Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says he and his fellow owners have discussed some of the controversial roughing the passer penalties that have been called this season, but he doesn’t see any reason that the NFL should stop prioritizing protecting quarterbacks.
Jones said on 105.3 The Fan that quarterbacks are the most important players and should be taken care of.
“Yeah, we’ve been trying to take care of quarterbacks forever, and should be, and the game that we have creates a vulnerability,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “They are targets and they are concentrating, for the most part, downfield, away. They’re using their instincts and their senses to feel pressure, but they’re basically trying to execute the offense. And they are irreplaceable, in most cases. We got lucky with [Cooper] Rush and where we are at backup quarterback. So yeah, you should be.”
Jones said the rule changes to protect quarterbacks aren’t only about restricting the hits that defensive players can put on them. Jones also said more favorable rules to help offensive linemen protect quarterbacks are a good idea.
“I’ll give you an example, the left tackle and the right tackle get to start with his foot back -- his outside foot back,” Jones said. “It used to be they had to have those even. Well, the difference is dramatic and when you put it back, you’re able to protect the outside rush to start to play that way. So the game has had adjustments going since the beginning of time, and they’re good ones and they have helped us have the game we’ve got today. I have no apologies to make, in any way, for any of the additional things you do to help avoid injury to the quarterback. The question is, how do you effectively do that without going overboard? And I think we do a good job of that over the years. It sometimes can need some adjustments, and we may be in one of those areas.”
As much as the roughing the passer penalties rankle fans -- particularly the bad calls that went against Grady Jarrett for sacking Tom Brady and Chris Jones for strip-sacking Derek Carr -- the NFL isn’t going to stop protecting quarterbacks.
