Eagles’ Lurie on ‘Tush Push’: ‘It’s a play that’s available to every other team in the league’

The “Tush Push” lives for now.

On Tuesday at the annual NFL Meetings in Palm Beach, Florida, the NFL owners tabled the voting to decide whether they would ban the “Tush Push” that the Philadelphia Eagles have made famous.

The owners will continue to discuss banning the play, which was proposed by the Green Bay Packers, in May at the Spring League Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

According to ESPN, 16 owners would vote to ban the play. For the play to be eliminated, there have to be 24 owners who are willing to ban it.

One owner who probably won’t vote against it is the owner of the world champion Eagles, Jeffrey Lurie, who discussed his thoughts on the voting being pushed back to May and the play.

“Well, they probably will be discussing it in May, so we have to be prepared for every result,” he said. “I think for everybody, including myself especially, health and safety is the most important thing when evaluating any play. We’ve been very open to whatever data exists on the “Tush Push,” and there’s just been no data that shows that it isn’t a very, very safe play. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be pushing the tush push. 

“But I think, first of all, it’s a precision play. It’s very practiced. We devote a lot of resources to the tush push. We think we have an unusual use of personnel because we have a quarterback that can squat over 600 pounds and an offensive line that’s filled with All-Pro players. That combination with incredible, detailed coaching with [Offensive Line Coach/Run Game Coordinator] Coach [Jeff] Stoutland, has created a play we can be very successful at. There’s other ways of gaining that half yard, that yard. There’s quarterback sneaks, other types, but we’ve been very, very good at it.

“It’s a play that’s available to every other team in the league, and I think it hasn’t been used more than five times by almost every team in the league. Buffalo is an exception. The usage rate has gone down over the last year dramatically in the league. We’re still very good at it. We’re not as good as we were the year before. We’ve got to adapt…

“I think most of us love about football, is it’s a chess match. Let the chess match play out, and if for any reason it does get banned, we will try to be the very best at short-yardage situations. We’ve got a lot of ideas there, but I think it’s a credit to using our personnel in a way. There aren’t that many teams that have 600-pound squat quarterbacks and that offensive line. Listen, if there were any injury concern, I would be concerned.”

Look, there are two teams who are doing the “Tush Push” at a high level, and that’s the Buffalo Bills and the Eagles. Everybody else struggles with the play. End of the day, defenses need to learn how to stop the play!! So, keep the “Tush Push.”