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The NFL Should Ban the Tush Push for 2025

Photo of Scott Kacsmar Scott Kacsmar27/02/2025 - 09:53 am
NEW ORLEANS, LA - FEBRUARY 09: QB Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles gets a tush push for a touchdown during Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday February 9, 2025 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, LA.
(Photo by David Buono/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The NFL has received a proposal from the Green Bay Packers to ban the Tush Push, the modified quarterback sneak popularized by the Philadelphia Eagles since the 2022 season that has helped the team reach two of the last three Super Bowls. The NFL said after 2022 that it would not ban the play, but the new proposal will be heard at March’s owner meetings.

If it comes to a vote, it will be very interesting to see which teams are for and against the play. It already has some critics that you might not expect in the Packers and Bills, and we’ll explain below why they are surprising detractors for the Tush Push, otherwise known as the Brotherly Shov0e (a nod to Philadelphia’s nickname ‘The City of Brotherly Love’).

Some feel this ban would punish the Eagles directly for excelling at the play due to their strong offensive line and quarterback. There’s a lot of truth to that, but it’s also true that pushing a ball carrier used to be a penalty and a source of controversy before in football.

It’s also true that the regular quarterback sneak has always been a cheat code that teams are not utilizing enough. Some of the clumsy imitations of the Tush Push around the league should not detract from that fact.

There’s a lot to unpack here and some people are sure to disagree with a ban, but one thing most should agree on is that the Tush Push is aesthetically an ugly play. Aesthetics should play a factor in the decision just as health/safety and fairness should.

Defining the Tush Push

First, let’s make sure we are differentiating the Tush Push from the regular quarterback sneak, which is not targeted for exile. A regular quarterback sneak is when the quarterback lines up under center and picks a spot (up the middle or off a guard) to lunge forward with the ball to usually gain a yard in short-yardage situations. It’s a highly effective play as we’ll show later with data.

Here is Jalen Hurts attempting to run his only quarterback sneak in a short-yardage situation (third or fourth down with 1 yard to go) as an NFL rookie in 2020 against the Saints. It did not go well for the Eagles:

In 2021, Nick Sirianni took over as the Eagles’ head coach, and Hurts was 6-for-6 at running the quarterback sneak that season. But it was only against the Saints, the defense they failed miserably to sneak against in 2020, that the Eagles deployed this tactic of bringing tight end Dallas Goedert in motion to push Hurts forward. Consider it a precursor to the Tush Push.

In Week 1 of the 2022 season, the Eagles were in Detroit and again used a tight end to push Hurts forward on a conversion. They started getting quite good at this, but it wasn’t until Week 6 against the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football when the Eagles went full Tush Push by having two players push Hurts forward, which NBC commentator Cris Collinsworth compared to a “maul” from rugby.

It only gained steam from there with “Brotherly Shove” and “Tush Push” entering the NFL lexicon during the 2022 season. The “Jalen Hurts squats 600 pounds” note has also entered weekly NFL broadcasts, joining things like “Antonio Gates played college basketball” and “Ryan Fitzpatrick went to Harvard.”

The call for the play has become just about automatic for the Eagles in short-yardage situations, and they’re not afraid to do it with a full 2 yards to go, and they’ll do it on first-and-goal from the 1 as they did in Super Bowl LIX against the Chiefs when Hurts scored the opening touchdown. Note how their formation has only gotten more and more compressed with all 11 players packed in there:

How do you stop that play? No one seems to know yet. Making it illegal like it would have been under old rules might be the only way.

Football History: The Bush Push and the 2005 Rule Change

If you’re old enough to remember the “Bush Push” controversy when it happened, then you are old enough to remember why there is already precedent for outlawing the Tush Push.

On October 15, 2005, the USC Trojans were on the road against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a big college football game that lived up to the hype. USC was able to keep its long winning streak alive with a 34-31 win after quarterback Matt Leinart was pushed into the end zone for a touchdown in the closing seconds by running back Reggie Bush, hence the “Bush Push” name the game is known for.

