'Tush Push' pushback against Eagles? Here's a simple solution for not-so-tough NFL whiners

‘Tush Push’ pushback against Eagles? Here’s a simple solution for not-so-tough NFL whiners

Posted by author February 26, 2025 NFL

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INDIANAPOLIS − Once again, the Eagles‘ famous “Tush Push” play is under siege, facing pushback, as it were, from the very people who espouse physicality and toughness: i.e., other NFL teams.

Already this week, several NFL coaches and/or general managers were asked at the NFL scouting combine about whether they think it should be banned. And the best reason they can come up with amounts to basically, “We can’t stop it, so no one should be allowed to use it.”

Sure, Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott brought up injury concerns. Why wouldn’t he? Josh Allen, who’s 6-foot-5, 240 pounds, was 0-for-4 on “Tush Pushes” in the AFC championship game.

That included a controversial fourth-down stop early in the fourth quarter. The Chiefs turned that miss into a touchdown. The Bills lost 32-29, thus enabling the Kansas City Chiefs to face the Eagles in the Super Bowl.

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Yet here’s what McDermott said at the combine Monday:

“To me, there’s always been an injury risk with that play, and I’ve expressed that opinion for the last couple of years or so when it really started to come into play the way it’s been used, especially a year ago,” McDermott said. “I just feel like player safety, and the health and safety of our players, has to be at the top of our game, which it is.”

The Bills, of course, ran the play more times than any other team not named the Eagles. Allen, meanwhile, played in every game last season and was named the league’s MVP.

And then there are the Green Bay Packers, the team that this week proposed banning the play, something NFL owners could take up at their annual meeting March 30. In the meantime, NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent said the league would study the impact of injuries.

Why did Packers propose a ban on Eagles’ Tush Push?

Here’s what Packers CEO Mark Murphy wrote on the team’s website in response to a question about the Tush Push:

“I am not a fan of this play. There is no skill involved, and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less. The series of plays with the Commanders jumping offsides in the NFC Championship Game to try to stop the play was ridiculous. The referee even threatened to give the Eagles an automatic touchdown if the Commanders did not stop it.

“I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the runner (QB) on this play. There used to be a rule prohibiting this, but it is no longer enforced because I believe it was thought to be too hard for the officials to see.

“The play is bad for the game, and we should go back to prohibiting the push of the runner. This would bring back the traditional QB sneak. That worked pretty well for Bart Starr and the Packers in the Ice Bowl.”

The Packers, it should be noted, ran the play twice behind tight end Tucker Kraft, who’s 6-5, 259 pounds, during their 22-10 wild-card round playoff loss to the Eagles. Kraft converted both attempts, one of them coming on fourth-and-1.

The Baltimore Ravens also used their tight end, Mark Andrews, to convert a fourth-down Tush Push against the Eagles on Dec. 1. And that was despite having the NFL’s best running quarterback in Lamar Jackson and running back Derrick Henry, who ran for 1,923 yards, second only to the Eagles’ Saquon Barkley.

Clearly, if teams want to protect their quarterbacks, as the Ravens did for Jackson and the Packers did with Jordan Love, they can use a different player such as a tight end.

Is Tush Push a question about injuries or Eagles’ success?

That brings us back to the original question: Why ban a play that is proven to work? And not only for the Eagles, although it does work more for the Eagles than anyone else.

That, of course, has a lot to do with quarterback Jalen Hurts, who’s the one getting pushed. Hurts, at 6-1, 223 pounds, is shorter and more compact than Allen. Hurts is also much more powerful as he has famously squatted 600 pounds. Plus, Hurts has 332-pound left guard Landon Dickerson, center Cam Jurgens and massive right guard Mekhi Becton to, um, sneak behind.

None of them were injured running that play, at least not to the point where they had to miss games.

“I think that’s a little made up, to be honest,” Sirianni said about the injuries. “Now the numbers will tell the truth (from the NFL study), but I don’t think there were many injuries with it this year. I can’t remember one injury that we had on that play, and we ran it more than anybody else.

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“I’m all for player safety and all that. … I think (the injuries) are something that’s said, but I don’t think the numbers on that play suggest that.”

What else would be banned by the NFL?

Is the NFL basically trying to ban a play because it (checks notes) works better for the Eagles than anybody else? Even though other teams can, and have, make it work for them − and they don’t have to use their quarterback to do it.

If that’s the case, should the NFL ban Patrick Mahomes from throwing side-armed when he’s on the run? Or Lamar Jackson from pump-faking when he takes off?

Or why not force teams to go 11 yards for a first down instead of 10? As in the movie “Spinal Tap,” when Nigel Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest, is asked why the volume knob on his guitar amplifier goes from 0-to-11 instead of 0-to-10.

“It’s one louder, isn’t it?” he replied incredulously.

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on X @Mfranknfl.