Look, if you’re a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, you probably love it. If you’re a fan of basically any other team in the NFL, you probably think it’s the most annoying, borderline-illegal thing to happen to football since the forward pass. I'm talking about the NFL tush push.
It’s that weird, messy, rugby-looking pile-up where Jalen Hurts disappears under a literal ton of human flesh, only to emerge a second later with a first down. Or a touchdown. Honestly, it feels like it works every single time.
But here’s the thing: while everyone else spent the last couple of years trying to get it banned, the Eagles just kept pushing. Literally. Even after Jason Kelce—the guy who was basically the engine room of the whole operation—decided to hang up his cleats, the play is still very much a part of the conversation.
What is the NFL Tush Push anyway?
Basically, it’s a quarterback sneak on steroids. In a normal sneak, the QB just dives behind the center. In the NFL tush push (or the "Brotherly Shove," if you want to be fancy), the Eagles line up in a super-tight formation. Then, you’ve got two or three guys—usually big bodies like Dallas Goedert or a backup running back—standing directly behind Jalen Hurts.
The ball is snapped, the offensive line surges forward like a tidal wave, and those guys in the back literally shove Hurts’ backside into the pile.
It’s simple. It’s brutal. And for a long time, it was almost unstoppable. During the 2022 and 2023 seasons, the Eagles were converting this thing at a rate well over 90%. Think about that. If you’re at the one-yard line, you have a 9-out-of-10 chance of scoring. That's basically a cheat code.
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Why doesn't every team just do it?
You’d think they would, right? If it’s so good, why isn't every coach from Andy Reid to Dan Campbell running it four times a game?
Well, they tried. They really did. But the "success rate" for the rest of the league hasn't been nearly as high. In 2024, while the Eagles and the Buffalo Bills (who are also weirdly good at this) were hitting around 87%, the rest of the NFL was stuck down near 71%.
Why the gap?
- The O-Line: It’s not just about pushing the QB. You need a center who can get lower than the defensive tackle. For years, that was Jason Kelce. He was a master at using leverage.
- The QB’s Legs: People love to talk about Jalen Hurts squatting 600 pounds. While astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson once argued that the squatting power is "irrelevant" because Hurts is often airborne, the reality is that Hurts’ lower-body strength allows him to keep his legs churning even when he's being crushed.
- The Physics of the "Launch": Tyson pointed out that the Eagles get a fractional head start. They are moving forward using the Earth as a launch point before the defense can even react. If a defender tries to jump over the pile to stop it, they lose their connection to the ground. No ground, no leverage. You’re just a 250-pound guy floating in the air getting pushed backward.
The 2025 "Ban" That Never Happened
Every offseason, the same drama plays out. A bunch of teams—led by the Green Bay Packers—go to the NFL Competition Committee and scream that the play is "not football" or that it’s "unsafe."
In March 2025, the Packers actually proposed a rule change that would have banned offensive players from pushing a teammate immediately at the snap. They cited player safety and the "pace of play."
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But the data didn't back them up. NFL executive Troy Vincent revealed that during the entire 2024 season, there were zero injuries recorded on NFL tush push plays. Not one. If it’s not breaking bones, the league is a lot less likely to kill it.
When the owners finally voted in May 2025, the ban fell just two votes short of the 24 needed to pass. The Eagles, Ravens, Lions, and several others held the line. For now, the shove stays.
Life After Jason Kelce
There was a lot of talk that the play would die when Jason Kelce retired. People thought he was the play. And to be fair, the Eagles' success rate did dip a bit. By late 2025, Reddit sleuths and analysts noticed the Eagles were down to about a 60% success rate on the play, compared to their glory days of 90%+.
Part of that is just the league catching up. Teams are getting better at "mirroring" the push—stacking defenders directly over the center and refusing to give up that initial inch.
Also, the Eagles started getting "cute." Instead of just snapping the ball, they started trying hard counts to get the defense to jump. It backfired. They got called for way more false starts than anyone else in the league.
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Is the Tush Push actually bad for football?
This is where it gets heated. Critics like Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post have called it "boring" and "brutish." They say football is supposed to be about speed and space, not a bunch of guys running into a wall.
On the other side, you have Eagles owner Jeff Lurie, who points out that the forward pass was once considered "legalized cheating."
Jason Kelce himself has a pretty pragmatic take. He’s said that if the league wants it gone, that’s fine, but don't call it an "injury" issue when it’s clearly a "competitive" one. He even joked that he would come out of retirement right now if his only job was to run 80 tush pushes a year because it’s "the easiest job in the world."
How to watch it like an expert
Next time you see the Eagles (or the Bills, or even the Lions) line up for a short-yardage play, look for these three things:
- The Wedge: Look at the guards and the center. Are they shoulder-to-shoulder with no gaps? If there's a gap, the defensive tackle will swim through it and blow the play up.
- The "Pushers": See who is behind the QB. If they are standing too far back, they won't have the momentum to help. They need to be right on his hips the moment the ball is snapped.
- The Defensive Height: If the defensive line stays high, they lose. They have to get their "chests to the grass" to have any hope of stopping the surge.
The NFL tush push might eventually be legislated out of existence because it "looks bad" on TV, but for now, it remains the most effective—and controversial—yard in sports.
If you want to track the success of this play throughout the rest of the season, pay attention to the officiating. Referees have been told to look closer at "leverage" fouls and offensive offsides. The league might not have banned the play, but they are certainly making it harder to pull off. Keep an eye on the "tushpush.fyi" trackers and advanced NFL stats sites to see if the league average continues to climb or if the Eagles can reclaim their crown as the kings of the shove.
Actionable Next Steps
- Watch the pad level: In the next game you watch, notice if the defensive line is actually "winning" the leverage battle or if they are just being moved by the mass of the offensive line.
- Check the injury reports: Despite the "unsafe" narrative, look for actual instances of injuries on these plays versus standard QB sneaks.
- Monitor the false starts: Watch if the Eagles (or your favorite team) are losing efficiency not because of the defense, but because they are trying to "game" the snap count.