Latest news with #TushPushing
The Herald Scotland
23-05-2025
- Sport
- The Herald Scotland
Eagles' 'Tush Push' survives: Winners, losers of NFL owners' vote
So after years of study by the league's competition committee, input from coaches and a vote tabled as recently as two months ago, the Tush Push lives on ... for at least another season - which means it's time to declare winners and losers of this verdict: WINNERS Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Famers Salt-N-Pepa said it best - "push it real good" - and Philly's offense surely has complied. According to the NFL's Next Gen Stats, the Eagles converted 28 of 34 Tush Push attempts (82%) last season before using it on the 1-yard line to score the first touchdown of Super Bowl 59, a game Philadelphia never trailed. The Eagles also repeatedly resorted to their signature surge, which is typically used in goal-line and short-yardage situations, to bludgeon the Washington Commanders 55-23 in the NFC championship game - left tackle Jordan Mailata declaring victory in his team's patented brand of "mental warfare." Philadelphia began Tush Pushing with regularity in 2022 and has reached the Super Bowl in two of the past three seasons. The Eagles are obviously adept at it, have a daunting offensive line that averaged 6-6 and 338 pounds last season - the largest unit ever fielded on Super Sunday - and a quarterback, Jalen Hurts, who knows how to use his explosively strong legs to burrow behind all that humanity ... while often getting propelled himself by teammates. It should remain a competitive advantage the team enjoys. Until the league says otherwise. POWER RANKINGS: Field still chasing Philly Jalen Hurts' fantasy owners Sorry, Tom Brady, Hurts has become the greatest short-yardage quarterback in NFL history. Since 2022, he has rushed for 42 touchdowns in the regular season - two-thirds of those (or 28) from the 1-yard line, including 11 from that distance in each of the past two campaigns. (In 10 career playoff games, Hurts has run for 10 TDs - four in Super Bowls - matching his total through the air.) Over that same period, Philadelphia has consistently been at or near the top of the league in converting third and fourth downs, never executing worse than 41% on third down or 68% on fourth. Hurts may never be the league MVP given his relative inconsistency as a passer, but he's now got a Super Bowl MVP award in his trophy case ... and just might be the key to countless fantasy championships. Kevin Patullo Meet Philadelphia's new offensive coordinator, who replaced Kellen Moore, now the head coach of the New Orleans Saints. Pretty nice for Patullo, 43, a first-time OC two decades into his coaching career, that a bread-and-butter component of this team's attack remains at his disposal for the immediate future. And it should also be noted that the play enables the Eagles to mix in shot plays during third-and-short scenarios - sometimes out of the Tush Push formation - with the relative security that if a deep strike gambit fails, a fresh set of downs will very likely be earned on the subsequent snap. Jason Kelce Whether or not the Eagles' legendary - if former - center was instrumental in the stay of execution for the Tush Push, he was present as the owners convened Wednesday morning after vowing to clarify his stance on the merits and safety of the play, which he obviously supports. Regardless, Kelce gets to look like the closer ... and also doesn't have to wind up at the bottom of a pile with 1,000 pounds or more on top of him. Tampa Bay Buccaneers While the Tush Push vote took up all the oxygen at this week's ownership confab, the only NFC team to beat the Eagles in the past three postseasons quietly benefited from the Detroit Lions' tabling of their proposal to seed the playoffs by overall record, irrespective of who wins each division. Despite going 27-24 in the regular season since 2022, the Bucs have won the NFC South thrice - and played at home in the playoffs each of those seasons. Under Detroit's plan, Tampa Bay would not have never been seeded higher than sixth during that span. The world? As the NFL continues expanding its international footprint - it will stage a record seven regular-season games across five countries this season (including Spain and Ireland for the first time) - it retains what some contend is a rugby-style play in its collective arsenal. And, hey, folks in Europe and many other countries fancy rugby far more than American football, so why not give them something to glom onto? And don't forget, the league is holding a regular-season game for the first time next year in Oceania - specifically Australia - where rugby is massive. Maybe that keeps the Tush Push off death row until at least 2027. LOSERS Green Bay Packers NFL needed 24 votes today