We have seen a number of dangerous injuries come out of the preseason thus far in the NFL, with a few of them coming on controversial chop block plays where a tight end comes and takes out the legs of defensive ends.
This type of injury occurred in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ final preseason game on Sunday to star defensive end T.J. Watt on a block coming from Detroit Lions tight end T.J. Hockenson.
Another look at the T.J. Watt knee injury #Steelers pic.twitter.com/a5t8TWtvnp
— Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) August 28, 2022
Luckily it seems like Watt avoided a serious injury on this play, but his teammate Cameron Heyward took a hard stance against this type of block in a post-game press conference, saying that the league needs to start protecting their defensive players with a significant rule change.
“I know it’s a legal play right now,” Heyward said via 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh. “We’ve cleaned up where the DB can’t shoot the gap and go at the O-lineman. We should work towards player safety, because it’s a bang-bang play where a tight end goes up and goes straight for your knees. Luckily TJ isn’t fully injured.”
A similar play occurred to rookie defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux for the New York Giants in their second preseason game last week, who suffered a sprained MCL due to the controversial block.
Before people crush Thaddeus Moss for this block they need to realize how common it is. Every TE cut blocks and every TE coach teaches cut blocks. It’s up to the defender to know how to respond to it. W/O it defenders would just barrel downhill. #NFL pic.twitter.com/YB5k2KtTTV
— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) August 22, 2022
There have been significant rule changes to protect the head and neck areas in recent years for most offensive players, but these risks to the lower leg still very much exist for defensive players due to the current rules on low blocks.
Luckily both Thibodeaux and Watt escaped with minimal injuries, but this rule should be changed before we see a significant knee injury down the road on one of the blocks.
[Audacy]
