Joe Mixon calls out NFL, NFLPA after suffering injury from hip-drop tackle: 'Put your money where your mouth is'

Texans running back Joe Mixon isn't happy with the league's lack of enforcement on hip-drop tackles — and he's letting them know it.

The 2024 NFL season was supposed to be the first year that hip-drop tackles were penalized. The tactic was part of the new rule changes agreed to by the NFL and the NFLPA.

However, early in the campaign, it appears as though it is an ongoing issue. Mixon called out the NFL and the NFLPA after he was injured during the Texans' 19-13 win over the Bears on "Sunday Night Football."

Here's what you need to know.

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Joe Mixon calls out NFL after injury drop hip-drop tackle

Mixon called out the league and the NFLPA on social media following the "Sunday Night Football" win after suffering an injury from an apparent hip-drop tackle.

"The NFL and NFLPA made it a rule and an emphasis for a reason," Mixon said. "Time to put your money where your mouth is."

In a follow-up post, Mixon claimed he asked the referee why there was no flag called on the play, and the official reportedly told him the tackle was not a hip-drop one.

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Joe Mixon injury update

Mixon appeared to suffer the injury after absorbing a hit from T.J. Edwards.

The Texans running back caught a throw from QB C.J. Stroud and turned upfield and beyond the first down marker. He was met by Edwards, who pulled Mixon back, and the RB appeared to get his lower leg caught underneath Edwards' body.

Mixon reached around his ankle area at the play's conclusion and hobbled to the sidelines. He limped into the medical tent and stayed in there for some time.

After being examined by Houston's medical personnel, he made his way into the locker room on his own power. Houston announced that Mixon was "questionable" to return to Sunday's contest with the ankle injury.

After missing a series, Mixon checked back into the game, seemingly no worse for the wear. However, he exited the game for good ahead of the next series.

Following the conclusion of Sunday's game, head coach DeMeco Ryans told reporters that Houston has more evaluating to do to figure out the severity of Mixon's ailment, according to ESPN's DJ Bien-Aime . Mixon is getting an MRI on his ankle on Monday, per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero .

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What is a 'hip-drop tackle?'

A hip-drop tackle is when a defender wraps up an offensive player on the side or from behind, becoming deadweight while often landing on the player's legs. The technique has become popular as players get faster and stronger, giving smaller defenders a chance in a league that continues to award more advantages to offenses.

"What's happening on the hip-drop is the defender is encircling tackling the runner and then swinging their weight and falling on the side of their leg, which is their ankle or their knee," Rich McKay, the chairman of the NFL's competition committee, said before the season.

The play is officially defined in Rule 12, Section 2, Article 18 as follows:

ARTICLE 18. HIP-DROP TACKLE. It is a foul if a player uses the following technique to bring a runner to the ground:

(a) grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms; and

(b) unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee.

Penalty: For a Hip-Drop Tackle: Loss of 15 yards and an automatic first down.

Mixon may be the first player to vocalize his disappointment with the enforcement of the rule, but there appear to have been other hip-drop tackles that have gone uncalled early in the 2024 season.