With tush push ban vote likely looming Wednesday, the Eagles’ signature play is again in danger

MINNEAPOLIS — For the second time in two months, the tush push is in danger.

The Philadelphia Eagles' signature quarterback sneak play survived debate over its future during early April league meetings in Palm Beach, Florida. But club and league officials did not feel comfortable enough with the play’s future to protect it for the long haul.

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Rather than vote down the ban, officials tabled a vote until this week’s league meetings in Minneapolis.

Expect that vote to take place Wednesday.

As of late Friday, the Green Bay Packers had not amended their proposed ban to eliminate pushing or aiding the ball carrier, a league source confirmed to Yahoo Sports. The Packers could amend the language of the proposal this week in hopes of securing the necessary 24 of 32 votes to pass a league rule change.

The most likely amendment, per multiple league sources: a return to the league’s pre-2005 rule that prohibited all pushing and pulling of the ball carrier. Such a proposal would functionally eliminate the tush push but do so in a broader scope.

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Competition committee chairman Rich McKay said in March that “nobody likes” how clearly a tush push-specific ban would target the Eagles and Buffalo Bills.

The tush push accounted for just 0.28% of plays last season, per ESPN data. The Eagles and Bills ran the play more over the past three seasons than the other 30 clubs combined.

The Eagles and Bills converted for a first down or touchdown on 87% of tush push plays the past three years, per ESPN data, compared to the rest of the league’s 71% clip.

While the Eagles and Bills’ plays will be more impacted by the statistically uncommon play, league opinion is split on how much it would actually hurt either team.

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“The outcome of those 0.28% of plays is unlikely to change — teams are gonna get the sneak regardless of the push,” one source familiar with the debate considerations said. “Even when you watch the play. Sometimes the pusher doesn’t even get to make contact with [Jalen] Hurts.

“Other times he does, but it’s after the first down was reached.”

Injury data is lacking, but that isn't stopping the push against the push

The Packers initially introduced the tush push ban this spring after team president Mark Murphy said he believed “the play is bad for the game” and “there is no skill involved.”

Some club officials balked at the Packers’ desire to litigate what plays do and don’t have skill.

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Others, including Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones, embraced the removal of competitively imbalanced plays that could reduce entertainment value.

“The reason we got the 2-point play is [we] said the extra point alone kicking it is not exciting enough,” Jones told Yahoo Sports. “That reminded me of how those things have evolved.

“It was more from the entertainment standpoint — which from my perspective, is a good discussion. The fact that fans could be interested in what we do with it. We do things, and if somebody does it really well or get an edge, we might make defensive, offensive adjustments.

“That’s the discussion.”

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Passing the vote would require two-thirds buy-in, but clubs need not all vote in favor of the ban for the same reason. If some clubs vote to slow the defending Super Bowl champions, others for health and safety reasons, and more on the basis of entertainment concerns? Their votes will count equally. Like Supreme Court concurring opinions, what matters is attaining a majority.

The requisite votes were not there six weeks ago. But one league source felt that this week’s meeting is “usually the meeting that gets what the league office wants if it couldn’t get the votes in March.”

In 2023, the NFL changed its kickoff rule at the May meetings, allowing for fair catches on kickoffs to result in beginning a possession on the receiving team’s 25-yard line.

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Competition committee chairman Rich McKay described that change as “all really driven by health and safety” at the time.

Available data has not pointed to clear enough proof of increased injury risk to ban it purely on the basis of making the game safer, multiple coaches, general managers and league representatives confirmed in early April.

But NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has nonetheless expressed safety-related concern.

“We have very little data from it, but beyond data, there's also the mechanism of injury that we study …that leads us to show the risk involved in a particular play or particular tackle,” Goodell said on April 2. “There are a lot of plays where you see someone pulling or pushing somebody that are not in the tush push formation that I think do have an increased risk of injury.”

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Historically, the more the league has framed a rule change through the lens of health and safety, the more likely it was to pass. Last year’s hip-drop tackle ban was an example, though its data was more concrete than that of tush push injury concerns.

And the May meetings offers a different environment from the wider-tent March meetings, which invites all head coaches and general managers to participate in rule change debates.

The only coaches and general managers likely to be present for this meeting are the handful on the competition committee.

One general manager predicted the league will pass a banning of all pushing and pulling of the ball carrier this week.

“They’ll do a closed door vote and then the rules will change,” the general manager told Yahoo Sports. “Would be surprised if that didn’t happen.”