The Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl 59 40-22 with their first score coming on a one-yard “Tush Push” play. The team has perfected the short-yardage play, and the Green Bay Packers reportedly put in a proposal to potentially ban the play.
Head coach Nick Sirianni is rightfully insulted by the proposal and recently let his thoughts be known.
Nick Sirianni Snaps Back at Packers for Wanting Tush Push Eliminated
Sirianni became Philadelphia’s head coach in 2021. His team has made the playoffs each of his four seasons, including two Super Bowl appearances and a win in Super Bowl 59. The Eagles’ offense finished No. 14 in PFSN’s Offense+ metric with explosive offensive pieces like Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Saquon Barkley leading the way.
However, their most effective play is a super-sized QB sneak.
The Tush Push showed up during Sirianni’s first Super Bowl run in 2022 and became the team’s signature play. It’s essentially a modified rugby scrum where players push the quarterback from behind so he can surge over the line to gain. According to ESPN, the Eagles had a 93% success rate with the play in 2022, going 25-of-27. That percentage dipped to 83% in 2023 with the Eagles going 35-of-42.
Future Hall of Fame center Jason Kelce was the point man for those two years, and there were fears the Tush Push’s effectiveness would be limited after he retired. Cam Jurgens took over in 2024, and the success rate dipped again to 81.2%, but the Eagles are still the best QB sneak team in the league.
They’re so good that other teams want the play banned. Philadelphia defeated Green Bay in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs, and the Packers are leading this year’s charge to get the play eliminated. Sirianni recently had his NFL Combine press conference and was insulted teams want the play banned.
Nick Sirianni on the possible Tush-Push ban: "I see stuff like 'it's automatic.' It's almost insulting. We work so hard on that play. The amount of coaching, and fundamentals, how the players deal with it. I can't tell you how many times we've practiced it.. We saw a team fail at… pic.twitter.com/5u56zTTvJF
— Eagles Nation (@PHLEaglesNation) February 25, 2025
The head coach said, “I see stuff like, ‘It’s automatic.’ It’s almost insulting. We work so hard on that play. The amount of coaching and fundamentals, how the players deal with it. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve practiced it. We saw a team fail at it in the [conference] championship games.
“It’s a skill our team has because of our players, the way our coaches coach it. We put so much time into it. The fact people wanna take it away because the Eagles are so good at it is a little unfair.”
It’s hard to say he’s wrong. The NFL changed how teams can push the pile before the 2024 season requiring pushing players to be at least a yard behind the quarterback. The new rule applies to everyone but was likely targeted at the Eagles.
Sirianni’s main point is that his team is being punished for being better at a play than anyone else. The Buffalo Bills ran the second-most QB sneaks in 2024, going 29-of-37, including the playoffs. That’s a 78.4% success rate, but when it mattered most their sneak play was stopped (controversially) in the AFC Championship Game.
The Tush Push hasn’t been stopped when it matters most, and the Eagles will keep running it until someone figures out a way to ban the play.
