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KHammarling's avatar

Very nearly went off into an entire rant about the whole state of the NFL, but no-one needs to read that. Instead -

"Tackling" in the NFL has basically always been a problem caused by the nature of the game and the way it has evolved. Rather than teach proper tackle technique (which would A) lead to better stopping of players with the ball, and B) lead to less injuries in tackles) the emphasis for American Football has been on hard power hits intended to bounce someone out of bounds, jar the ball loose, or just hope they hit the deck. This combines with an ever growing focus on speed, explosiveness and athletic/acrobatic skill, putting relatively undersized DB's in pace to tackle RBs who have an extra 10kg weight on them and/or are 4-5" shorter powerhouses. The fly in and hope tackle does not work in that case, you need technique.

This technique can be taught in what are very low contact walking speed drills, or against coaches holding pads, or dummies, where there is as close to zero injury or concussion risk as you can get. You work up speed and hit power on those same drills to something around half-speed and still carry an incredibly low concussion/injury risk. Onto a 75% speed drill where the 'offence' is only there to be tackled, so know to move and fall in certain ways, which again minimises the risks. I imagine with all the money and tech work available to NFL franchises you can easily build an automated dummy that moves at game speed which can be tackled in a safe fashion.

I'm a massive rugby fan, played it for years at school level and am working towards qualifying as a ref. I know very well what good tackling is. Rarely in the NFL or CFB do I see good tackling. But it's the nature of the sport and the push towards an ever more pass & offence heavy product. The takeaway should be that 15mins of full contact tackling actually can enough, as you can do an hour a day of low contact low speed technical practice. Equally whist our tackling is bad, i don't think we're that much worse than other teams based on the eye test, but our other issues on Defence mean it gets exposed more.

Proof a small guy can tackle better than anyone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clQbBqD4phw (look at his body position! That's is a player using technique to do the frankly impossible stop, despite being undersized & in a poor position, plus strong arms)

10mins of boom-time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC0TqcSOwsw (watch the technique, low with body & leg drive, strong arms working to grip and hold, almost no focus to just hit hard or drop a shoulder, it's all about making momentum work for you)

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Rusty's avatar

I know this isn’t the prime cause, but the last collective bargaining agreement severely reduced the amount of contact in practice.

Maybe it’s just me, but I see poor tackling around the league. It seems worse with the Hawks, but that’s probably because I watch them miss tackles every single game.

Even my wife has commented on how so many of our defenders don’t wrap up, the just hit the offensive player and expect them to fall down.

It doesn’t work that way boys...

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