Some might expect a fellow quarterback such as Tom Brady to sympathize with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes regarding the criticism he’s faced for deliberately baiting defenders into hitting him.
Well, those people would be wrong.
“When quarterbacks become running backs, and they’re out of the pocket, they should lose their protection,” Brady said on a recent episode of The Herd with Colin Cowherd.
“We’re trying to protect the quarterbacks, but coaches are calling more quarterback runs than ever in the history of the game. So, who is protecting the quarterback? We’re trying to say the referees should do it?”
Controversy came back to the fore last weekend when Mahomes became the beneficiary of two extremely questionable calls in which Mahomes was barely touched, which hurt the Texans in a close game they lost, 23-14.
Both plays resulted in 15-yard penalties, one of which led directly to a score.
Another play saw Mahomes slow down before running out of bounds to initiate contact with two defenders. Then, he dramatically flung himself to the ground, hoping to draw a flag. Though the referee did not throw the flag, the play drew criticism from Hall of Famer and ESPN color analyst Troy Aikman, who criticized Mahomes on the air.
Brady lamented the position defenders find themselves in when it comes to making plays and balancing that with protecting the quarterback.
“The reality for me is offensive players need to protect themselves. If they’re running full speed and the defender’s coming up — the only way to turn the ball over is to create force. You’re not going to blow on the football and knock its way out of a running back’s hands or a quarterback’s hands,” Brady said.
“You’ve gotta go there with force and knock it out. You’re trying to create turnovers. You’re trying to disrupt the passer. You’re trying to dislodge the ball. The only way to do that is with force. There needs to be an aggressiveness to doing that.”
Brady also examined the issue from the defender’s perspective, as the defender is trying to protect himself from taking hits.
“If you don’t wanna get hit, you can go down, you can run out of bounds,” Brady said. “But you can’t, in essence, have the defensive player come in at half speed, and then you run over the defensive player because he’s afraid of getting a penalty. It’s a disservice to the game. It’s something that I’d hope people really address. Not that anyone’s trying to take advantage of the rules, but they’ve gone to a point where it does impact the quality of the game.”
The Chiefs take on the Bills at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday at 6:30 EST.