NFL senior VP defends roughing the passer call against Chiefs in video sent to all 32 teams

The NFL's officiating office sent a video to all 32 teams Wednesday in which senior vice president of officiating administration Perry Fewell backed the controversial roughing the passer penalty called against Kansas City Chiefs Chris Jones during the Week 5 "Monday Night Football" contest vs. the Las Vegas Raiders. In the video, Fewell narrated, as a replay of Jones' strip-sack of Raiders quarterback Derek Carr was being shown.

"The Kansas City defender executes his rush plan in his effort to sack the quarterback," Fewell said in the video, according to a report from Kalyn Kahler of The Athletic. "He lands with his full body weight on the drive to the ground. A quarterback in the pocket, in a passing posture, gets full protection until he can defend himself. This was a properly called foul for roughing the passer."

Kahler adds to the report that Fewell did not mention in the video the fact that "the ball was loose when Jones swatted it out of Carr’s hand, or that Jones can be seen using his left hand to brace himself as he goes to the ground."

The video also included eight examples of "legal quarterback hits," which were narrated by director of game initiatives Stephen Bowen, who played 10 seasons in the NFL as a defensive end from 2006 to 2015. Bowen highlighted Las Vegas defensive end Maxx Crosby for two plays from the same game.

In the first instance, Bowen says Crosby “does a great job of wrapping up his quarterback and doesn’t do anything unnecessary to jeopardize his team.” In the second one, he says Crosby “does a great job on the power rush on this play and doesn’t unnecessarily throw the quarterback to the ground.”

It was reported on Tuesday that the NFL would be discussing roughing the passer penalties in the near future, but changes to the rule were not expected to come this season.