Two years ago, former 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh lobbied for greater protections for mobile quarterbacks. Greater protections weren’t adopted then, and they likely won’t be adopted now, or in the near future.
In response to the most recent debate regarding whether quarterbacks who have adopted the zone-read posture have any protections beyond those that apply to ball carriers, a member of the league’s Competition Committee doesn’t see the rules changing.
“The Committee talks about this every year,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher told reporters on Thursday. “We have rules in the rule book that are very specific. If the quarterback is in a throwing position, he gets protection. But in the event that the ball is handed off, at that instant, there’s no telling whether or not he is a runner or not, so he loses that protection.
“So, I don’t see that changing. You get the complaints in opposition from those that are running the read option, and those that [don’t] understand the rule probably a little bit more. There’s obviously a push to protect the quarterback, but you have to give the defensive players a chance. All of the quarterback has to do is pull the ball and he’s a runner. How’s the defender going to know if the ball is pulled or not? The quarterback gets plenty of protection in the pocket and he picks up protection out of the pocket, he’s got protection down the field on his slides. The read-option posture, I think everybody is clear as to the rule. It didn’t look right, but the [Sam] Bradford hit, it was a legal hit according to the rules.”
The key word indeed is posture. When a quarterback adopts the know-it-when-you-see-it zone-read posture, the goal is to make the defense uncertain as to who has the ball, in the hopes of getting the defense to pursue someone who doesn’t have it.
That’s exactly what happened with Bradford. He duped Terrell Suggs into pursuing the guy who didn’t have the football. So it’s disingenuous for anyone from the Eagles to complain about the fact that Bradford got hit when the goal was to lure Suggs to guy who didn’t have the ball.
It’s like saying, “We tried to fool you and it worked. How dare you!”
Regardless, the rules remain the same, and it looks like they won’t be changing.