Former Cleveland Browns star Joe Thomas recently had an interesting take on quarterback sliding.
The retired left tackle reacted to Houston Texans’ LB Azeez Al-Shaair’s three-game suspension after a seemingly dirty hit on Jacksonville Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence.
While he acknowledged that Al-Shaair’s hit was malicious, he thinks the league should eliminate the “weaponized quarterback slide” altogether.
He argued that a quarterback faking to slide or being late to slide should be flagged with a 15-yard penalty.
“As dangerous as hits on a quarterback are when the quarterback chooses to slide, we need to stop allowing quarterbacks to fake slide or late slide in order to gain yardage and confuse the defenders on if the quarterback is sliding or not,” Thomas said.
This hit was malicious and has no place in our game…
But the NFL needs to get the “weaponized quarterback slide” out of the game.
As dangerous as hits on a quarterback are when the quarterback chooses to slide, we need to stop allowing quarterbacks to fake slide or late slide… https://t.co/6sRYCqeRWQ
— Joe Thomas (@joethomas73) December 3, 2024
“A late slide, fake slide, or acting like you’re gonna go out of bounds and then skirting forward for a few more yards; these all need to be 15 yard penalties against the offense,” Thomas also said.
This makes perfect sense.
We’ve seen quarterbacks enter the endzone untouched when they’re near the sidelines, knowing that defensive players might be flagged and even fined if they tackle them like they would tackle any other player.
Player safety should be paramount, but this rule might not favor the league.
There’s no room for dirty hits in the sport, and Al-Shaair’s reckless tackle on Trevor Lawrence could’ve ended his season, career, and life.
There’s no way to condone that.
Ironically, like Thomas said, taking that edge away from the quarterbacks might also be the best way to keep them safe and sound in those situations.
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