to ban the Tush Push, but got only 22. Here are the 10 teams that voted against the Tush Push ban, per sources: ????Eagles ????Ravens ????Browns ????Lions ????Jaguars ????Dolphins ????Patriots ????Saints ????Jets ????Titans — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 21, 2025 If this had been a Congressional bill, then the Pack would have been cast as the (Democratic?) sponsors - whether because they truly abhor the Tush Push, have been fairly inept at executing their own version of it, and/or simply don't have an owner who looks like the bad guy for targeting a signature aspect of Philadelphia's recent success. Regardless, the Packers, who modified the language of the proposed rule change as recently as Monday - attempting to pave a runway for the league to restore a measure which prevented players from pushing and pulling their teammates to advance the ball that had existed in the rulebook up until 2005 - couldn't get the votes for their "constituents," falling two shy of adoption, according to multiple reports. When you forget the snap count on the QB sneak. Poor Jordan Love. ???????? #NFL — Steelers Depot 7? (@Steelersdepot) September 18, 2023 Saquon Barkley's fantasy owners "Losers." Right. If the league's best back and reigning rushing champion winds up on your fantasy roster this fall, then you'll doubtless be thrilled. But how much more thrilled would you be if his quarterback wasn't leading the Eagles in rushing touchdowns, which very likely wouldn't have been the case had the Tush Push been banned? NFL head coaches and coordinators The NFL is infamous for being a copycat league - assuming you can copy the cat. That really hasn't happened much when it comes to other teams' ability to replicate the Tush Push or certainly stop it. "You know, you hate to be against it because people are innovative. You want to respect that. And so there's certainly been some teams that have been more innovative than the rest of us," longtime Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said at the league meeting in March. Added rookie New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn, formerly the Lions' defensive coordinator: "They've done a good job creating a play that's unstoppable." He added, "In my defensive coaching mentality, my job is to stop that play. Our job is to stop that play." Be better in that department, fellas ... if you want to be better than Philly. Cam Jurgen and Landon Dickerson With Kelce retired for a year, this duo carries on as Philadelphia's best interior battering rams, er, offensive linemen. And, while it may be coincidental, don't forget that Jurgens, now the starting center, and Dickerson, who plays left guard, each managed to play just one half apiece in the NFC title game earlier this year. Both Pro Bowlers needed surgery this offseason, Jurgens suffering from a bad back while Dickerson needed his knee repaired. But they'll again be hurtling into defensive walls soon enough. Player safety? Though Jurgens' and Dickerson's situations may or may not be cautionary, there's no data to support that the Tush Push is a play fraught with injurious risk even if it's been widely cited as a preemptive reason to get rid of it. The Eagles, unsurprisingly, unfailingly vouch for its safety, reporting no Tush Push injuries in practice or on game days. "I think for everybody, including myself especially, health and safety is the most important thing when evaluating any play," owner Jeffrey Lurie said at the NFL meetings earlier this spring, via the Athletic. "We've been very open to whatever data exists on the Tush Push, and there's just been no data that shows that it isn't a very, very safe play. If it weren't, we wouldn't be pushing the Tush Push." However, per reports, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wanted the Tush Push axed after years of publicly prioritizing the health and well-being of the league's players in an inherently violent sport. Time will tell if the injury concerns prove prophetic or unfounded. Super Bowl aspirants Wednesday's news wasn't good for the Packers, Commanders or Chiefs, who all got steamrolled by Philadelphia in last season's playoffs. Aside from the Eagles, the Buffalo Bills use a version of the Tush Push more than any other club in the league - but even they have essentially come out against it, coach Sean McDermott among those with misgivings about its safety (which is also convenient when your team can't successfully leverage the play to secure a victory at Arrowhead Stadium with a Super Bowl berth on the line). The league's 31 non-champions aren't necessarily playing for second in 2025, but they're certainly no closer to knocking the Eagles off their Lombardi perch. All NFL news on and off the field. Sign up for USA TODAY's 4th and Monday newsletter.
