Defensive players have complained for years that the NFL has continually changed its rules to open things up for offenses. And most of the time, the defensive players had a legitimate complaint. The league has been all about having more scoring to increase television ratings.
At least until this season.
When the NFL made pass interference plays reviewable in replay, the assumption was that it would cause an increase in defensive pass interference calls. The opposite has been true. There have been 110 defensive pass interference calls this season, an average of .909 per game. Last season, there were 249 called, an average of .932 per game. So, defensive pass interference calls are slightly down.
Offensive pass interference penalties?
They're up. Way up, in fact.
There have been 58 called already this season, meaning the league is on pace for 128 offensive pass interference penalties called. There were 85 all of last season. There also have already been 409 holding penalties assessed this season, with another 106 declined. The league said it wanted to put a greater emphasis on calling those penalties this season. Last season, there were 735 assessed and 168 declined. The league is on pace for 903 assessed and 234 declined.
And players aren't happy about it.
"They put emphasis on these things and they get called more. You could call holding on every single play if you really look into it," David DeCastro told me. "I don’t know what you do. I don’t care too much. You try and keep your hands inside and get them out quicker. I don’t know what they’re doing outside with the receivers. It’s a whole different ballgame with the hand fighting and stuff. Where do you stop with that?"
The Steelers' 10 accepted holding penalties is fifth fewest in the NFL. But their five offensive pass interference penalties leads the league. The crazy thing is that they run fewer pick plays than some other teams.
Either way, the offensive penalties hold back scoring. And that goes against everything the league has been about in the past couple of decades.
"The problem is with most of these is are they egregious? Do they affect the play?" DeCastro said. "If he’s on the backside, the guy is not making the tackle anyway. At the point of the tackle, yeah, that’s a real call. They’re smart. They should be able to figure that out. At the end of the day, it’s about money. If you start to (tick) off the fans, ‘What’s up with all of these holding calls?’
"It’s holding up the games, you’ve got a guy like (Tom) Brady tweeting about it, that’s when you’re going to start hopefully seeing things change."
MORE STEELERS
• Devlin Hodges posted a video of himself playing the Duck Hunter video game last week. He was shooting left-handed. "I shoot left-handed. When I play baseball, I swing left-handed. When I golf, or try to golf, since I'm not very good, I do it left-handed. Really, I can swing from both sides, but I'm better from the left side." He obviously throws a football right-handed. And when he first started hunting, he shot right-handed. But soon after shooting his first deer, he and his father realized he was left-eye dominant. So he made the change. "I think it helps me as a quarterback," he told me. "When I'm back to pass, my left eye is in front. I think it helps me see the field better." -- Lolley
• Ryan Switzer has 50 career receptions, including 44 with the Steelers. Of wide receivers with at least 50 career receptions, his average of 6.4 yards is the lowest in NFL history. That hasn't been helped by his 3.4 yards per catch this season. Johnny Holton has played 105 snaps this season and been targeted with five passes but has yet to catch a pass. Is it any wonder the Steelers haven't released Donte Moncrief yet? Next to those two, Moncrief's 4.5 yards per catch — on his four receptions this season — makes him a deep threat. This roster was built with the idea that Ben Roethlisberger would help make the receivers better. But without Roethlisberger, it's a pretty thin group. -- Lolley
PENGUINS
• The Penguins got a seventh-round draft choice in 2021 and minor-league forward Andreas Martinsen from Anaheim in exchange for defenseman Erik Gudbranson a week ago. That didn't seem like all that much of a return, but the deal netted the Penguins another asset that wasn't mentioned in any announcement of the trade -- and it's one that will pay off for them long before Martinsen or the draft choice will: Salary cap space. By sending Gudbranson's $4 million contract to the Ducks, Jim Rutherford opened enough space that he will not be forced to make any cap-related personnel moves when Evgeni Malkin is activated from Long-Term Injured Reserve, which is expected to happen before the Penguins play Edmonton Saturday at 1:08 p.m. When forward Sam Lafferty was returned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Thursday to keep the major-league roster at the 23-man limit when Malkin returns, it pared his $767,500 deal from the Penguins' NHL payroll. Adding Malkin's $9.5 million cap hit will bump the team's cap total (unofficially) to about $78,050,000, well below the ceiling of $81.5 million for 2019-20. That is thanks to the space created by the Gudbranson trade. -- Dave Molinari
