivels his hips, unweighting himself and dropping onto ball carrier's legs during the tackle."

NFL owners voted unanimously to outlaw such a maneuver this offseason, and offenses will result in a 15-yard penalty, though the NFL's executive vice president of football operations, Troy Vincent, has hinted that initial enforcement may come more in the form of warning letters and fines rather than in-game flags in 2024.

Andrews was lost for Baltimore's final six games of the regular season and its Divisional Round win over the Houston Texans, costing Lamar Jackson his most reliable weapon in the passing game. He did return for the AFC Championship Game, however, registering two catches for 15 yards in the 17-10 loss.

"Obviously, I wasn't full 100 percent in that game, but I worked really hard to get to that point," he told reporters Monday. "It set me up for a really good offseason to work hard. I've been running a ton of routes with my family working out and I feel really good right now. I feel fast and explosive."

The outlaw of the hip-drop tackle was met with serious backlash, with defensive players continuing to feel that rule changes in recent years—such as more stringent rules put in place to outlaw tackles that have a higher likelihood of causing head trauma—have prioritized protecting offensive players and have made it more difficult to tackle in general.

Andrews would beg to differ.

"I'm always an advocate for making the game safer," he said. "You look at the last five years, there's been a lot of big injuries with that. So just bringing the awareness to that type of tackle, I think is good."