USA Today
21-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Winners, losers of NFL's 'Tush Push' vote: Eagles not only ones to benefit from retention
Winners, losers of NFL's 'Tush Push' vote: Eagles not only ones to benefit from retention Show Caption Hide Caption NFL players can now partake in Olympic flag football Olympic flag football, which will make it's debut at the 2028 summer games, just got bumped up a level after the NFL agreed to let its players partake. Sports Pulse In the end, there just wasn't enough pushback. NFL owners decided Wednesday that the so-called 'Tush Push' play that's been used to such great effect in recent years by the Philadelphia Eagles, who most recently employed it in their Super Bowl 59 rollover of the Kansas City Chiefs, will remain legal. Despite the latest, well, push from some corners of the league to outlaw the play – or at least reinstate a rule that was dropped 20 years ago – the effort was once again staved off, barely failing to secure the 75% of ownership votes required to make the change. But after years of study by the league's competition committee, input from coaches and a vote tabled as recently as two months ago, the "Tush Push" lives on … for at least another season – which means it's time to declare winners and losers of this verdict: WINNERS Philadelphia Eagles Salt-N-Pepa said it best – 'push it real good' – and no one does it better than Philly. According to the NFL's Next Gen Stats, the Eagles converted 28 of 34 Tush Push attempts (82%) last season before using it on the 1-yard line to score the first touchdown of Super Bowl 59, which they never trailed. They also repeatedly resorted to the Tush Push, which is typically used in goal-line and short-yardage situations, to bludgeon the Washington Commanders 55-23 in the NFC championship game. Philadelphia began Tush Pushing with regularity in 2022 and has reached the Super Bowl in two of the past three seasons. The Eagles are obviously adept at it, have a daunting offensive line that averaged 6-6 and 338 pounds last season – the largest unit ever fielded on Super Sunday – and a quarterback, Jalen Hurts, who knows how to use his explosively strong legs to burrow behind all that humanity. It should remain a competitive advantage the team enjoys … until the league says otherwise. POWER RANKINGS: Field still chasing Philly Jalen Hurts' fantasy owners Sorry, Tom Brady, Hurts has become the greatest short-yardage quarterback in NFL history. Since 2022, Hurts has rushed for 42 touchdowns in the regular season – two-thirds of those (or 28) from the 1-yard line, including 11 from that distance in each of the past two campaigns. (In 10 career playoff games, Hurts has run for 10 TDs – four in Super Bowls – matching his total through the air.) Over that same period, Philadelphia has consistently been at or near the top of the league in converting third and fourth downs, never executing worse than 41% on third down or 68% on fourth. Hurts may never be the league MVP given his relative inconsistency as a passer, but he's now got a Super Bowl MVP award in his trophy case … and just might be the key to countless fantasy football championships. Kevin Patullo Meet Philadelphia's new offensive coordinator, who replaced Kellen Moore, now the head coach of the New Orleans Saints. Pretty nice for Patullo, 43, a first-time OC two decades into his coaching career, that a bread-and-butter component of this team's attack remains at his disposal for the immediate future. And it should also be noted that the play enables the Eagles to mix in shot plays during third-and-short scenarios – sometimes out of the "Tush Push" formation – with the relative security that if a deep strike gambit fails, a fresh set of downs will very likely be earned on the subsequent snap. Jason Kelce Whether or not the Eagles' legendary – if former – center was instrumental in the "Tush Push's" stay of execution, he was present as the owners convened Wednesday morning after vowing to clarify his stance on the merits and safety of the play, which he supports. Either way, Kelce gets to look like the closer … and also doesn't have to wind up at the bottom of a pile with 1,000 pounds or more on top of him. Tampa Bay Buccaneers While the Tush Push vote took up all the oxygen at this week's ownership confab, the only NFC team to beat the Eagles in the past three postseasons quietly benefited from the Detroit Lions' tabling of their proposal to seed the playoffs by overall record, regardless of who wins each division. Despite going 27-24 in the regular season since 2022, the Bucs have won the NFC South thrice – and played at home in the playoffs each of those seasons. Under Detroit's plan, Tampa Bay would have never been seeded higher than sixth during that span. The world? As the NFL continues to expand its international footprint – it will stage a record seven regular-season games across five countries (including Spain and Ireland for the first time) this season – it retains what some contend is a rugby-style play. And, hey, folks in Europe and many other countries love rugby far more than American football, so why not give them something to glom onto? And don't forget, the league is holding a regular-season game for the first time next year in Oceania – specifically Australia – where rugby is massive. Maybe that keeps the Tush Push off death row until at least 2027. LOSERS Green Bay Packers A ban of the tush push play that the Eagles have popularized did not receive enough votes at the spring meeting Wednesday. Sources told @AdamSchefter that the final vote was 22-10 on the proposal, which was submitted by the Packers. The proposal needed 24 votes to pass.