The Eagles' "Tush Push" continued to be the talk of the NFL in 2023. Philadelphia rode the quarterback sneak to a Super Bowl appearance, and that elite efficiency continued into the next season.
In 2022, the Eagles converted a first down or touchdown on 29 of their 32 quarterback sneaks. That was good for a whopping 90.6% success rate despite opponents knowing the play was coming.
"It’s not a sneak anymore," Eagles center Jason Kelce told The Athletic last season. "There’s nothing sneaky about it. Both teams know what’s coming."
The play itself is rather simple. The Eagles line up with all of their players near the line of scrimmage, and then quarterback Jalen Hurts attempts to drive forward to get the first down after receiving the ball. As he is doing that, another player pushes the quarterback from behind to get him over the line — hence the name's colorful moniker.
Even with a full offseason to develop a counter to the "tush push," NFL teams have failed to find a way to slow down the Eagles in these short-yardage situations.
The Eagles converted 37 of their 40 sneak attempts during the 2023 regular season. That success rate of 92.5% is even better than last season.
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Why is the play practically unstoppable? A litany of factors have contributed toward making it the most dominant short-yardage play in football — and one that isn't easy for opponents to replicate.
Why the Eagles' 'Tush Push' is practically unstoppable
1. Jalen Hurts has incredible strength.
Hurts is the driving force behind the success of the "tush push," both literally and figuratively. The 25-year-old quarterback possesses incredible strength — as well as a 6-1, 223-pound frame that makes him the ideal candidate to run the short-yardage play.
Over the years, many have marveled at Hurts' strength and the workout videos he posts to social media. Most notably, there is a video from 2021 of the quarterback deadlifting a whopping 620 pounds.
Jalen Hurts with the 620 lbs deadlift. QB1 is a strong dude!
— Thomas R. Petersen (@thomasrp93) July 13, 2021
Love the deco at the gym where Hurts and Lane Johnson work out!#Eagles (via Gabriel_rangel on IG) pic.twitter.com/5Q9pEHX3Ye
Hurts accomplishing such feats is nothing new for him. Dating back to his days at Alabama, he moonlighted as a power lifter. As AL.com reported, Hurts was performing 500-pound squats by the time he was a sophomore in high school. And at one event, he bench-pressed 275 pounds before dead-lifting 585 pounds.
If Hurts had merely maintained his strength from that point on, he'd be among the strongest quarterbacks in the NFL. However, he has continued to build on his strength, and that has been his biggest asset when running the "tush push."
When pushing the pile, Hurts' leg drive makes it nearly impossible to stonewall him. He isn't just falling forward, as some quarterbacks do in quarterback sneak situations. That effort to push the pile makes it difficult for opposing defenders to stop Hurts, especially considering the extra help he is getting from behind.
2. The push from behind gives Hurts extra momentum.
Speaking of that push from behind, that's another major reason that the "tush push" works. Tackling Hurts is hard enough, but trying to stop his forward momentum with someone propelling him from behind in a rugby-style scrum? That adds another degree of difficulty to the play.
That said, the push itself isn't as easy as one would think. Both Grant Calcaterra and Dallas Goedert explained that there are key elements about which the tight ends doing the pushing must know before executing their part of the play.
"First, make sure he gets the snap," Calcaterra told Football Outsiders last season. "Second, once he gets the snap, just push him as much as you can."
How do the tight ends make sure that the ball is secure?
"It’s all about timing," Goedert said. "And once Jalen gets the ball up to his chest, I just start pushing."
"Hopefully, he’s low enough,” Sanders said of Hurts. "And then we just use all our power."
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3. The Eagles have a top-tier offensive line, starring Jason Kelce.
The top-tier offensive line providing the push also has played a major role in the play's success.
The Eagles have long had one of the NFL's best offensive lines, and their interior trio has been particularly strong. The team may have lost Isaac Seumalo to the Steelers during the offseason, but Jason Kelce remains the game's best center. He earned an All-Pro first-team nod for his play in 2023, and his combination of strength and speed off the ball has been paramount in blasting space open for Hurts.
Next to Kelce, both Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens have performed solidly. Each ranks among Pro Football Focus' top 30 graded guards so in conjunction with Kelce, the trio has been able to create space at the point of attack.
Need proof of that? On the season, Hurts averaged 3.2 yards before contact, while Eagles running back D'Andre Swift averaged 2.9. Both ranked in the top 10 in the league and in the top five at their respective positions, as Hurts and Miles Sanders did last season.
What does that mean? The Eagles' offensive line creates space quickly after engaging opponents. That is part of what allows Hurts to generate movement on his quarterback sneaks; his line creates just enough space for him to plunge and get the first down before absorbing too much contact.
4. The Eagles have added wrinkles to keep teams off-balance
As Eagles' opponents have searched for a way to beat the "tush push," many have resorted to loading the box to try to take away as much space as possible from Hurts.
On rare occasions, that has worked. However, Philadelphia is adding wrinkles to the play to keep it effective.
Take, for example, this play from an Eagles-Commanders game in 2023. Philadelphia lined up to attempt what appeared to be a sneak. That sent Washington scrambling its men to the defensive front.
Instead, Hurts handed the ball to Swift, who was a half a step behind him. The running back took the ball and bolted toward the outside for a touchdown.
The @Eagles faked the Brotherly Shove for a Swift TD!
— NFL (@NFL) October 29, 2023
📺: #PHIvsWAS on FOX
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/Quwvdzpx7G pic.twitter.com/MkGg20BjXk
Philadelphia has run this sort of action several times out of this formation. That has kept opposing defenses on their toes and has forced them to prepare for non-sneak options.
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5. QB sneaks are highly successful in short-yardage situations already.
There's no denying that the Eagles' "tush push" adds a special spin to the quarterback sneak, but it's worth noting that their high conversion percentage is also a basic truth of the game.
If you are in a short-yardage situation, the best move is almost always to run a quarterback sneak.
According to a study conducted by Yale, it was determined that going for a QB sneak on fourth-and-1 is successful 82.8% of the time. That is more than 20 points higher than all other plays used on fourth-and-1.
| Play type | Conversion rate |
| QB sneak | 82.8 |
| Non-QB running plays | 63.4 |
| All non-sneaks | 62 |
That study — which used data available from the 1998 through 2015 NFL seasons — also determined that quarterback sneaks had an efficacy of 89.7% in fourth-and-2 scenarios. So, the success of the play wasn't limited to runs of the 1-yard variety.
Another study conducted by Sports Info Solutions using data from 2015 through 2018 found similar results. That study established that quarterback sneaks had a conversion rate of 88% on third- or fourth-and-short scenarios, the best of any potential play call in those scenarios.
NFL.com also conducted a study assessing quarterback sneaks from 2017 to 2022. The league found the conversion rate of all quarterback sneaks to sit at 83.6% from that period. So, the Eagles' 92.5% success rate on the push sneak is impressive, especially considering that the league average conversion rate on push sneaks was 81.5%, per that study.
| Type of QB sneak | Conversions | Attempts | Conversion % |
| Push sneak | 181 | 222 | 81.5 |
| Traditional sneak | 794 | 944 | 84.1 |
| Total | 975 | 1,166 | 83.6 |
All that's to say that it's clear that the Eagles' success rate is a league-wide anomaly. The easiest way to explain why that gap exists is that Philadelphia simply has the perfect personnel needed to execute that sneak, from Hurts to the offensive line to the pushers.
