For all its flaws, the prior version of the catch rule created a sense of symmetry with the rule against hitting defenseless receivers in the head or neck area. If the player had the ball long enough for the catch to be completed, he was no longer defenseless, and if he was no longer defenseless, he had the ball long enough for the catch to be completed.
That’s no longer the case.
The latest officiating video from NFL senior V.P. of officiating Al Riveron includes two instances where a receiver had completed the catch by taking a third step but was still protected against a blow to the head or neck area.
This is one of the practical realities of making it easier to make a catch, especially when taking a third step is enough to get it done. Taking that third step doesn’t equate, in the league’s view, to being “capable of avoiding or warding off the impending contact of an opponent.”
From the standpoint of the defensive player, nothing really changes. The receiver still can’t be struck in the head or neck area until he is able to defend himself. However, from the standpoint of the offensive player, that 15-yard penalty will more often be attached to the spot of the catch, and not from the original line of scrimmage, because the catch will have been completed before the ball is jarred loose.
And if the ball is now jarred loose and the defense recovers it, the illegal hit on the defenseless player will wipe out that change of possession.