While the “tush push” was the talk of the NFL owners’ meetings, the play's importance had little meaning to the Arizona Cardinals.
The measure to ban the tush push — the Eagles’ signature quarterback sneak, aided by personnel in the backfield shoving Jalen Hurts forward — failed by a reported 22-10 vote Wednesday.
The measure needed 24 votes from the team owners to be implemented.
Why the shrug from the Cardinals? Well, when you have a wispy (for football), 5-foot-10, 207-pound quarterback, the tush push seems, on paper, less effective than more conventional means to secure a short-yardage first down or touchdown. Kyler Murray's rushing yards mostly originate from scrambles or designed runs outside the tackles. He is one of the NFL's smallest quarterbacks.
Hurts is a stocky, 6-foot-1, 223-pounder, who famously has lifted 600 pounds of weight with one hoist. And, Hurts is stationed behind what is considered the NFL’s best offensive line.
In 2024, according to ESPN, the Cardinals ran the tush push three times. The play was run 101 of the 35,415 plays last season according to ESPN.
The proposal to eliminate the tush push was started by the Packers after the 2024 season. The measure seemed to gain momentum heading into the owners’ meetings and on the day of the vote the play was expected to be outlawed.
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and retired center Jason Kelce reportedly made emotional pitches to the owners Wednesday to keep the play. Lurie’s comments reportedly led to a heated debate among the meeting attendees.
“It's not disappointing for me, for our committee, for the committees that did the work,” NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay told reporters in Eagan, Minn., the site of the meetings. “It takes 24 votes to pass anything. We don’t set a low bar.”
The Cardinals’ link to the tush push
There is a Cardinals connection to the vote.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni lobbied in March for his former coordinators to persuade their owners to vote for the tush push. That would be Arizona head coach Jonathan Gannon, the Eagles’ defensive coordinator in 2022; Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen, the offensive coordinator in 2022; and New Orleans head coach Kellen Moore who was Sirianni’s offensive coordinator last season.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Sirianni told NFL Network in March. “All I will say about it is Gannon, Steichen and Moore better vote for it.”
Sirianni’s pressure campaign reportedly had mixed results as Arizona and Indy voted to ban the tush push, according to ESPN. New Orleans voted to keep the play, along with the Eagles, Ravens, Browns, Lions, Jaguars, Dolphins, Patriots, Jets and Titans.