One NFL team is proposing an end to the tush push play the Philadelphia Eagles have used so successfully at the goalline and in short-yardage situations, including during their victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in this year’s Super Bowl. According to NFL Network, league executive Troy Vincent said on Monday that a team submitted a proposal to ban the play, in which teammates push Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts to gain the yardage necessary for a first down or touchdown. Vincent didn’t identify the team, but the NFL Network later said it was the Green Bay Packers.
Green Bay Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy called the tush push “bad for the game” after the Packers were eliminated by the Eagles in the playoffs. “There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less,” Murphy wrote on the Packers’ website. “I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the run.”.
Bills coach Sean McDermott, a member of the competition committee, on Monday mentioned player safety concerns – even though Buffalo have used a version of the play. “The way that the techniques that are used with the play, to me, have been potentially contrary to the health and safety of the players,” McDermott said at the NFL scouting combine. “You have to go back through, in fairness, to the injury data on the play, but I just think the optics of it I’m not in love with.”.
McDermott didn’t say whether he favored a rule change. Although the Bills were mostly successful when they used the tush push in short-yardage situations last season, quarterback Josh Allen was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-one late in Buffalo’s 32-29 loss to Kansas City in the AFC championship game.
