Patrick Mahomes is someone who certainly benefits from roughing the passer calls, but even he thinks there are times where it goes over the top.
Roughing the passer has been the subject of quite a bit of controversy lately, and it stretched to the Chiefs on Monday night.
Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones stripped the ball from Derek Carr shortly before the end of the first half. He recovered the ball, but was flagged for roughing the passer – with the official saying he landed with all his weight on Carr.
In his weekly interview on “The Drive,” Mahomes was asked about the uptick in roughing the passer calls.
“There are certain situations it shouldn’t be called and it gets called, but it’s like anything in the league, man," Mahomes said. "Those guys are watching film and trying to do their best to call the game the best way possible and not affect it. There’s got to be a little bit of common sense along the lines of Chris Jones.
“He stripped the ball, I know some of his body weight lands on him, but he breaks the ground and he was holding the ball in the other hand. So there’s only so much you can do as a defensive lineman to try to get off the quarterback whenever you have a clean shot on him.
“There are definitely times where it should be called. … It’s a hard penalty to call, but the refs continue to learn. They’ll continue to learn from their mistakes and continue to officiate the games the best way possible.”
While those calls might be with player safety in mind, it is beginning to become a little too commonplace. And with a rise in players complaining about those flags, we'll see if the referees change their habits anytime soon.
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