Based on the rules at the time, this play was illegal and should not have been allowed. But no flag was thrown for the running back clearly assisting the ball carrier by pushing him into the end zone.

As fate would have it, 2005 was the same year when the NFL clarified with a rule change that offensive players are no longer prohibited from assisting a runner by pushing him. Before 2005, you weren’t allowed to push, pull, lift, or aid a ball carrier as his offensive teammate, but they found that too difficult to officiate.

So, it’s still valid today that you can’t “pull” an offensive teammate with the ball, but you can push him, which is why the Tush Push has been legal the last three seasons instead of getting penalized every time the Eagles or whoever runs it.

But there is a precedent for banning that type of play.

The Case for Banning the Tush Push in the NFL

The next three sections will lay out the case for why it would be worth banning this play in the NFL.

The Inherent Unfairness of the Tush Push

When you ask someone to devise a way to stop the Tush Push, the best answer seems to be “don’t let them get to a 1-yard-to-go situation” followed by “hope for a false start or fumbled snap.” Yeah, that’s probably the right answer too, but it does nothing to answer the question about stopping the actual play.

That’s because the NFL rules and the rules of physics make the Tush Push an inherently unfair play in favor of the offense.

A defense would stand a better chance if the forward progress rule wasn’t so biased toward offenses. Granted, it makes sense the way forward progress is ruled on a catch. If a receiver catches the ball at their own 40 and is pushed back and ultimately tackled down at the 37 without trying to fight for extra yards, then he gets that forward progress yardage and the offense gets the ball at the 40, a spot they actually reached on the play even if it didn’t end there. That’s fine and logical.

But when you go to a running play, a defense can stop an offense dead in its tracks on that initial surge, but because the officials allow for a second effort and don’t whistle the play dead when you’re stopped cold, you can keep fighting and push forward for that yard you need. Then when you have two players pushing you from behind, that’s a ton of momentum and strength to put a stop to for a yard. Why should the defense have to stop them twice on a single run? It’s not fair.

Meanwhile, if we’re allowing the offense to get leverage with two players pushing the quarterback forward, why can’t the defense counter by having two linebackers push their best defensive tackle forward to create a seal at the point of attack? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?

Except the NFL won’t allow a defense to do that move as they’ll flag it for leverage. That’s why it’s not a level playing field if you’re allowing one side to push from behind and not the other.

Also, if a defender pushes a running back to the ground, they still grant forward progress instead of marking him down where he landed. Again, it’s always heavily slanted in favor of the offense when it doesn’t have to be in this situation.

NEW ORLEANS, LA - FEBRUARY 09: QB Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles gets a tush push for a touchdown during Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday February 9, 2025 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, LA.
(Photo by David Buono/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

No Push Required: The Regular Quarterback Sneak Is a Cheat Code

If it’s third or fourth down and you need 1 yard, any smart NFL team knows running is the best way to convert that down. Sometimes you might still pass because of the clock/situation, or you want to gain a lot more than 1-2 yards, or you think you can trick them with a play-action pass, or you think you can always run it on 4th-and-1 if necessary.

But running has always been king in those short-yardage situations, and in the last three seasons since the Tush Push came on the scene, all league-wide runs on third or fourth down with 1 yard to go have converted 72.0% (2022), 72.8% (2023), and 74.0% (2024) of the time.

