PALM BEACH, Fla. — Opinions around the NFL are still split on the Tush Push as the play’s fate hangs in the balance.
The play, which has been seemingly automatic for the Philadelphia Eagles — and much less so for other NFL teams — could be banned when NFL owners vote on a proposal Tuesday morning at the league’s annual meetings. The proposal from the Green Bay Packers would make the push element of the play illegal.
The proposal would need support from 24 of 32 owners to pass and it’s unclear if it will get there.
“My position hasn’t really changed at all,” Bills head coach and Competition Committee member Sean McDermott said on Monday morning at The Breakers resort. “Where I’m most concerned is, even though there’s not significant data out there to this point, my biggest concern is the health and safety of the players, first and foremost.”
In late February, NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said there were zero injuries on the play in 2024, which would seemingly put an end to the argument that the play is dangerous.
But the Packers in their proposal cited player safety, and that is still the biggest factor in the conversation to make the push element illegal. McDermott said being “proactive” is important.
Here's the official rule-change proposal from Green Bay to ban the Tush Push, citing player safety and pace of play. It would take 24 of 32 votes to change the rule. pic.twitter.com/jlfFXlhINd
— Dave Zangaro (@DZangaroNBCS) March 19, 2025
“There’s not a big enough sample size to point to the statistics,” said Steelers head coach and fellow Competition Committee member Mike Tomlin. “But I’m just, I and everyone else, are just listening to the perspective of the medical experts as opposed to statistics. Because we just don’t have a large enough sample size in terms of the number of times the play has been executed.”
Without data showing injuries, what are McDermott’s primary concerns with the play?
“It’s added force, No. 1,” McDermott said. “And then the posture of the players, being asked to execute that type of play. That’s where my concern comes in.”
It’s clear that opinions are still split on the play as it comes to a vote on Tuesday morning. McDermott’s Bills are actually one of the only other teams in the NFL to find success with the play. Typically, the Competition Committee doesn’t like to outlaw plays that just a select group of teams use. Chairman Rich McKay has said as much.
On Sunday at the league meetings, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni told NFL Network that he expects to have the support of Shane Steichen and Jonathan Gannon to keep the play alive. Former Eagles coordinators, Steichen is the head coach of the Colts and Gannon is the head coach of the Cardinals. And while owners — not coaches — are the voters, their support would help.
Steichen at the AFC coaches breakfast on Monday morning said Sirianni has spoken to him about the play and the proposal.
“Of course he has,” Steichen said. “Yeah, I’m not in favor of taking it out. I think it’s good for the game. I think that what they do, obviously they do it better than anyone. Other teams are doing it, Buffalo’s doing it.
“I think it’s been around for a long time, to be completely honest because when you’re on the half-yard line, backed up, you gotta run a QB sneak, people are usually back there pushing. They just brought it to the field of play a couple years ago. I’m in favor to keep it.”
Steichen on Monday wasn't the only coach in favor of keeping the play.
"To eliminate a quarterback sneak from getting pushed, I don’t know that it’s something that needs to be legislated out of the game," Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said. "The injury data’s not there for it, so I would be in favor of keeping the rules as they are. You’re welcome, Coach Sirianni."
The Eagles have held the position that they shouldn’t be penalized for being successful at something. At the Combine a month ago, Sirianni defended the play, specifically all the work his team put into making it so successful for them.
There was also a proposal to ban the play in its current form two years ago. Off the Eagles’ first Super Bowl appearance under Sirianni, that proposal didn’t reach the voting stage. But it has remained a topic of conversation in league circles since the Eagles began to run it several years ago.
“The first time I saw it, I couldn’t believe that it was legal because it was illegal on the field goal,” Tomlin said. “That being said, you hate to be against it because when people are innovative, you want to respect that. So there’s certain groups of teams that have been more innovative than the rest of us in that regard. And you hate to penalize them for it. But again, we got into the discussion on the field goal block because of player safety and so that still remains to be a component of the discussion.”
The language in the Packers proposal is a tad ambiguous but Steichen said it seems like that’s part of what folks have been working through in these meetings.
When asked if he’d still run the play if it isn’t outlawed, McDermott intimated that he would run a version of it but perhaps a tweaked version. The Eagles would likely still be good at a traditional quarterback sneak, even without the push element.
“I believe both teams can be just as good in the traditional form of a quarterback sneak and they’ve shown that over the years,” McDermott said. “Philadelphia and us. Both teams have shown that and that’s also why I partly believe what I believe.”
