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News, Blog and GuidesThe NFL appears to have taken a firm stance on an action that some coaches in the league felt was illegal. Ironically, they were the same ones using it.
Paul RudderEnglish_ASUpdate: Aug 2nd, 2024 08:41 EDT0
ANDY LYONSAFP
By changing the rules the NFL has seemingly sided with a handful of teams over others and while it remains to be seen how that will affect the strategy of said teams, what is almost certain is that we’ve not heard the last of this.
NFL addresses ‘cheat’ move with rule change
Until they lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion, Kansas City Chiefs, in the Wild Card Round last season, the general consensus was that the Miami Dolphins had the most potent offense in the league. Indeed, head coach Mike McDaniel’s name had become synonymous with creative offensive strategies that saw the Dolphins doing all manner of damage to their opponents including a 70-20 mauling of the Denver Broncos. Yet, there was one particular move that McDaniel implemented that left others not so much in awe, but rather quite bothered about it.
Mike McDaniel will enter the 2024 NFL season as football’s premier trendsetter 👨🔬👇Last year, it only took a few weeks for every team to copy and paste his ‘Cheat motion’ into their playbook. Giving the fastest playmaker on the field a generous amount of pre-snap speed to… pic.twitter.com/13LpQETUFz
— Cole Topham (@crtopham_) June 20, 2024
The move in question was a pre-snap motion which allowed quick players such as wide receiver Tyreek Hill to enjoy even greater success. As you can probably guess, it wasn’t long before questions were being asked and critiques were being made including San Francisco 49ers coach, Kyle Shanahan, who even referred to the movement as a “cheat” at one point during the season. Now, we can safely say that the league has taken that position as well. What that means, is that starting in 2024, the Dolphins will be penalized should they continue to use the ploy. Regarding what the NFL’s new rule is, you can see it below:
“If an eligible receiver who is on the line of scrimmage moves backward or changes his stance (two point to three point or conversely) and does not come to a complete stop before the snap, it is a false start. Any eligible backfield player who changes his stance does not have to come to a complete stop prior to the snap, as long as his actions are not abrupt (false start) or forward (illegal motion).”
It’s important to note that the words you see in bold are those that the league added specifically to deal with the Dolphins’ move ahead of the 2024-25 season
OK, but what exactly were the Dolphins doing?
As you can understand from the above-stated rule, the NFL is targeting a motion that is enacted prior to the snap. In the video of the Dolphins below, you can see that it typically involves one of Miami’s receivers – quite often Tyreek Hill – starting to angle toward the line of scrimmage just before the snap. Now, what’s interesting is that after the Dolphins utilized the tactic in Week 1 of last season, both the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers began to do the same.
Mike McDaniel used "cheat" motion 7 times in Week 1, mainly with Tyreek Hill.Sean McVay & Kyle Shanahan come back the next week and run a similar concept with Tutu Atwell and Deebo Samuel.The motion gives the WR a running start into his route.It's a copycat league. pic.twitter.com/NmOan6gK1S
— Kyle Posey (@KP_Show) September 28, 2023
There is of course a degree of irony in that choice, given that the Niners’ coach is the person who brought the move into focus in the first place. To his credit Shanahan was quick to admit the copycat nature of the league, stating without issue that he stole the idea from the Dolphins last season. “The [Dolphins] did that in Week 1 with a little cheat motion,” Shanahan said. “We did it in Week 2 after we saw it. The Rams did it about three times versus us in Week 2. …It looks hard to stop people like Tyreek and Deebo [Samuel] and stuff with a running start.”
