Packers’ proposal to ban Philadelphia Eagles’ tush push has support, report says
The Green Bay Packers’ proposal to ban the Philadelphia Eagles’ signature tush push play has support, ESPN reported on Sunday.
The report comes as teams gather for the NFL’s annual league meetings in Palm Beach, Florida, this week and after The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported on Friday that momentum to ban the tush push is “growing.”
ESPN reported that Green Bay’s proposal will be “hotly contested” as the competition committee is set to vote on the tush push on Tuesday morning.
The Packers have been openly against the play after they were eliminated by the Eagles in the wild card round of the playoffs.
Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy called the tush push “bad for the game” in a message posted on the team’s website after Green Bay was eliminated by the Eagles in the playoffs in January.
“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.”
ESPN reported on Sunday that Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, assistant general manager Jon Ferrari, two other head coaches on the competition committee, Rams head coach Sean McVay and Bills head coach Sean McDermott gathered to have a private and animated side conversation about the Packers’ proposal.
The Packers have listed two reasons in their proposal to ban the play: Player safety and pace of play. But ESPN reported that there’s no injury data to support the ban.
“It’s not backed by data,” a club executive told ESPN. “It was all subjective.”
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni hopes his former assistant coaches will have his back as the league votes to potentially ban the tush push on Tuesday.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Sirianni told NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo on Sunday with a grin. “All I will say about it is (Jonathan) Gannon, (Shane) Steichen and (Kellen) Moore better vote for it. They are in the (head coach) position right now because of that play. So all three, I better have those three votes right there and the Eagles’ vote. I at least know we have four.”
Gannon and Steichen were a part of Sirianni’s initial coaching staff in Philadelphia, and the trio made a run to the Super Bowl in the 2022 season, which led to them each landing head coaching gigs with the Arizona Cardinals and Indianapolis Colts. In February, Moore helped Sirianni win the Super Bowl over the Kansas City Chiefs, and he departed to become the New Orleans Saints’ head coach.
For the play to be prohibited, at least 24 teams would need to vote for the ban.
Sirianni said at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis that he was “insulted” because the Eagles “work so hard at that play.”
Under Sirianni, the Eagles have made the tush push popular and succeeded at a higher rate than other teams in the NFL. Last season, they converted 39 of their 48 tush push plays into either a first down or touchdown, including in the playoffs.
Since the 2022 season, the tush push has been reviewed each offseason, but this is the first time a team has submitted a rules proposal to eliminate or restrict it.