Eagles HC Nick Sirianni defends tush push after proposal to ban play: ‘I’m protective of it’

By Kevin Patra, Senior News Writer

INDIANAPOLIS — Super Bowl champion head coach Nick Sirianni isn’t going to stand by and let opponents slander the tush push without fighting back.

As the vultures circle the Philadelphia Eagles’ signature play, Sirianni pushed back on Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“I’ve seen some of the stuff that it’s an automatic play or that it’s not,” he said. “We work really, really [hard]. I almost feel a little insulted because we work so hard at that play. The amount of things that we’ve looked into how to coach that play, the fundamentals. There’s a thousand plays out there, but it comes down to how you teach the fundamentals and how the players go through and do the fundamentals. I can’t tell you how many times we practiced the snap. We practice the play because it’s not a play that’s easy to practice, so there’s different ways we figured out how to practice it.”

The Green Bay Packers have proposed a rule that would ban pushing the quarterback in a scrum, a play the Eagles have perfected over the past several seasons.

Sirianni believes teams could be trying to ban it because of how good Philly has become utilizing the push.

“It’s a little insulting to say we’re good at it, so it’s automatic,” he said. “We work really hard at it. You see it throughout the league. I mean, we saw it in the championship games that a team failed at it and ultimately didn’t end up winning the game because of it. Every week, I watch every first-and-goal red-zone fail, every single time. Sometimes that first-and-goal starts at the 1(-yard line), and you see the team not be able to get in because they’re not able to do that. I think it’s a skill that our team has because of the players that we have, the way the coaches coach it. Again, there’s just so much time put into it. The fact that it’s a successful play for the Eagles and people want to take that away is a little unfair.”

The league could also be concerned about injury risk — given that it’s an infrequent play, data on injuries is scarce. Sirianni believes the injury angle is a red herring.

“I think when you look at that — ’cause we’ve looked into that, too — there wasn’t a lot of injuries there,” he said. “I think that’s a little made up, to be honest. Now, the numbers will tell the truth, but I don’t think there (were) many injuries with it this year. I can’t remember one injury we had on that play, and we ran it more than anybody else.”

It would be a slippery slope for the NFL to ban a play simply because one team is superior to all others in running it. A rule proposal doesn’t mean there is any sort of appetite from the competition committee or owners to ban the play. If it even makes it to a vote, it would take 24 owners agreeing that the push needs to shove off.

“Obviously, I’m protective of it because we’ve had success with it,” Sirianni said. “Again, I think that the competition committee will do a good job of looking at everything.”