In the wake of Philadelphia once again facing immense backlash for its use of the tush push, retired Eagles center Jason Kelce offered his thoughts on the future of the franchise’s signature play — and it’s not what you think.
The Eagles drew more scrutiny after deploying the controversial play seven times during a 20-17 win over the Kansas City Chiefs — in a highly anticipated Super Bowl rematch — in Week 2. Kelce, who participated in many tush pushes during his 13-year NFL career, admitted that he believes the continued criticism will likely lead to the play’s eventual demise.
“I think the play is done,” Kelce said Friday. “I think that there’s a lot of people within the league, at multiple levels, that want the play to be gone, which is fine. I think we’ll still go back to running quarterback sneak, and I’m sure they’ll figure out ways to be successful. I’m not really that concerned with it, to be very candid.”
There’s plenty of criticism around the NFL these days about the play — loathed just about everywhere but Philadelphia — and the Super Bowl champion Eagles have had enough.
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More teams complain about the tush push than actually try and run the rugby-style scrum deemed so unstoppable that the Green Bay Packers proposed banning it. Their effort fell two votes short at the NFL’s spring owners meeting.
“My argument to [the criticism] is: the defensive line, they can gang tackle, they can push each other on top of a running back,” Kelce added. “Why can’t I assist my guy? So, I think that there’s an argument to be had there and that’ll fall wherever it does.”
With a reprieve, the Eagles are running up the tush push play total with little regard for what anybody says. Eagles QB Jalen Hurts scored a touchdown on a tush push en route to sending the Chiefs to their first 0-2 start since 2014.
The next chance for the Eagles (2-0) to use the tush push, also referred to as the “Brotherly Shove,” comes against the Los Angeles Rams (2-0) on Sunday (1 p.m. ET on FOX) in a playoff rematch from last season.
[MORE: Is the NFL Over Eagles’ Tush Push? One Source: ‘Let’s Not Let Them Cheat At It’]
No example summed up how much the tush push can be a pain in the butt to the opposition quite like when the Eagles used it to maddening perfection against Washington in the NFC Championship Game last season. The Commanders jumped offside four times in a sequence of five plays while trying to stop the tush push — earning them a warning from the referee that he could award the Eagles a touchdown if the Commanders did it again.
The Eagles converted 96.6% of the time when running the play in fourth-and-1 situations and have attempted it 116 times overall since 2022, according to a report from ESPN.
That’s the incredible part. Teams know the tush push is coming, fans at Lincoln Financial Field go wild when the Eagles line up for it, and yet defenses still can’t stop it.
Kelce agreed this week that the tush was starting to push the edge of fair play. “I think they are trying to time it and going too early now and lining it up too close,” he said. “I sincerely hope (they) get back to running it like before to avoid all this nonsense over the rest of the season.
“I don’t have the bandwidth for a full season of neutral zone discussion.”
But the play isn’t going anywhere — at least not this season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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