In his four seasons as the Philadelphia Eagles’ starting quarterback, Jalen Hurts has scored 54 touchdowns. Thirty-three of those came on 1-yard runs. During that time, he also has set the NFL record for playoff touchdowns by a quarterback with 10. Half came on 1-yard runs.
At least one NFL team is tired of seeing the former Alabama standout go over the goal line from 1 yard out on the quarterback sneak that has been nicknamed the Tush Push and the Brotherly Shove.
Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, told NFL Network that one team has submitted a rules proposal to outlaw Philadelphia’s style of the quarterback sneak. Vincent did not identify the team.
The league’s competition committee will submit proposals for rules changes to the NFL team owners for approval at the annual league meeting March 30 through April 2. The proposals come from the teams, which are identified with their suggested changes, and from offseason studies and meetings by the competition committee.
At last year’s league meeting, the owners banned the hip-drop tackle.
“Hip drop and the Tush Push were in the same conversation three years ago,” Vincent told Judy Battista of nfl.com on Monday. “A year ago, we felt like let’s just focus in on the hip-drop tackle, and the Tush Push, just say, hey, the Philadelphia Eagles, they just do it better than everybody else.
“But there are some concerns. Our health and safety committee has laid that out today with a brief conversation on the injury report. There’s some challenges, some concerns that they’ll share with the broader group tomorrow. But the Tush Push will become a topic of discussion moving into March.”
The Eagles took advantage of a change in the NFL rulebook that dropped the prohibition against pushing ball-carriers with a formation that used the other backs to add pushing power to Hurts’ churn into the line.
Philadelphia’s ability to execute the play has helped Hurts march quickly up the NFL chart for touchdown runs by a quarterback.
Former Auburn All-American Cam Newton holds the NFL record for career rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 75. Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen ranks second with 65, and Hurts is No. 3 at 55.
Hurts had had four consecutive seasons with at least 10 touchdown runs. Newton with three and Allen with two are the only NFL quarterbacks who have had more than one such season.
