PHILADELPHIA — Tonight, the Eagles will face the Green Bay Packers, the team that wanted the tush push to go away the most in the offseason.
It was the Packers who submitted a proposal to the competition committee just 15 days after the Eagles won Super Bowl LIX asking the league to ban the play in which Jalen Hurts lines up under center and uses his super 600-pound squat strength to surge forward before getting assistance from behind from one or more of his teammates.
It was the Packers again in May who resubmitted a revised proposal after it became clear at the NFL owners meetings in April that there were not enough votes needed to abolish the play. Before the revised proposal was put to a vote in May, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and retired center Jason Kelce made passionate pleas to keep the play alive and they narrowly succeeded.
The movement to ban the play fell two votes short of the 24 needed.
And so at some point tonight, we are likely to see Hurts under center in a short-yardage situation with tight end Dallas Goedert and running back Saquon Barkley lined up closely behind him.
The Cheeseheads inside chilly Lambeau Field will do their best to cause a false start by screaming their heads off. Once Hurts’ momentum is slowed, the shoving will begin until the whistle is blown.
The usual result: a first down or a touchdown.
According to ESPN Research, the Eagles have run the tush push 21 times over the first eight games of this season with a conversion rate of 76.5%. That’s down from 82.1% last season, 83.3% in 2023 and 92.6% in 2022.
Those numbers are deceiving, however, because the Eagles are sometimes stopped short of a first down or touchdown on a third-down play and they simply line up and run the tush push again.
The tush push has become one of the most controversial plays in league history and the Eagles know that the majority of the league hates it and wants it to go away.
“At some point (it will),” Goedert conceded Friday after the Eagles’ practice in South Philadelphia. “We might as well use it while we can.”
For the most part, the Eagles downplayed the fact that the Packers headed the charge to abolish the tush push after last season.
“I don’t get wrapped too much in that,” coach Nick Sirianni said.
Offensive tackle Jordan Mailata said he had forgotten it was the Packers who submitted the proposal to ban the play.
“That’s not what we’re thinking about,” he said. “We already have enough problems to think about without worrying about them complaining about the tush push.”
Goedert at least admitted that we could see “an interesting touchdown celebration,” if the Eagles get into the end zone with a tush push and he added that “maybe we should just call it the first play of the game and see what happens.”
The Eagles acknowledged that the tush push is an endangered species, so we asked some of them for their thoughts and favorite moments involving the play.
Jordan Mailata
Favorite tush push: “There was a game right before Christmas against the Giants in 2023 ... and (retired center) Jason (Kelce) was chirping back and forth with their defensive line and I think we ran it like three times in a row. We got it in on the third time. Sweet victory. That was one of my favorite times because they were talking so much crap. And they did a good job stopping it, but we got it in.”
What team has had the best plan for stopping it?
“The Vikings guy (laying down in Week 7). We’re either going to go over you or under you. It’s all a matter of how it happens. The only problem is if you’re running Snoop (the team name for the tush push) on the logo you sometimes slip and have trouble getting traction. That’s especially true on the turf because the paint can be slick.”
What’s the funniest thing you’ve heard somebody on the other side say?
“They call us bitches. ‘Y’all some bitches.’ It’s every team. Every time we line up, I’m like, ‘You all know what’s coming,’ and they’re yelling back, ‘Y’all some bitches.’ ”
On what will happen when the tush push is finally banned?
“We’ll figure out something else. We’ll have another third-and-one play that will be unstoppable. I think when I said I didn’t care if they banned it (during the offseason) I was just tired of the conversation around it. It’s just funny that when other teams try to run it they’re not as successful. I personally think it’s in our favor because we have the personnel for it.”
Dallas Goedert
Favorite tush push: Either the Washington one (in the NFC Championship last season) where they jumped so many times they were going to give us a touchdown or one of them against Miami (in 2023). They were talking so much (smack) and we just kept running it against them. Both of those were pretty cool."
Would he like the Eagles to run a tight end tush push the way the Packers did against the Eagles last year in the playoffs?
“It’s in the playbook. I’d like to go under center. I’d like to get a couple passes called where I’m throwing it and I’d like to run the ball. But we have a lot of playmakers on this team and Jalen is really at the tush push so I don’t know if we’ll be taking that away from him.”
Goedert on his role as a pusher on the play: “Yeah, I’m usually back there. I’ve pushed quite a bit. I squat about 600 pounds, so that’s 1,200 when you combine me and Jalen.”
(Barkley overheard Goedert say he squatted 600 pounds and disputed the claim.)
“You don’t squat 600 pounds,” Barkley said.
“Yes I do,” Goedert playfully argued. “You want to see my college stats? I have them on my phone.”
(According to this NFL.com article in 2017, Goedert could squat 552 pounds.)
Saquon Barkley
Favorite tush push: ”Maybe the Super Bowl one (when the Eagles scored on their second possession). I’d probably say that one because of how it set the tone of the game and led to the outcome of the game. We thought we scored on Johan Dotson’s (catch) and then we line up and everyone knows the play and everybody knows what’s coming, but you still have to do it."
The craziest thing he has seen on the tush push: Jonathan Allen (of the Commanders). He wants the tush push, I will say that. Some people like hate it, but he was locked in and ready for it. I played against him a lot and I have a lot of respect for him. I don’t really know him personally, but he seemed like he was a little psycho. He was like, ‘Come on, bring it.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ "
Barkley on the Frankie Luvu offensive line hurdles in the last year’s NFC Championship: “I’m not going to get into that one.”
Adoree’ Jackson
Favorite tush push: “This year we ran it four or five times in a row against the Giants and I’m watching and thinking, ‘Man, this is a cheat code,’ but it’s so cool because they can’t stop it. They stop it, they stop it, but we’re still running it and we keep running it. And that was just crazy because I had never seen it run that many times in a row.”
Brandon Graham
Favorite tush push: “Saquon this year in Tampa when we faked it. That was a big game. I like the fakes. You keep seeing the same push, push, push and then you do that and they’ve got to play it honest. That’s what is tough about it.”
On talking trash ahead of trying to stop the tush push: “You’ve got to wait until after you stop it. There’s no point in talking beforehand because you have to conserve your energy to stop that. But if I’m on the offensive side, I’d be talking away. ‘You can keep trying, but it ain’t going to work.’ I ain’t going to talk too much about it. Hopefully we’re going to keep doing it and keep enjoying it.”
On whether it will be banned in the future: “It’s coming, but not today. And not tomorrow. And not Monday night.”
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