PHILADELPHIA — Operation Sour Grapes, AKA the Green Bay Packers’ effort to ban the so-called “tush push” play that the Eagles run expertly, is expected to pass on Wednesday when the owners vote at the spring meetings in Minneapolis.
“I don’t have any thoughts on it,” wide receiver A.J. Brown said, laughing, at Tuesday’s OTAs. “It’s only one yard.”
Brown has often been the one pushing quarterback Jalen Hurts on the play, which involves a team lining up one or more players behind the quarterback to push him forward in short-yardage and goal-line situations.
The tush push was used just 0.28% of the time leaguewide last season. The Eagles and Buffalo Bills ran it a total of 163 times, which was more than the other 30 teams combined.
The Eagles and Bills had an 87% success rate, while the rest of the NFL only converted 71% of the time. Over the past three years, the Birds have been 90% effective with it.
The Eagles developed the play, which is basically a twist on the QB sneak, in 2022 because it’s perfectly catered to their personnel, which includes one of the most powerful offensive lines in the game and a quarterback in Jalen Hurts whose legs are so strong he can squat 600 pounds.
Banning the tush push would require the support of at least 24 of the 32 owners. The Packers couldn’t recruit enough votes at the meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., in late March and early April — reportedly persuading only 15 other owners to go along with their cause — but they feel more confident this time around.
Green Bay amended the language from its earlier proposal. The updated language states that “offensive players cannot assist the runner except by individually blocking opponents for him” and also eliminates the phrase “immediately at the snap.” The Packers added language banning pushing or pulling of the ball carrier anywhere on the field, not just behind the line of scrimmage, to lessen the obvious appearance that they’re singling out the Eagles.
Their new proposal basically reverts back to the pre-2005 rule.
“In terms of them banning the tush push, I hate that name, so I hope they do ban it,” left tackle Jordan Mailata said Tuesday with a laugh. “It’s a stupid name. … But we can’t control (the vote), so we don’t even worry about that. Right now, we’re just installing our schemes. Worrying about if they’re going to ban the tush push or not ain’t going to win us another championship.
“It’s not up to us. We can’t control if they rule for it or not. If they don’t rule for the push, I guess we just go with no push then.”
The Packers initially tried to claim the play wasn’t safe, even though there’s no data to support that claim. Bills coach Sean McDermott also cited safety concerns, which is odd considering how frequently his team used the play. He admitted there was no such data.
Commissioner Roger Goodell, who clearly wants to eliminate the tush push, said in April, “It’s beyond data. There’s also the mechanism of injury that we study … that leads us to show the risk involved with a particular play.” Umm…
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie has called the tush push, also known as the “Brotherly Shove,” a “precision play.” He noted, “I don’t ever remember a play being banned because a single team or a few teams were running it effectively.”
“We’ll see where it goes,” coach Nick Sirianni said Tuesday, fresh off signing a multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract (specific terms undisclosed) a day earlier. “We’re not waiting very long to figure it out. It’s going to be public, and you know how I feel about it. We were at the owners’ meetings and we talked about how we felt about it. I don’t think anyone can question what my sentiment is, so we’ll see what happens.”
Frankly, some folks just don’t like the aesthetics of the tush push, with critics saying it’s “not a football play” or that it “looks more like rugby.” Never mind that American football is largely based on rugby.
“I almost feel a little insulted, because we work so hard at that play,” Sirianni said at the Palm Beach meetings. “The amount of things we’ve looked into on how to coach that play, the fundamentals. There’s a thousand plays out there, but it comes down to how you teach the fundamentals and how the players go through and do 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. So, there are different ways we’ve figured out how to practice it, the complements that come off of it that can create explosive plays.
“The fact that it’s an ‘automatic’ thing, we work really, really hard, and our guys are talented at this play. So it’s a little insulting to say we’re good at it, so it’s automatic. … It’s a skill that our team has because of the players that we have and the way the coaches coach it. There’s just so much time put into it. The fact it’s a successful play for the Eagles and people want to take that away, I think is a little unfair.”
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Follow Christiaan DeFranco on X at @the_defranc.
Source: Berkshire mont