Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

Pete Carroll, Geno Smith want the NFL to ban hip-drop tackles

By Michael Gallagher | Last updated 10/3/23

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll likely held his breath as he watched his quarterback Geno Smith get tackled out of bounds by New York Giants safety Isaiah Simmons in the second quarter of their “Monday Night Football” matchup.

Simmons grabbed Smith from behind and rode him out of bounds using a hip-drop tackle in which he twisted Smith’s body and drug to the ground while the brunt of Simmons’ weight came down on Smith’s ankles — a play that Carroll took exception to and vented about during a radio appearance on Seattle Sports 710.

Geno Smith showed his frustration after Isaiah Simmons tackled him on the sideline #SEAvsNYG pic.twitter.com/d0trgckmkc
— ESPN (@espn) October 3, 2023

“I don’t even care about the penalty, we’ve just got to get that out of ball because it’s so dangerous and we’re so lucky that Geno didn’t get just wiped out because he could have easily,” Carroll said. “I think if a flag would have been thrown it would have been different for him. The fact that it wasn’t thrown, it just kept him riled up.”

Smith was equally infuriated by the play, echoing Carroll’s sentiment about needing to remove it from the game during a postgame interview with ESPN’s Lisa Salters.

“You guys can see it; it was a dirty play,” Smith said. “There’s no place in this sport for that and hopefully something happens.”

Fortunately for the Seahawks, Smith returned to the game not long after the hit and he appears to have suffered minimal damage from the incident — a silver lining considering how bad the tackle looked during the live broadcast.

Smith completed 13 of 20 passes for 110 yards and a touchdown. Backup Drew Lock completed two of his six passes for 63 yards in relief.

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