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Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Marqise Lee suffered a nasty-looking injury against the Atlanta Falcons which saw him carted off the field. Lee picked up the injury following a low hit by second-year Falcons safety Damontae Kazee, whose helmet made contact with Lee’s knee.
After the game, though, Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey didn’t put the young defensive back, who was flagged for the play, on blast. Instead, he blamed the NFL’s new helmet rule and its detrimental influence on how players must now play.
“You can't be mad at 27 [Kazee],” cornerback Jalen Ramsey said per ESPN’s Michael DiRocco. “You have to be mad at the NFL; not mad at them, but that is how the rule is. People are scared to tackle normal because I guess they don't want to do helmet-to-helmet and get flagged. … Game-changing stuff could happen. You don't really want to blame anyone, but you feel bad for him.
“I don't know, man, that's just tough to see it happen to one of my teammates, period, but you can't really blame 27.”
Ramsey isn’t the first defensive player to raise this concern about the new helmet rule, and it’s hard to argue with him. With the NFL becoming much more strict in terms of calling helmet-to-helmet hits, defensive players will naturally look to avoid them as much as possible, which means going low more often.
It remains to be seen what steps — if any — the league takes in addressing those concerns. Because as things stand right now, injuries like the one Lee suffered could be a lot more commonplace.
