NFL owners’ vote: Eagles ‘Tush Push’ stays. Why the Seahawks may be next to use it
The Tush Push is staying.
Mike Macdonald approves.
NFL owners meeting outside Minneapolis Wednesday voted on a rules-change proposal from the Green Bay Packers. It sought to make aiding a ball carrier illegal. It was to effectively ban the highly successful “Tush Push” the Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles use, with teammates pushing and pulling their quarterback across the line to gain on a QB sneak.
A preliminary vote of the 32 team owners was 22 for banning the play, 10 against. League rules require a three-fourths majority, 24 votes, to approve a proposal.
So by two votes the Tush Push remains legal for 2025.
The play has become a cross-cultural phenomenon. Even NPR reported on the Tush Push vote Wednesday.
On which side do the Seahawks stand on this?
Judge by Macdonald’s rugged mentality, and by what the Seahawks head coach has said about the Tush Push.
“I think it’s a good play,” Macdonald told reporters at the league’s earlier owners’ meetings last month, as relayed then from Florida by Brady Henderson of espn.com.
“I understand the positions people have with the health and safety of it. You never want to put your players in that type of risk. But it seems to me like there’s enough plays where we feel like that isn’t the case right now.
“So I think it’s a good play and you’ve got to defend it.”
Then the league’s youngest head coach, 37, added of his Seahawks: “And maybe we’ll execute it one day.”
The Eagles were one of the 10 teams that voted to keep the play. Others included the Baltimore Ravens — for whom Macdonald coached for a decade before becoming the Seahawks’ leader before the 2024 season — plus the New England Patriots and New York Jets. That’s according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The Cleveland Browns also were one of the 10 that voted to keep the Tush Push, Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com reported.
Commissioner Roger Goodell and others have cited player safety concerns of the rugby-like mosh pit of bodies slamming into each other on the play as a reason to ban the Tush Push.
The effort to ban the play has also been a case of, If You Can’t Beat ‘em, Ban ‘em. The debate over it reportedly became heated between owners and league executives Wednesday.
The Eagles and Buffalo Bills have run the Tush Push more over the past three seasons than the other 30 teams combined, per ESPN. They’ve had a 87% success rate of 87% on third- and fourth-down and short. The rest of the league has converted at an average rate of 71%.
Tush Push in Seattle?
Like many teams, the Seahawks haven’t used the Tush Push.
Maybe they should.
In 2024 Seattle’s running plays converted just 15 of 24 situations of third- and fourth-down and 1 yard to go. That success rate of 62.5% was well below below the league average.
As Macdonald said, perhaps the Seahawks will use the Tush Push. It would be part of the coach’s overhaul of Seattle’s running game to a more smash-mouth mentality and way.
Macdonald is seeking a more physical approach, in short yardage and all situations, for his 2025 Seahawks.
He’s hired Klint Kubiak to be their new offensive coordinator. A former Saints and Vikings OC and 49ers and Broncos assistant, Kubiak is reintroducing a long-lost fullback to Seattle’s offense.
Last month, the team drafted one for the first time in decades, Robbie Ouzts from Alabama.
“Yeah,” Macdonald said this month the day Seattle drafted the 6-foot-3, 274-pound Ouzts, “you’re going to see two backs there a good bit.”
Ouzts was a tight end in at Alabama. He will compete with veteran and special-teams mainstay Brady Russell for the fullback job. Seahawks coaches are converting Russell from tight end to fullback this spring and summer.
The Seahawks also drafted quarterback Jalen Milroe this spring, in the third round. Milroe needs work to be a more accurate passer. But he rushed for 32 touchdowns his final two seasons at Alabama. The 6-2, 216-pound QB ran over college linebackers.
Macdonald and general manager John Schneider have said Kubiak and Seattle’s offense may have a package of plays specifically tailored to Milroe’s strengths in Seahawks game plans this fall.
“I’m really excited to see our run game come to life,” Macdonald said after Seattle’s 2025 ended. “These guys fit what we’re trying to do, how we want to do it.
“You have to move people. Got to get downhill and play north and south.”
Maybe even with a new Seattle Tush Push.
This story was originally published May 21, 2025 at 11:38 AM.