But watch what happens when you break those numbers down to runs by quarterbacks and specifically the quarterback sneak:

  • 2022 quarterback runs: 237 conversions on 290 attempts (81.7%)
  • 2022 quarterback sneaks: 187 conversions on 220 attempts (85.0%)
  • 2023 quarterback runs: 215 conversions on 273 attempts (78.8%)
  • 2023 quarterback sneaks: 173 conversions on 216 attempts (80.1%)
  • 2024 quarterback runs: 222 conversions on 263 attempts (84.4%)
  • 2022-24 quarterback runs: 674 conversions on 826 attempts (81.6%)

Note: I’m not counting Taysom Hill as a quarterback for the Saints here as he’s their Swiss army knife, and I don’t have the sneak numbers yet for 2024 as my patience for watching hundreds of plays on the NFL’s subscription service has worn thin after years of underwhelming service.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. If you let a quarterback surge ahead with the ball, he’s far closer to the first down marker than when you’re handing the ball off 5-to-7 yards deep in the backfield to your running back. That’s why most teams will have their highest short-yardage conversion rate coming from the quarterback position. Not because they’re tougher, maybe because they’re taller, but mostly because of how much less distance they have to cover to convert.

But looking at those numbers with the conversion rates over 80%, it’s very similar to the data I produced over a decade ago when I was preparing a study for Sports illustrated on the effectiveness of the quarterback sneak. The biggest change is the volume as there were just 59 quarterback sneaks on third or fourth down with 1 yard to go in the 2013 season. There were 216 in 2023, so volume is way up, which might make you expect a little drop in efficiency.

Most offenses are good at getting that 1 yard when they run it. Most defenses can’t do a thing about it. But the Eagles did take offense this week to Green Bay’s president Mark Murphy saying the Tush Push requires “no skill” to execute.

I’ll note that I don’t have a breakdown of these QB sneaks for the classic type vs. Tush Push types. That would be nice to have but maybe that’s an offseason project to complete. But it is dangerous when people try to belittle other teams for this play on a play that wouldn’t even be a Tush Push such as this failed attempt by Derek Carr and the Saints from 2024:

One could argue they weren’t even trying to score there as they wanted to run the clock in a 6-point game in the final minutes. But that’s not a Tush Push when they didn’t have anyone close to Carr at the snap to push him like the Eagles do. So, you have to make sure you’re comparing apples to apples with this stuff to really make that point.

There is skill in what the Eagles do, and obviously, they’re uniquely qualified with how great their line is and Hurts’ ability to keep driving. But there’s still no denying that a lot of quarterbacks convert sneaks at high rates, and they usually don’t need two guys pushing them from behind to make it happen. The play has consistently worked over 80% of the time without that.

Here’s a table I produced for the 2000-15 seasons for quarterbacks on short-yardage runs. Everyone converted at least 60% of the time with 81.7% as the average. You have to get a good chuckle out of Chad Pennington at the highest conversion rate given how brittle he was.

I don’t currently have an update for 2016-24, but I have the last three years (regular season only) ready to go for all 29 quarterbacks to have at least 10 short-yardage runs (3rd/4th down with 1 yard to go):

Rk Player Runs Conv. Pct.
1 Jayden Daniels 12 12 100.0%
2 Josh Allen 53 50 94.3%
3 Daniel Jones 28 26 92.9%
4 Sam Darnold 13 12 92.3%
5 Kirk Cousins 12 11 91.7%
6 Kenny Pickett 22 20 90.9%
7 Jameis Winston 10 9 90.0%
7 Jordan Love 10 9 90.0%
9 Brock Purdy 18 16 88.9%
10 Dak Prescott 23 20 87.0%
11 Jalen Hurts 83 72 86.7%
12 Russell Wilson 35 30 85.7%
13 Bo Nix 14 12 85.7%
14 C.J. Stroud 13 11 84.6%
15 Mason Rudolph 12 10 83.3%
15 Will Levis 12 10 83.3%
17 Justin Herbert 29 24 82.8%
18 Marcus Mariota 11 9 81.8%
19 Justin Fields 30 24 80.0%
20 Mac Jones 18 14 77.8%
21 Trevor Lawrence 28 21 75.0%
21 Jacoby Brissett 20 15 75.0%
23 Lamar Jackson 26 19 73.1%
24 Jimmy Garoppolo 14 10 71.4%
24 Joshua Dobbs 14 10 71.4%
26 Mitch Trubisky 10 7 70.0%
27 Joe Burrow 13 9 69.2%
28 Geno Smith 17 11 64.7%
29 Kyler Murray 11 7 63.6%

This is probably the only stat where you’ll find Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones, and Kenny Pickett ranked so high, so “skill issue” is already taking a beating as an argument for these plays. Again, it’s physics more than anything.

