You may not be a fan of the “Tush Push,” but Eagles coach Nick Sirianni certainly is, and he thinks the proposal to ban the controversial play is “unfair.”
Speaking to reporters Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine, Sirianni dismissed concerns that the play poses an injury hazard to defenders and scoffed at the notion that it is an “automatic” first down.
“I almost feel a little insulted because we work so hard at that play,” Sirianni said. “The amount of things that we’ve looked into how to coach that play, the fundamentals. There’s 1000 plays out there, but it comes down to how you teach the fundamentals and how the players go through the fundamentals. . . . The fact that it’s a successful play for the Eagles and people want to take that away, I think, is a little unfair.”
The Philadelphia Eagles began using the play in 2022, setting records for fourth-down conversions and extending drives that would have otherwise ended in punts. Essentially, the play is a quarterback sneak with a running back and tight end lined up behind the quarterback to push him forward. With Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley able to squat over 1,300 lbs combined, the play almost always gained the necessary yard or two to receive a fresh set of downs.
The Green Bay Packers have proposed to have the “Tush Push” banned.
“There is no skill involved, and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less,” Packers CEO Mark Murphy wrote on the team’s website. “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.”
For the Packers’ proposal to succeed, it would require the votes of 24 teams.
