Besides planning to create a rule against the chop block, it appears the NFL Competition Committee will also recommend a rule to make life safer for defensive backs when they meets with the owners next week in Phoenix.

The New York Times reported Monday that the committee will propose a rule against running backs lowering their heads to use their helmets as battering rams. The rule is aimed at taking away such a move in the open field and anything like it outside of the tackle box.

The N.F.L. has discussed a rule to prohibit runners from lowering their heads into defenders since at least 2009. That season, Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson had lowered his shoulder and head to little more than a foot off the ground, delivering a brutal hit to the helmet of Detroit safety Louis Delmas. At the time, Peterson said he thought it was insane to tell running backs they could not lower their heads into defenders — a technique running backs often use to gain a few extra yards, by using their heads as battering rams.

But even to the naked eye, such a play looks dangerous and the N.F.L., buffeted by concussion lawsuits filed by more than 4,000 former players and their families, has gradually taken steps to eliminate plays it believes present the most risk. In one famous play in 1987, Raiders running back Bo Jackson lowered his head and shoulder into Seahawks linebacker Brian Bosworth, pushing him backward into the end zone. Under the proposed rule, that play might draw a penalty on Jackson.

– Bill Bradley, contributing editor