Over the years, the NFL has made significant strides in making the game of football a far safer one due to the implementation of the guardian caps. And now, the league is seemingly planning to make a change to the way players block in order to limit lower-body injuries.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the league will look to outlaw the low block. Moving forward, an effort will be put in place to make sure that blocks are above the knee and below the neck, which NFL exec Troy Vincent said in a statement to Pelissero.
“Every block should be above the knee but below the neck,” said Vincent. “This is the right time to remove the low block out of the game.”
This comes just a few days after the Dallas Cowboys lost star linebacker DeMarvion Overshown for the remainder of the season and perhaps even longer.
In their Monday Night Football matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals, Overshown was blocked around the knees, which resulted in him tearing his ACL, PCL, and MCL in his right knee.
According to recent reports, Overshown may miss the 2025-26 season on top of the remainder of this season.
On top of this, Vincent added that the league is also looking at changing the rules on onside kicks, though it is unclear what change in particular to the onside kick the league is potentially looking at making.
Notably, only three onside kicks have been recovered this season. So perhaps the league is looking at making onside kicks more easily recoverable.
Obviously, all fans would love to see as few devastating knee injuries as possible.
Potentially getting rid of low blocks could go a long way in doing so depending on how severe of a penalty low blocks receive in the future.
