The NFL is Hurting its Quarterbacks
The 2023-2024 NFL season is coming to a close, but it ends with nearly 25% of all starting QBs to not finishing healthy. And 50% of all starting QBs to miss at least one game due to injury. This is the most amount of injuries at the QB position in NFL history. And the only one to blame is the NFL.
Protecting the QB
The NFL over the years have done more and more to protect its players. Especially its QBs. They are the stars of the show, they bring the people into the stadium, they sell jerseys, they lift the Lombardi, the QB is Football. The NFL has introduced better pads and technology to limit injury. But on top of that they have also added more rules into the game to try and limit injury. But despite this effort, we are in an era of more QB injuries than ever.
One rule implemented to protect QBs is the roughing the passer call. This call will be on the defense if they hit the QB too late after the throw or hit the QB too hard during a sack. If called the offense gets 15 yards and an automatic 1st down. One problem with these calls is they are subjective, what is too late? what is too hard of a hit? But that is a different problem. I think the bigger problem is the perverse incentives that the this call makes.
Perverse Incentives
The idea of the roughing the passer call is to prevent the defense from hitting the QB when “unnecessary”. So when you are sacking the QB, take him down lightly to limit injury. Or don’t hit him after they thrown the ball because they could be in a defenseless position. This is suppose to make the defense more cautious of their actions to ensure the offense doesn’t get free yards and a first down. But that is not what is happening.
Instead the QBs have taken advantage of this rule. They stay in the pocket a little longer than they should, hold onto the ball a little longer than they should, and invite a hit rather than dodging it a bit more. This is because QBs main goal is to get more yards, get the 1st down, and eventually score points. Since the roughing the passer call gets them more yards and a 1st down they are incentivized to get this call.
Protecting Yourself
So by staying in the pocket longer they either complete the pass they wanted or get hit late and get the penalty call. This leads them into a more dangerous situation by staying longer in the pocket when but it is beneficial for the team as they are more likely to get further down the field, either through the pass or penalty. QBs are less likely to protect themselves because if they don’t the defense could be called for a penalty which benefits the offense and QB. But because of these incentives more QBs are becoming injured.
Before the roughing the passer call was implemented QBs protected themselves at all costs. This is because getting hit by the defense gave them zero benefit. No one wants to get hit by a 250lbs DE running full speed at you for no reason. But you be more inclined to get hit if getting hit means winning a big game or going to the playoffs. That’s the incentives the roughing the passer call creates. And that is why the NFL is hurting its QBs.