Charbonnet was adjudged to have illegally lowered his helmet while blocking Kerby Joseph.
The Seattle Seahawks lost their first game of the season on Monday, and second-year running back Zach Charbonnet just got his first fine of his career.
In the NFL’s weekly fines report, Charbonnet was docked $45,020 for illegally lowering his helmet to initiate contact on Detroit Lions safety Kerby Joseph. This was on the first play of the second half of Seattle’s 42-29 defeat at Ford Field. Seattle used a two-back set with Kenneth Walker carrying the ball, and Charbonnet serving as a blocker.
The Charbonnet “lowering the helmet” penalty from both All-22 angles, at 0.5 speed.
By rule, I think this is a penalty. But the NFL has shown zero consistency applying this rule ever since it was implemented in 2018. pic.twitter.com/xtnZ5Xd591
— Mookie Alexander (@mookiealexander) October 5, 2024
Here is the NFL rulebook on illegal helmet use:
ARTICLE 10. IMPERMISSIBLE USE OF THE HELMET.
It is a foul if a player:
(a) lowers his head and makes forcible contact with his helmet against an opponent; or
(b) uses any part of his helmet or facemask to butt or make forcible contact to an opponent’s head or neck area.
These provisions do not prohibit incidental contact by the mask or the helmet in the course of a conventional tackle or block on an opponent.
Illegally lowering the helmet/launching into a player with the helmet carries a fine of $22,511 for a first-time offense, and $45,020 for a second offense. Having combed over the NFL’s punishment log for 2023, there is no record of Charbonnet being previously fined. It’s therefore puzzling that Charbonnet got a fine this large, unless he’d received a prior warning for his first offense in lieu of a fine.
The good news for Charbonnet is that he can appeal this ruling and potentially get the fine rescinded. Cases are heard by appeals officers and former NFL players Derrick Brooks, Ramon Foster, Kevin Mawae, or Jordy Nelson.
The “lowering the helmet” penalty was introduced in 2018 and expanded in 2023. It is almost never called in-game and is generally called on either defensive players or running backs. In 2022, half of the “lowering the helmet” fines were rescinded, and only five flags were thrown in 2023 for this specific infraction. None have been called in 2024, but 16 players have been fined after the fact. One of the fines was against Lions safety Brian Branch the week prior, and I don’t understand why Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride didn’t get a fine.
The NFL fined #Lions S Brian Branch $10,128 for unnecessary roughness/use of helmet last week on the play that put Branch and #Cardinals TE Trey McBride in concussion protocol.
Branch was fined another $10,128 for a separate incident in the game. pic.twitter.com/YZhcB0HkJM
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 28, 2024
Charbonnet was the only Seahawks player fined this week. Trevis Gipson and McClendon Curtis were not fined for their respective face mask penalties. The Detroit Lions had Jameson Williams docked $14,069 for dunking the ball through the goalpost after his 70-yard touchdown. Dunking the ball a la Tony Gonzalez has long been banned ever since Jimmy Graham broke the goalpost in 2013. Levi Onwuzurike’s roughing the passer on Geno Smith in the fourth quarter cost him $13,849.