Bills’ Sean McDermott’s tush push stance stresses player safety as tiresome debate comes to a head

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PALM BEACH, Fla. — Everything about the tush push is dumb.

The phrase sounds dumb. The play looks dumb. The heated discussion around it feels dumb.

So guess what the hottest topic has been here at the NFL owners’ meetings, where in the next couple days the league will decide what to do about the annoying quarterback sneak.

That the conversation has steeped for months within the NFL’s offseason is dumb too. The play is a wrinkle, a wee nuance. But the industrial football complex turns every tidbit into headlines and debate.

Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott is on the competition committee. As such, reporters bombarded him with questions about the tush push Monday morning at The Breakers Palm Beach resort and about whether the NFL should ban it. He looked exasperated, yearning for someone to ask him practically anything else. He might’ve favored questions about Matt Araiza or 13 Seconds.

The obnoxious tush push, a short-yardage quarterback sneak that involves at least one teammate shoving him forward from behind, is newsworthy because it’s unusual and, when executed well, seems unstoppable.

The rugbyesque scrum is a significant part of the Philadelphia Eagles’ brand and, as Super Bowl champions, have injected it into mainstream America’s consciousness.

The play also presents elements of unfairness (defensive players aren’t allowed to counter by pushing teammates from behind), makes it difficult to place the ball afterward and makes bad TV. In the NFC Championship Game, the Washington Commanders got so sick of the tush push that they committed four penalties over a five-play span near the goal line, forcing disgusted referee Shaun Hochuli to announce the officials could simply award the Eagles a touchdown if the behavior continued.

McDermott added the Bills’ data shows teams that use the tush push aren’t any more successful than when they call a traditional quarterback sneak anyway.

Most importantly, a lot of NFL folks believe it eventually would result in a catastrophic injury.

“Being responsible and proactive in that regard,” said McDermott, “is the right way to go.”

Pushback has made the NFL’s decision trickier than it ought to be. Those who want to preserve the tush push insist critics are just jealous their teams haven’t been better at it or too timid to send their quarterbacks into the breach like Philadelphia does with Jalen Hurts. For example, Patrick Mahomes (too valuable), Lamar Jackson (too valuable) and Tua Tagovailoa (too fragile) aren’t ever asked to try.

Critics also note no significant injuries have occurred because of the tush push.

But, rest assured, the moment a franchise quarterback gets hurt, the rules will change. That’s what happened when reigning MVP Tom Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury minutes into the 2008 season. Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard hit him legally. So the NFL made that type of hit illegal, prohibiting contact at or below a passer’s knee. Brady, by the by, was one of the greatest QB sneakers who ever sneaked, and he never needed a tush push.

ESPN.com reported tushversations have been “heated” and “hotly contested” and that McDermott, Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman and Eagles assistant GM Jon Ferrari had a “private and animated side conversation” Sunday night about the proposed rule change.

“Let me set that straight,” McDermott said with a smile Monday morning. “It was not an animated conversation. I can promise you that. You’ve got two or three passionate guys, passionate coaches, and in the case of Howie, a GM, that are sharing their thoughts. We have a lot of respect for each other. All of us go back a long time.”

The Green Bay Packers have proposed NFL rules be modified to “prohibit an offensive player from pushing a teammate who was lined up directly behind the snapper and receives the snap, immediately at the snap.” See? The NFL doesn’t call it the tush push or my preferred term — the Brotherly Shove is much cooler — in documentation.

In question is Rule 12, Section 1, Article 4, which addresses assisting ball carriers. Article 4 already prohibits a teammate from pulling the runner, using “interlocking interference” such as joining arms and throwing his body at the runner to propel him, or to obstruct an opponent from recovering the ball. The Packers’ proposal aims merely to add a fourth bullet point.

McDermott hasn’t declared how he’ll vote on the proposal, but he has been critical of the tush push despite deploying a version of it with Josh Allen.

“Yes, we do a form of this play,” said McDermott, “and we do it well.”

The play’s limitations were laid out in Buffalo’s loss to Kansas City in the AFC Championship Game. Allen plowed far enough to exceed the first-down marker, but not far enough to avoid the line judge’s bad spot and turned the ball over on downs at the Chiefs’ 41-yard line early in the fourth quarter.

McDermott explained the Bills’ sneak differs from the Eagles’ in two critical ways: Allen’s body remains more vertical when he runs into the line, and the Bills don’t use as many shovers.

Hurts burrows forward with his head down and back straight, maintaining a posture that in the rule book is outlined as illegal for a defender striking an opponent because the defender could get seriously hurt.

“To me, (the Green Bay proposal) takes away the force,” McDermott said. “Traditional quarterback sneaks have been around for a long time. That’s the context of it that’s important. Then the pushing adds the force piece, and it exponentially raises my concern.”

In a follow-up conversation Monday morning, McDermott elaborated.

“Whenever you and I watch Josh and his approach to the play,” McDermott said, “it’s well-documented that he goes to his left. Hurts goes to his left as well. The posture that I see Josh taking is more upright, and typically we’ve had as low as one pusher.”

If the tush push isn’t banned and he notices Allen lose some of that (for lack of a better term) posture discipline, what would McDermott do to protect him? Would the play stay on the offensive coordinator’s call sheet? How would Buffalo protect its franchise quarterback, who recently signed a contract extension with a quarter-billion dollars in guarantees?

“It’s no different than if a player is tackling with his head down,” McDermott said. “As coaches, we have to correct it through teaching, but then I also go over and say, ‘Listen, if this continues, we can’t put you out there. It would be irresponsible to let you keep doing that.’”

My sense from casual conversations with several coaches and club executives here at The Breakers Palm Beach is that the ban has substantial support, although the Packers’ proposal can be tweaked before anything is cemented.

Three-quarters of the NFL’s owners must ratify the competition committee’s recommendation for a rule change to be formalized. The committee is co-chaired by Atlanta Falcons CEO Rich McKay and Dallas Cowboys executive Stephen Jones, and includes New York Giants owner John Mara, Cincinnati Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn, San Francisco 49ers GM John Lynch, Miami Dolphins GM Chris Grier, Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin and McVay.

“The longer you’re on the competition committee, the more you understand the role, the more you understand how the process works and the history of rulemaking,” McDermott said. “When you get behind the scenes, this game continues to grow because people put the time into it while being objective about the best ways to do it while keeping the players as healthy as possible.”

And, while not always possible in the NFL, it’s also great to move on from something so damn dumb.

(Top photo of Sean McDermott: Jim Rassol / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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