Ask Farmer: Why are so many players’ helmets coming off this year?

Have a question about the NFL? Ask Times NFL writer Sam Farmer, and he will answer as many as he can online and in the Sunday editions of the newspaper throughout the season. Email questions to: sam.farmer@latimes.com

Why are so many players having their helmets come off this year? Did something change in helmet design that’s causing this?

David Himmel, Palm Springs

Farmer: It does seem as if that has happened frequently, including twice in Thursday’s game between Buffalo and the New York Jets. The NFL does keep count of “non-voluntary helmet removals” but those numbers are not made public.

After Thursday’s game, I asked Bills linebacker Nigel Bradham about how it happened to him. He said his helmet popped off when a Jets player reached under his facemask and pried it off his head.

“It’s happened to me a couple times, actually,” he said. “It guess it’s just part of the game. I mean, there’s only two straps holding it on, so I guess it’s going to happen.”

The fit of a helmet can be affected by the hair on top of a player’s head, as well as facial hair. San Diego safety Eric Weddle has had trouble snapping his chin strap at times because of the fullness of his beard. I asked New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. about how he likes to wear his helmet.

“It can come off at any time, maybe if you’re just hit the right way,” he said. “For me, the tighter the better. I like it snug on there, like a glove. So tight it’s close to giving me a headache.”
From a coach’s and player’s perspective, why is it so important for the offense to identify “the Mike?” We hear quarterbacks at the line of scrimmage all the time, “51’s the Mike!” Why is this one linebacker, the “mike” so important to the blocking schemes?
Don Franco, Coto De Caza
Farmer: It happens on virtually every play, the quarterback points to a linebacker and identifies him as the Mike, short for middle linebacker. Here’s an explanation from former NFL quarterback Rich Gannon, the league’s most valuable player in 2002:
“You’ve got five offensive linemen to block five big bodies. In passing situations, whether it’s in a base defense or their nickel defense, most teams play some form of four down linemen. So when you make that ‘Mike’ declaration as a quarterback, you’re simply telling everybody — but particularly the five offensive linemen — ‘I want you to block the four big men, and the Mike.’ When you declare who the Mike is, then that tells the back in the backfield who to block. It might be his assignment to block the first player to the right of the Mike, or maybe the first player to the left of the Mike. So he scans the field and looks for that player to block.
The ‘Mike’ declaration basically defines your protection, and it allows everybody — receivers, remaining backs, whoever — to know who they have to pick up or what they need to do.”