Eagles

Of Course There’s No Proposal to Ban the Tush Push this Offseason Because the Eagles Weren’t Good at it

By Nick Piccone

Published: Feb 24th, 2026 · 11:44 AM EST

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Last offseason, there was a big movement by NFL owners, and even some coaches, to have the tush push banned. It felt like a lock the closer we got to a vote, as the “health and safety of the players” became bullet point No. 1, even though there was no data proving that the play was an injury concern.

Who knows if Jason Kelce’s impassioned speech actually made a difference, but the May 2025 vote fell two shy of a full ban.

Rich McKay, co-chairman of the NFL’s competition committee, said over the weekend there’s been no proposal by any team for a potential tush push ban this year. From Mike Reiss and Kevin Seifert at ESPN:

“There’s no team proposal that I’ve seen from it,” McKay said following a day of meetings at the NFL combine. “So, I wouldn’t envision it. But you never know.”

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported in September that there were no assurances of reviving the tush push debate in 2026, as sources cited the vitriol of last year’s discussions and the eventual failure to garner enough support for a change.”

Interestingly enough, the United Football League has banned the tush push for some reason. Again, the health and safety of the players bullet point never truly made sense when players didn’t report injuries accrued from engaging in that specific play. There were teams that ran the play with accomplished success, but not nearly to the extent the Eagles did… until 2025.

According to tushpush.fyi, NFL teams ran the tush push 130 times last season with 96 successful attempts for a 73.8% conversion rate. The Eagles ran the play 33 times, converting 21 of them, with five ending in a touchdown. The Bills, who famously voted for a tush push ban because of “player safety,” ran the play the second-most times at 27, converting 21 of them, also with five touchdowns. The conversion rate for the Eagles went down to 64%, while the Bills’ skyrocketed to 89%.

Out of the six teams who led the league in 2025 tush push attempts, the Eagles were the only ones that voted previously to keep the play. The Bills, Seahawks (14 attempts), Chargers (11 attempts), Steelers (11 attempts), and Texans (8 attempts) all ran the play more than any other team. 

It clearly was never about player safety. You could posit that the Birds’ offensive line was so banged up due to the accumulation of tush push plays from the previous season, but that’s impossible to prove, and nobody has really made that argument anyway, because the tush push is the safest play in football.

Kinkead: It was always bullshit. They wanted it banned because the Eagles were good at it. Then the offensive line got banged up and defenses figured out some better ways to attack the push, like throwing an EDGE at Jalen Hurts from the side. Funny how you didn’t hear anything about “health and safety” this year when Josh Allen and hypocrite Sean McDermott were running the play. Neither team made it past the divisional round so it wasn’t some “unstoppable” play and therefore nobody is going to challenge it this offseason. You can bet your ass that if the Eagles repeated, the shove would be voted out in a landslide.