You probably had to look further down to find Jalen Hurts than expected at 86.7%, but what stands out is his overwhelming volume of plays compared to everyone else. He has 72 conversions on 83 runs while Josh Allen (50-of-53 success rate) is the only other quarterback with more than 35 such runs in the last three seasons.

Kyler Murray has the worst conversion rate (63.6%), which again suggests being short is a detriment for this. However, remember when Russell Wilson was at the bottom of that previous table at 60%? He’s 30-of-35 (85.7%) since 2022, and he was even 15-of-17 on the quarterback sneak (no pushing) for Sean Payton with the 2023 Broncos. He didn’t get any taller, so maybe better coaching and line play helped him out.

But it is a little disingenuous to say only the Eagles have figured this play out. Maybe that’s close to true for mastering the art of the push, but many offenses are doing just fine when they run the quarterback sneak in its classic form without the boost. They just aren’t doing it as much as they should.

Also, it should be noted that the Eagles have the second-most plays with 1 yard to go on late downs since 2022, so they are frequently in this spot and they know what they want to do. But five teams have a better overall success rate, and Philadelphia’s rushing success rate doesn’t blow the rest of the league anyway, and they actually average a league-low 1.5 yards per carry in short-yardage because they rarely do anything but the Tush Push to get a yard or two.

The Eagles have found their gimmick, and it works for them, but let’s not act like their Tush Push is something the rest of the NFL needs to adopt anyway. But they should be calling the QB sneak in general more often.

Just Watch the Last Three NFL Playoff Games

Finally, I’ll again point out the aesthetics of the play are terrible unless you enjoy watching a big pile of humanity barely move. But watching this play in the last three NFL games of the 2024 season is enough for me to say they should just ban it and return to the normal sneak without pushing.

In the 2024 NFC Championship Game, there was that absurd sequence in the fourth quarter with the Eagles trying to run the Tush Push on six straight snaps. The Commanders stopped it cold once, but they were also penalized four times, including a couple of times where Frankie Luvu tried to jump over the line like he was Troy Polamalu.

The absurdity reached a fever pitch when the official basically scolded the Commanders and said they could reward a score if this behavior continued. Honestly, they should have called their bluff and kept doing it. Make them put up a phantom touchdown on the board to prove a point. Eventually, Hurts scored the touchdown and the rout was on.

That was just embarrassing. In the AFC Championship Game that same day in Kansas City, the Bills are the only other team that come close to the success and volume of the sneak as the Eagles. However, they don’t always go all in with the compact Tush Push like the Eagles do, and in that game, Josh Allen was stopped three times on sneaks by the Chiefs, the most by any team in a game since at least 2016.

The Chiefs studied that Allen likes to go to his left on those plays, and that helped them get stops. However, one of the most controversial moments of the season came on a Tush Push in the fourth quarter in a 22-21 game on a 4th-and-1. Allen thought he got the spot, but the ball was ruled short and the Bills turned it over on downs.

So many annoying things here as this is not the kind of outcome we want on such a huge play in an important game. Again, notice how the Chiefs stopped Allen initially, but the biased forward progress rule allowed him to keep pushing toward the 40. Then we’re going to rely on a spot and chain link measurement to decide something so crucial.

The NFL will reportedly use technology to measure the first downs in 2025, but that doesn’t seem to solve the issue of the initial spot. But to chastise Buffalo a bit, this is the risk you take when you run a play that leaves it up to that spot instead of something that clearly can move the chains.

