Raiders’ Paul Guenther slams NFL’s QB roughing rule

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Paul Guenther does not intend to revisit the topic again this season, he said Thursday.

And that’s fine.

What followed in a self-proclaimed “rant,” one that spanned more than 500 words and two minutes, effectively clarified his position on the NFL’s new point of emphasis to enforce a pre-existing rule outlining how defenders are to distribute their body weight when wrapping or knocking a quarterback to the ground.

“It’s just a shame,” Guenther said.

The Raiders defensive coordinator gave an impassioned call for the league to recapture some of its rule simplicity. His overture came after two second-quarter incidents in Sunday’s 28-20 road loss to the Miami Dolphins. The first saw an opponent be severely injured. In the second, a Raiders player received a costly penalty for roughing the quarterback.

Guenther hated to see both.

Dolphins defensive end William Hayes suffered a torn ACL sacking Raiders quarterback Derek Carr. Hayes reportedly sought to avoid a roughing penalty, so he stuck out his right leg to ease his body weight on Carr. That’s when the tear occurred.

Raiders rookie defensive tackle Mo Hurst knocked quarterback Ryan Tannehill to the turf. His body weight fell over Tannehill when completing what Guenther called a “form tackle.” Two players were penalized on that play; Hurst for roughness and a Dolphins tight end for holding. Those calls offset, so a third-down incompletion was replayed. Wide receiver Kenny Stills converted with a 34-yard touchdown catch.

“I feel bad for the players,” Guenther said. “I feel bad for the officials. It’s tough to watch, and we saw a guy on the other team get hurt trying to avoid landing on the quarterback. The way I understood it is if you have a guy — you’re sacking the quarterback, and you intentionally try to put your weight on him, to me, that’s what the rule is for, you know?

“The quarterback, I’m all for player safety. And I understand that they’re high-paid guys, but a high-paid pitcher who gets a line drive back to his face and gets hit on his shoulder, or a high-paid batter is hit on a high fastball — I mean, there’s risks to all of this stuff. But it cost us seven points and the ballgame the other day, and to me, when I saw the play, there were seven guys around the quarterback — there’s four or five guys around the quarterback — and we’re just tackling. It’s a form tackle, and nothing was intentional about the sack.”

Guenther also discussed the size and athleticism of such quarterbacks as Tannehill, whose traits render them difficult to tackle.

Thus, some measure of force must be used to complete a given play.

The league instructs defenders to roll away from a quarterback when knocking him to the turf.

“I guess he’s got to turn to the side, and it’s hard,” Guenther said. “And all of a sudden, now you turn to the side, and the quarterback gets out of the grasp, and he’s running, and I’m yelling at the kid for that. It’s just frustrating, and I just think, again, it’s going to be the last time I talk about it. I just think it’s gotten a little bit out of control with just all the clarity of everything and what we’re doing. And I just wish we made the rules a little bit simpler and got back to football the way we know it was.

“That’s my rant for the day.”

More Raiders: Follow all of our Raiders coverage online at reviewjournal.com/Raiders and @NFLinVegas on Twitter.

Contact reporter Michael Gehlken at mgehlken@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GehlkenNFL on Twitter.