Packers cite player safety and pace of play in proposing rule change to ban Eagles’ Tush Push

Third time’s the charm? The Green Bay Packers hope so.

For the third consecutive offseason, the Eagles’ famed Tush Push is under scrutiny, and the NFL on Wednesday announced rule change proposals coming from individual teams. The Packers are officially proposing an amendment to Rule 12, Section 1, marking the first formal proposal to make the Tush Push illegal.

Article 4 of that rule prohibits an offensive player from pulling a runner with the football in any direction, from using another player as essentially a shield, and from pushing or throwing his body into a teammate to aid him in an attempt to obstruct an opponent or to recover a loose ball.

» READ MORE: Eagles tackle Lane Johnson, soon to be 35, plans to keep on playing: ‘I love the challenge of being an older player’

The Packers, whose president publicly criticized the play in a column on the team’s website last month after the Eagles eliminated Green Bay from the playoffs, want to add new lines to Article 4 to read that no offensive player may “immediately at the snap, push or throw his body against a teammate, who was lined up directly behind the snapper and received the snap, to aid him in an attempt to gain yardage.”

The penalty would be 10 yards. Will it work?

There seemingly is more momentum than there previously has been to ban, with multiple coaches and 49ers general manager John Lynch, who serve on NFL’s competition committee, publicly commenting on it last month at the NFL scouting combine.

The Packers, in their official proposal, cite player safety and pace of play as the reason for the rule change. Bills coach Sean McDermott, who also is on the competition committee, cited injury risks. But league data revealed that the play resulted in zero injuries in 2024.

“But there is a fear that something serious could happen on that just because of the dynamics of it,” Lynch said last month.

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said it was “a little unfair” that teams were moving to ban the play and said the idea that it’s an automatic play for the Eagles was “a little insulting” because of how often and how hard they have worked at perfecting the play.

NFL owners could vote on the Packers’ proposal at the annual league meetings set for March 30 to April 2 in Palm Beach, Fla. It would take 24 of the 32 owners voting in favor of Green Bay’s amendment to change the rule and take the Tush Push out of the Eagles’ playbook.

» READ MORE: The Eagles’ Tush Push got a helpful nudge from a Scottish rugby coach

The Eagles, in a rule change that apparently has support, want the NFL’s overtime rules to apply to the regular season.

The change to Rule 16, overtime procedures, will mean both teams have the chance to possess the football no matter what happens on the first drive of a 15-minute overtime session.

The reason cited for the change: competitive equity.

The Detroit Lions think defensive holding and illegal contact penalties are too punitive and want to eliminate the automatic first down that comes with them.

They also want to change how the NFL seeds playoff teams. Detroit is suggesting that playoff teams be seeded by record, so a wild-card team could be seeded ahead of a divisional winner. How might that have looked this past season? The playoff teams would have been the same, but the matchups and seedings would have changed. The Eagles, for example, would have hosted the Rams in the wild-card round.

The Lions weren’t done. They also want players placed on injured reserve before or on roster cutdown day to not count against the 90-player limit unless that player is designated to return.