• Although Sidney Crosby has grown and evolved -- as a player and as a leader -- during his time with the Penguins, Mike Sullivan believes Crosby is basically the same guy he was when Sullivan replaced Mike Johnston as coach nearly four years ago. "I don't think he's changed any," Sullivan said. "I think maybe our relationship has changed, between the two of us, over the time I've been here. I think that's a natural evolution. When you have an opportunity to build relationships with people, it tends to change over time, for the better. We've developed a good relationship over the last four years. I certainly have a lot of respect for him, as a player and as a person, and I value his input." -- Molinari
• Jack Johnson was the Penguins' leading shot-blocker last season, as noted in this story. Because he does it so often -- and has done it for so long -- Johnson has a pretty good grasp of all that's involved in doing it effectively. And of some of the finer points of minimizing the risk of being injured in the process -- including one detail that might seem obvious, but could be easy to overlook during the chaos of a game. "I try to not turn sideways, because when you're facing the shot, all of your equipment is in the front," he said. "If you turn sideways -- or turn your back -- there's no equipment there." -- Molinari
• Rutherford has been a pretty busy guy this fall -- overseeing an NHL club tends to be a time-consuming job -- but he's found time to address an issue that couldn't be put off indefinitely: His Hockey Hall of Fame induction speech. "It's done," he said. Rutherford, though, declined to offer any details of the message he plans to deliver during the induction ceremony Nov. 18 in Toronto. Although Rutherford was an NHL goaltender for parts of 13 seasons, two-plus of which he spent with the Penguins, he will enter the Hall as a Builder. He has worked in front offices for more than a quarter century and has won three Stanley Cups as a GM. -- Molinari
PIRATES
• The early stages of the search for a new general manager, from everything I gathered following a few outreaches Thursday, are exactly that: Early. Even some of the most obvious candidates confirmed for me they hadn't yet heard from Bob Nutting or Travis Williams. If there's any takeaway from that, it's that Nutting and Williams, per how they sounded Monday, are completely starting from scratch with no preconceived notion of a person, or even a profile. -- Dejan Kovacevic
• One impression I have gotten from within 115 Federal is the new GM won't exist at one extreme or the other between scouting and analytics. Nutting acknowledged to me that the bulk of the input he's received about the way the Pirates were being mismanaged came from the outside. And that should be obvious, it's still instructive in that Major League Baseball, across the scope of all 30 teams, is skewing away from hardcore analytics in choosing people for such positions. Analytics are still colossally important and valued, but the point I'm making is the prioritization of having that individual at the very top of baseball ops. That's what's beginning to change. Also, given Williams' lack of experience within baseball, the new GM had better be deeply versed in all aspects of GM'ing, not just the application of data. -- DK
• Although there's no timetable for a new GM, one reasonable target would be MLB's General Managers Meetings, Nov. 11-14, in Anaheim, Calif. It would be at least a bit odd for the Pirates to be represented by an interim GM in Kevan Graves. -- DK
• Yes, both of the minor personnel moves made this week came from Graves. -- DK
• It'll be painted in some quarters that this was the Pirates turning to the Penguins for help. It isn't the case. From everything I've been told on both sides of the river, this was about Nutting reaching out to Williams and nothing more. -- DK
• Those who worked under Neal Huntington -- many of them good, talented baseball people -- are still employed, including Kyle Stark. But as I've been writing since Monday, Stark and many others will be out when the new GM takes over. This is standard operation. It was the same when Huntington took over for Dave Littlefield and canvassed the people already in-house and kept more than a few. Stark won't be one of those. In the interim, all concerned have an opportunity to put out feelers for other jobs and, ideally, find them. -- DK
