Report: NFL has support to ban Tush Push within competition committee

The “tush push” now has some support to be banned, according to the latest from the NFL competition committee, per ESPN’s Kayln Kahler. It has been a “hotly contested” issue.

The Green Bay Packers had the original proposal to ban the play and it has support within the competition committee. The tush push is run successfully by the Philadelphia Eagles while others don’t nearly have the same success.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni already sent a playful, but forceful message to his former assistants who are now head coaches. He wants them to vote in support of the play sticking around of course.

“The league office staff presented the rules proposals during the football operations meeting Sunday afternoon, and two sources in the meeting described the back and forth as ‘heated’ regarding the proposal to ‘prohibit an offensive player from pushing a teammate who was lined up directly behind the snapper and receives the snap, immediately at the snap,’” Kahler wrote. “During the Sunday afternoon session, Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, assistant general manager Jon Ferrari and two head coaches on the competition committee, Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams and Sean McDermott of the Buffalo Bills, gathered in a hallway outside of the ballroom to have a private and animated side conversation about the Packers’ proposal.”

Tush Push has support to be banned within committee

Clearly, Sirianni isn’t the only one who thinks the proposal is ridiculous. Others cite the play as a safety issue, such as Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott, despite no data supporting that claim as of now.

The Eagles first introduced the play in 2022, aided by their elite offensive line and strength of quarterback Jalen Hurts. However, Philadelphia was highly successful at the standard quarterback sneak with Hurts and others dating back to their first Super Bowl win in 2017.

According to CBS Sports’ Jeff Kerr, here are the conversion percentages from 2017 to ‘21: 100%, 88.9%, 86.7%, 71.4% and 92.9%. Overall, the Eagles had an 87.3% conversion rate and ranked No. 1 in the NFL among teams who attempted a QB sneak for a first down 30-plus times.

“I can’t tell you how many times we’ve practiced the snap, we’ve practiced the play — it’s not a play that’s easy to practice, so there’s different ways we’ve figured out how to practice it — the complements that come off of it that can create explosive plays,” Sirianni said of the tush push, per ESPN. “The fact that it’s [portrayed] as an automatic thing, we work really hard, and our guys are talented at this play, and so it’s a little insulting to say we’re good at it so it’s automatic. We work really hard at it.”

If the proposal goes to a vote, 24 of the 32 NFL owners would have to vote in favor for it to pass, per ESPN. The NFL competition committee has examined the play in previous years, but no changes have been made. ESPN Research noted that the Eagles have run 108 Tush Push plays since 2022.