… — ESPN (@espn) May 21, 2025 If this had been a Congressional bill, then the Pack would have been cast as the (Democratic?) sponsors – whether because they truly abhor the Tush Push, have been fairly inept at executing their own version of it, and/or they simply don't have an owner who looks like the bad guy for targeting a signature aspect of the Eagles' recent success. Regardless, the Packers, who modified the language of the proposed rule change as recently as Monday – attempting to pave a runway for the league to restore a measure which prevents players from pushing and pulling their teammates to advance the ball that had existed in the rulebook until 2005 – couldn't get the votes for their 'constituents,' falling two votes shy, according to multiple reports. When you forget the snap count on the QB sneak. Poor Jordan Love. 🤣😂 #NFL — Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) September 18, 2023 Saquon Barkley's fantasy owners 'Losers.' Right. If the league's best back and reigning rushing champion winds up on your fantasy roster, then you're doubtless thrilled. But how much more thrilled would you be if his quarterback wasn't leading the Eagles in rushing touchdowns, which very likely wouldn't have been the case had the "Tush Push" been banned? NFL head coaches and coordinators The NFL is infamous for being a copycat league – assuming you can copy the cat. That really hasn't happened much when it comes to other teams' ability to replicate the "Tush Push" or stop it. 'You know, you hate to be against it because people are innovative. You want to respect that. And so there's certainly been some teams that have been more innovative than the rest of us,' longtime Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said at the league meeting in March. Added rookie New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn, formerly the Detroit Lions defensive coordinator: 'They've done a good job creating a play that's unstoppable.' He added, 'In my defensive coaching mentality, my job is to stop that play. Our job is to stop that play.' Be better fellas ... if you want to be better than Philly. Cam Jurgen and Landon Dickerson With Kelce now retired for a year, they carry on as Philadelphia's best interior battering rams, er, offensive linemen. And, while it may be coincidental, don't forget that Jurgens, now the center, and Dickerson, who plays left guard, each managed to play just one half apiece in the NFC title game earlier this year. Both needed surgery this offseason, Jurgens suffering from a bad back while Dickerson needed his knee repaired. But both will be hurtling into defensive walls soon enough. Player safety? Though Jurgens' and Dickerson's situations may or may not be cautionary, there's no data to support that the "Tush Push" is a play fraught with injurious risk even if it's been widely cited as a preemptive reason to ban it. The Eagles, unsurprisingly, vouch for its safety, reporting no "Tush Push" injuries in practice or on game days. 'I think for everybody, including myself especially, health and safety is the most important thing when evaluating any play,' Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said at the NFL meetings earlier this spring, via the Athletic. 'We've been very open to whatever data exists on the 'Tush Push,' and there's just been no data that shows that it isn't a very, very safe play. If it weren't, we wouldn't be pushing the tush push.' However, per reports, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wanted the Tush Push axed after years of publicly prioritizing the health and well-being of players in an inherently violent sport. Time will tell if the injury concerns prove prophetic. Super Bowl aspirants Wednesday's news wasn't good for the Packers, Commanders or Chiefs, who all got steamrolled by the Eagles in last season's playoffs. Aside from the Eagles, the Buffalo Bills use a version of the Tush Push more than any other team in the league – but even they have essentially come out against it, coach Sean McDermott among those with misgivings about its safety (which is also convenient when your team can't leverage the play to play victory at Arrowhead Stadium with a Super Bowl berth on the line). The league's 31 non-champions aren't necessarily playing for second in 2025, but they're certainly no closer to knocking the Eagles off their Lombardi perch. All NFL news on and off the field. Sign up for USA TODAY's 4th and Monday newsletter.