The Tush Push isn’t exactly encouraging good offensive results. But then in the Super Bowl, the Eagles struck first in the first quarter on the Tush Push from the 1-yard line. But notice how Chris Jones lined up parallel to the offensive line to try to stop it. That clearly didn’t work and Jones spent the rest of the night getting his neck tended to.

I know I don’t speak for everyone, but I could certainly do without these moments in games. Make them earn the yard the old-fashioned way or just call it a real play instead of relying on measurements and forward progress.

Who Is Against the Tush Push in the NFL?

It was confirmed this week that the Packers were the team to propose a ban of the Tush Push. It’s a bit odd when you hear GM Brian Gutekunst say “I know we’re not very successful against it, I know that… but to be honest with ya, I have not put much thought into it.”

Haven’t put much thought into it? You can say that again. My guy, four of the 11 stops of Hurts in short yardage since 2022 have been by the Green Bay defense, including twice in Brazil to start this season. Granted, half of those stops were the Eagles getting antsy and fumbling the snap, but Green Bay’s defended it as well as anyone.

So, that makes Green Bay a strange adversary to the play. Also this week, Falcons coach Raheem Morris said the play should have been made illegal in 2022, echoing some of the sentiments I already said earlier here.

“It should’ve been illegal three years ago. I’ve never been a big fan. There’s no other play in our game where you can absolutely get behind somebody & push them, pull them off, do anything.”

But even stranger than the Packers being against it is that the Buffalo Bills are seemingly against it. Coach Sean McDermott, part of the NFL’s Competition Committee, cited the injury risk associated with the 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 been used, especially a year ago,” McDermott told reporters at this week’s scouting combine. “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.”

Fair enough, and one has to wonder if the video of Jones, the biggest superstar defender in this year’s Super Bowl, getting his neck worked on helped with the perception of it being a dangerous play.

But according to the NFL this week, they don’t have any logged injuries from the Tush Push, so that will hurt the safety argument for now. The classic quarterback sneak has been a relatively safe play with one rare exception being the dislocated kneecap that Patrick Mahomes suffered in Denver in 2019, a big reason why they don’t let him sneak anymore.

But how many times has the Tush Push actually been used? According to ESPN Research, the Eagles and Bills have used it 163 times since 2022, which is more than the other 30 NFL teams combined. That means there’s an average of maybe over 100 plays per season at most, so not that frequent.

Still, it’s wild that the Bills would be opposed to a play they seemingly benefit from at the second-highest rate in the NFL. I guess getting stopped all those times in the AFC Championship Game soured them on it, to which I say, good.

You don’t need to push the quarterback from behind with one player let alone two.

Conclusion: Will the NFL Ban the Tush Push?

If I had to guess if this ban on the Tush Push will pass in 2025, I’d lean towards no. But we’ll see what happens if there’s a vote.

As for how a ban would be enforced, there’s always a way to write in a rule with heavy context. That’s why a spike isn’t intentional grounding. It used to be illegal to push the ball carrier before, and it wouldn’t be that hard to outlaw it again on a quarterback sneak.

As for making it illegal to push into a pile of players anywhere on the field, that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad idea either. It’s a bit absurd when a lineman comes barreling in late on a play and tries to push a pile. That sounds like a play where there should be some injury data.

But I would gladly settle for writing the rule so that it’s clear at the snap that you can’t just push the quarterback forward on the sneak. The sneak worked just fine as it did before. The Eagles have turned an 80% play into more like an 85-90% play. They didn’t reinvent the wheel.

For the people who say if you ban the Tush Push, the Eagles will just dominate the sneak without pushing, I say let them prove it. No one’s trying to ban the sneak itself. Just this modified version of it.

The Eagles made a play I used to love something I now dread to watch, and I don’t want to see that copy over to the rest of the league. Just nip it in the bud and write it out of the game.

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Photo of Scott Kacsmar Scott Kacsmar27/02/2025 - 09:53 am