Feb 25, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans speaks during the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center.

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Texans’ Head Coach DeMeco Ryans Lends His Support to the Eagles Over Potential Ban on the Tush Push

Texans' head coach DeMeco Ryans is against banning of the Tush Push

Feb 25, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans speaks during the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center.

Defending Super Bowl Champions, the Philadelphia Eagles have been a competitive franchise over the past few seasons, making it to the Super Bowl twice in three years and lifting their second Lombardi Trophy in franchise history this past season. The Eagles dominated the 2024 season on both sides of the ball with playmakers all over the field.

While the Eagles’ defense was recognized for their dominant front line, good linebacker play, and the exploits of rookie cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, boosting the secondary, Philly’s offense ran through Saquon Barkley for the most part with quarterback Jalen Hurts finding support from pass-catchers A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert.

Even though the Eagles’ success has been a collective effort of players and coaches both on and off the field, it is their standout play referred to as the ‘Tush Push’ or the ‘Brotherly Shove’ that has garnered quite a bit of attention over the past few seasons. Philadelphia started implementing this play during their 2022 season and since then they have perfected it to such an extent that nearly no team in the league is capable of stopping it.

Packers Propose Banning the Play

Ahead of the rule changes for the NFL for the 2025 season, the Green Bay Packers have requested the Tush Push to be banned as a play mainly citing player safety as the reason for doing so. While teams across the league seem to be divided in their opinions as to whether or not the play should remain, former Texans and Eagles linebacker and current head coach of the Texans, DeMeco Ryans believes that the play should stand. If the play is banned, Ryans believes that would be a punishment to a team that is really good at something.

Texans HC DeMeco Ryans on attempts to ban Eagles tush push/Brotherly Shove: “It’s tough to punish a team for being really good at something.” pic.twitter.com/HBOqDs7WW0
— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) March 31, 2025

This seems to be quite a popular opinion though, as Ryans is not the only one to show support for the play. In fact, other head coaches around the league such as John Harbaugh, Kevin Stefanski, Shane Steichen, Mike Vrabel, and Aaron Glenn have directly or indirectly stated that the play should not be banned.

Others, however, are more skeptical while many are also on the fence and undecided as they look to gain further information regarding the safety issues if any for the players. Whatever the fate of the Tush Push is, the Eagles have used it to gain quite an advantage in short-yard situations.

Eagles’ Success Using the Tush Push

The ‘Tush Push’ is essentially a play designed to push the quarterback directly after he collects the ball following the snap in order to gain the required yardage. This play is used for short-yardage gains on third and fourth downs. Although a couple of other teams have tried to replicate the play, with the Buffalo Bills coming closest to the level of success achieved by the Eagles, Philadelphia is miles ahead of the competition.

Despite no official data being made available that can shed light on the success of the play, reports indicate that the Eagles had a success rate of 86% as against the league average of 76% in 2022 and 2023. In 2024, the Eagles continued to use the play with tremendous success in spite of losing their star center Jason Kelce to retirement. The center is the most important player on the play and even though the Eagles replaced him, they were still able to execute the play to near perfection.

As a matter of fact, last season, Philadelphia converted 39 of their 48 tush push attempts directly resulting in either a first down or a touchdown in the red zone.

Also Read: CB Christian Benford Has Agreed to a Contract Extension With the Buffalo Bills

DeMeco Ryans

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Philadelphia Eagles

Devavrat Kulkarni

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I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!