USA Today
03-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
'Insulted' Eagles coach Nick Sirianni hits back on 'unfair' proposal to ban 'Tush Push'
'Insulted' Eagles coach Nick Sirianni hits back on 'unfair' proposal to ban 'Tush Push' Show Caption Hide Caption George Kittle on why the 49ers front offense should prioritize OL & DL help in the draft 49ers TE George Kittle says San Fran should target offensive and defensive lineman in the 2025 NFL Draft. Sports Seriously INDIANAPOLIS – Call it a Tush Pushback. At minimum, that encapsulated head coach Nick Sirianni's thinking when asked about the latest, ahem, push to ban what's become a signature play of his reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. He even went so far as saying it would be 'unfair' for the NFL to outlaw a strategy – the Tush Push is essentially a variation of the quarterback sneak, Philly packing in its line while Jalen Hurts is typically propelled forward from behind by other teammates – that's given the Eagles a competitive advantage and decried the notion that it's either unstoppable or that anyone can successfully implement it. 'I've seen some of the stuff (suggesting) that it's an 'automatic' play,' Sirianni said Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine. 'I almost feel a little insulted, because we work so hard at that play. The amount of things that we've looked into how to coach that play, the fundamentals – there's a thousand plays out there, it comes down to how you teach the fundamentals and how the players (execute) the fundamentals. I can't tell you how many times we practice the snap, we practice the play – because it's not a play that's easy to practice, there's different ways we've figured out how to practice it. 'We work really, 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.'' They're certainly effective if not surefire. Since the Eagles started Tush Pushing with regularity during the 2022 season, Hurts has rushed for 42 touchdowns – two-thirds of those (or 28) from the 1-yard line, including 11 from that distance in each of the past two campaigns. During that period, Philadelphia has consistently been at or near the top of the league in converting third and fourth downs, never executing worse than 41% on third down or 68% on fourth. Those figures become more daunting in short-yardage scenarios and certainly near the goal line. Hurts' 1-yard push into the end zone opened the scoring in Philadelphia's Super Bowl 59 rout of the of Kansas City Chiefs earlier this month. But it's not, in fact, automatic. 'It wasn't a hundred percent for us this year, we missed on some two-point conversions from the one (yard line), we missed on some third downs, we missed on some fourth downs. I think we were in the eighty percent (range),' said Sirianni. 'Just because it's a successful play for us doesn't mean that it should go away.' But that could be under consideration at next month's annual league meeting after the Green Bay Packers submitted a proposal to ban the play. 'Obviously I'm protective of it because we've had success with it, but again I think that the competition committee will do a good job of looking at everything,' said Sirianni. And one thing the competition committee – and anybody in the NFL – would have to concede is that the Eagles have built one of the most talented and formidable offensive lines in recent history. Philadelphia's starting five in Super Bowl 59 averaged 6-6 and 338 pounds, the largest unit ever fielded on Super Sunday. Right tackle Lane Johnson is close to a Hall of Fame lock. Left tackle Jordan Mailata is quickly building his own impressive résumé. Center Cam Jurgens and left guard Landon Dickerson are among the league's best at their respective positions. And with instruction from legendary O-line coach Jeff Stoutland and the positional resourcing provided by executive vice president and general manager Howie Roseman, there can be a feeling of inevitably when this group is in its blocking groove. Mix in occasional fakes the Eagles use out of the alignment or deep shots they'll take on third down knowing the percentages might favor them on fourth-and-short, and Sirianni knows it's a deadly formula. 'I think that it's a skill that our team has because of the players that we have, the way the coaches coach it,' added Sirianni, who closely studies how other clubs use their own versions of it. He also noted how other teams' inability to leverage the play – meaning the Buffalo Bills – was costly during conference championship weekend. 'Again, there's so much time put into it,' he continued. 'The fact that it's a successful play for the Eagles and people want to take that way I think is a little unfair.' Yet it can invite a chaotic response. The Washington Commanders repeatedly encroached trying to defeat the Tush Push during the NFC championship game – to the point that officials threatened to award the Eagles a touchdown. Mailata said the sequence devolved into "mental warfare." Some also contend that the play can be inherently dangerous with so much condensed humanity moving in one direction amid restricted space. "There's always been injury risk, and I've expressed that opinion over the last couple of years when it really started to come into play the way it's being used, especially a year ago," Bills coach Sean McDermott said Monday. "It's just that play to me – 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. Again, you have to go back in fairness to the injury data on the play, but I just think the optics of it, I'm not in love with." It's another argument Sirianni downplays. 'We've looked into that, too, there wasn't a lot of injuries there,' he claimed. 'I think that's a little made up to be honest. … I can't remember one injury we've had on that play, and we've (run) it more than everybody else. 'I'm all for player safety for that … I think that's just something that's said, but I don't think the numbers on that play suggest that.' He'll know soon enough if the important numbers – competition committee votes – remain advantageous to the Eagles or not. All NFL news on and off the field. Sign up for USA TODAY's 4th and Monday newsletter.
