One NFL team is proposing an end to the tush push play the Philadelphia Eagles have used so successfully at the goal line and in short-yardage situations, including during their victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59.
According to NFL Network and the Washington Post, league executive Troy Vincent said Monday that a team submitted a proposal to ban the play, a modified quarterback sneak where two teammates behind Jalen Hurts push him forward to help him try to gain the yardage necessary for a first down or touchdown. Vincent didn’t identify the team.
NFL owners could vote on the proposal when they meet next month in Florida.
The tush push has become synonymous with the Eagles. Perhaps no example summed up how much the play can be a challenge for Eagles opponents quite like when Philadelphia used it against Washington in the NFC championship game. The Commanders jumped offside four times in a sequence of five plays while trying to stop the tush push — earning them a warning from the referee that he could award the Eagles a touchdown if the Commanders did it again.
Green Bay Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy called the tush push “bad for the game” in a message posted on the team’s website after the Packers were eliminated by the Eagles in the playoffs.
“There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less,” Murphy wrote. “I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the run.”
Bills coach Sean McDermott, a member of the competition committee, on Monday mentioned player safety concerns — even though Buffalo has used a version of the play.
“The way that the techniques that are used with the play, to me, have been potentially contrary to the health and safety of the players,” McDermott said at the NFL scouting combine. “You have to go back through, in fairness, to the injury data on the play, but I just think the optics of it I’m not in love with.”
McDermott didn’t say whether he favored a rule change. Although the Bills were mostly successful when they used the tush push in short-yardage situations last season, quarterback Josh Allen was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-1 early in the fourth quarter of a 32-29 loss to Kansas City in the AFC championship game.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.