Last Thursday night, the officials made a mockery of the pre-snap rules by repeatedly letting Chiefs right tackle Jawaan Taylor: (1) line up in the backfield; (2) move his right leg when he was supposed to be still; and (3) start into his pass-block set early.
This Thursday night, the master of the split-second-early start will be on display in Philadelphia.
He’s Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson. And he has perfected the art of leaving early and not being penalized.
There’s a skill to it. He needs to know when the ball is going to be snapped, and he needs to start at the right time so that it’s not blatant. (Then again, after last week, maybe Johnson could leave even earlier.)
If the officials aren’t going to call it, why not do it? Every team should do it. Especially if the NFL isn’t going to do anything about it.
Even though it’s the kind of thing for which the league office would normally send out a memo to all officiating staffs, the NFL first has to want to end the practice. We don’t think the NFL does.
We think the NFL wants to keep quarterbacks healthy. At a time when defensive linemen are generally better than offensive linemen, the offensive linemen need some help. From false starts not flagged to holding fouls not called, quarterbacks are less likely to get hit — and less likely to get hurt.
Thus, despite what we all saw in the first game of the first week of the 2023 regular season, the league is FAR more concerned about avoiding what we all saw in the last game of the first week of the 2023 regular season. The NFL can’t afford to lose more quarterbacks for the year. If that means not calling false starts, so be it.