Of all NFL teams, the Eagles and the Bills have made the most effective use of the so-called “tush push” play. And, at a time when the Packers have proposed a rule prohibiting the move, Buffalo coach Sean McDermott has expressed concerns about the technique.
“To me, there’s always been an injury risk with that play, and I’ve expressed that opinion for the last couple of years or so when it really started to come into play the way it’s being used, especially a year ago,” McDermott said Monday, via Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.com. “So, I just feel like, player safety, and the health and safety of our players has to be at the top of our game, which it is. It’s just that play to me has always been . . . or the way that the techniques that are used with that play, to me have been potentially contrary to the health and safety of the players. And so again, you have to go back though in fairness to the injury data on the play, but I just think the optics of it, I’m not in love with.”
McDermott is a member of the Competition Committee, which gives him a direct avenue for raising those concerns. The fact that his team uses it gives his position more credibility than a team that doesn’t.
Via Getzenberg, the Eagles and Bills have used the play 163 tush pushes over the past three seasons; that’s more than the rest of the league combined. Philadelphia and Buffalo have scored a touchdown or gained a first down 87 percent of the time. The rest of the league has a 71-percent success rate.
“We do it a little bit different than other teams,” McDermott said. “One team in particular, who does it a certain way, that’s the one that is really, there’s just so much force behind that player, but yeah, you try and keep . . . not try, you make number one always everything we do, fundamentals, what we teach technique, in this case, what we ask our players to do, health and safety number one.”
In the end, the rule allowing players to push the ballcarrier from behind will remain on the books unless and until 24 or more teams vote to change it.
