Sam Bradford didn't appreciate Terrell Suggs hitting him in the knee during the first quarter of Saturday's 40-17 Philadelphia Eagles win over the Baltimore Ravens.
Suggs was flagged on the play, but NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino told NFL Network's Preseason HQ on Monday morning that the hit on Bradford was legal and should not have resulted in a penalty because it occurred on a read option play.
"We clarified this really in 2012 with the proliferation of these read option schemes and basically because the quarterback has an option, he's considered a runner until he either clearly doesn't have the football or he reestablishes himself as a passer," Blandino said. "So, it's not a foul by rule. It's something that we will make sure we cover with our game officials because the defensive end coming off the edge, he doesn't know if the quarterback is going to keep it, he doesn't know if he's going to take off and run or drop back and so we treat the quarterback in that instance as a runner until he clearly reestablishes as a passer or he clearly doesn't have the football."
Blandino's clarification backs up Suggs' comments after the contest:
"When you run the read option, you have to know the rules," Suggs said, via The Baltimore Sun. "If you want to run the read option with your starting quarterback that's had two knee surgeries, that's on you. That's not my responsibility to update you on the rule."
It's fair to wonder whether Kelly will have to ditch some of his read option plays with Bradford -- who, after two ACL surgeries, zero outsiders view as a threat to run at this stage -- to make sure defenses don't get free licks on his injury-prone quarterback, especially during the preseason.
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