Chris Godwin injury: Tackle that led to Buccaneers WR dislocating ankle being reviewed for hip-drop violation

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost their game on Monday night against the Baltimore Ravens, but they suffered an even more devastating loss in the form of star wide receiver Chris Godwin’s dislocated ankle. Late in the game and with the team in desperation-comeback mode, Godwin reeled in a 21-yard catch on a Baker Mayfield catch and, when brought to the ground, suffered an injury that was gruesome enough that the ESPN broadcast refused to show a replay.

Now, the hit that brought him down is being reviewed by the league as a potential hip-drop tackle, CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones confirms. The hip-drop was banned this past offseason after several players, including but not limited to Tony Pollard and Mark Andrews, sustained serious injuries as a result of being hip-drop tackled over the last few years. (Joe Mixon also suffered an injury earlier this season on a play he said should have been flagged as a hip-drop.)

The new rule banning it prescribed that:

It is a foul if a player uses the following technique to bring a runner to the ground:

• Grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms; and unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg at or below the knee.

The penalty will be considered unnecessary roughness, which will be 15 yards and an automatic first down. 

Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith, who tackled Godwin on the play, was not flagged for unnecessary roughness, nor were the Ravens penalized 15 yards. If the league review finds that it was a hip-drop tackle, though, Smith will be subject to a league-imposed fine. The league said last week that it had reviewed 22 potential hip-drop tackles through Week 6 and issued seven fines, per NFL Media, but that none of the plays had met the four criteria to be flagged during the game.