Packers Propose NFL Ban on Eagles’ Tush Push Play

The Philadelphia Eagles are not even a month removed from winning the Super Bowl, but that hasn’t stopped one team from trying to limit one of the champion’s advantages. On Tuesday, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst confirmed that his team submitted a proposal to ban the “tush push”.

Gutekunst’s confirmation comes just one day after Troy Vincent — the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations — told reporters at the scouting combine that a team had filed a proposal to ban the play. While Vincent didn’t reveal the team involved, reports surfaced late Monday that the Packers were said team. Speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, Gutekunst didn’t shy away from Green Bay’s move.

“I know we’re not very successful against it, I know that. But to be honest with you, I have not put much thought into it. It’s been around for a while,” Gutekunst said. “We’ve used it in different fashions with our tight end [Tucker Kraft]. I think there will be a lot of discussions about it. I’ve got to kind of look at some of the information as far as injury rates and things like that, but we’ll see.”

Philadelphia’s effective quarterback sneak has drawn the ire of many across the league. Speaking to The Washington Post, Vincent acknowledged the proposal and the thought process behind examining the tush push.

“We do have a club playing-rule proposal around the tush push,” Vincent said. “It’s the way they deemed it, the tush push. … It’s on our agenda. The club proposal is, ‘We need to make some adjustments to that. Is that a viable football play?'”

With the proposal officially sent to the NFL, a vote may be held at the annual league meeting next month. All 32 owners will meet next month in Palm Beach, Florida. Unless Green Bay withdraws its proposal, the owners will vote to decide the legality of the tush push. In the event that the proposal goes to a vote, 24 of the 32 owners would be required to vote in favor of the proposal in order for it to pass.

This won’t be the first time the play will be looked at by the league and the competition committee, but there may be more traction this offseason than in previous ones. While the Eagles are the team predominantly linked to the play, the Buffalo Bills have also utilized the tush push frequently.

Over the past three seasons, the two teams have combined to run 163 tush pushes. According to ESPN Research, that is more than the other 30 teams combined. Remarkably, 87% of the tush pushes have resulted in either a touchdown or a first down for the Bills and Eagles. The other 30 teams have been successful far less — ESPN Research found a 71% success rate for the rest of the league.

One of the more intriguing statements to come out of the combine on Monday came from Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott. Despite his team’s efficiency running the play, McDermott sees issues with the tush play.

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 being used, especially a year ago. So, 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. It’s just that play to me has always been … or the way that the techniques that are used with that play, to me have been potentially contrary to the health and safety of the players. And so again, you have to go back though in fairness to the injury data on the play, but I just think the optics of it, I’m not in love with.

In a conversation with ESPN, McDermott spoke on the difference between how his team and another runs the play.

“We do it a little bit different than other teams. One team in particular, who does it a certain way, that’s the one that is really, there’s just so much force behind that player, but yeah, you try and keep … not try, you make No. 1 always everything we do, fundamentals, what we teach technique, in this case, what we ask our players to do, health and safety No. 1.”

There is no denying Philadelphia’s success running the play and members of the organization, including head coach Nick Sirianni, don’t believe any changes should be made. The proposal figures to be a focus of the league meeting next month, a point Vincent solidified at the combine.

“Hip drop and the tush push were in the same conversation three years ago,” Vincent said, according to NFL Network. “A year ago, we felt like, let’s just focus in on the hip-drop tackle, and the tush push, just say, ‘hey, the Philadelphia Eagles, they just do it better than everybody else.’ But there are some concerns. Our health and safety committee has laid that out today with a brief conversation on the injury report. There’s some challenges, some concerns that they’ll share with the broader group tomorrow. But the tush push will become a topic of discussion moving into March.”