The new suspension formula has a few more wrinkles to keep in mind

The NFL and NFL Players Association recently introduced a new procedure for imposing automatic suspensions on players who commit three violations of specific safety rules. The rules include hip-drop tackles, horse-collar tackles, launching, hits on defenseless players, and blindside blocks. A player can only be suspended if they commit three violations of the same rule; having two violations of different rules does not result in a suspension.

Once a player commits a fourth violation, they receive a one-game suspension. Players with three violations in a season carry two of them into the next season, meaning they remain one infraction away from another suspension for the remainder of the current season and the entire following season. The new formula also applies to the postseason.

For example, if a player receives his third violation during Week 18, he misses the opening playoff game; a third violation in the wild-card round results in a suspension for the divisional round, and a loss in the playoff round leads to a Week 1 suspension for the next season.

The new formula may lead to unintended consequences for certain rules. For hip-drop tackles, horse-collar tackles, launching, and blindside blocks, players have control over whether they commit a violation. However, for hits on defenseless players, particularly defenseless receivers, a violation can occur unintentionally. This could encourage offenses to target defensive players with two defenseless-player violations, aiming for a third violation that would result in a one-game suspension.

Coaches may attempt to engineer a third violation for a player with two strikes against them, even if the player has otherwise performed correctly. To better understand the impact of the new rule, it is essential to monitor the situation closely. The new rule is a one-year experiment; it could become permanent or be abandoned altogether. Lastly, the new rule is not a response to the recent CTE study, as the conversations and negotiations took place over three months before the study was published.