Sean McDermott doesn’t seem to be a fan of the tush push.
The Buffalo Bills head coach, who is also a member of the NFL competition committee, twice reiterated a stance at the NFL owner’s meetings Sunday and Monday, one he also took at the NFL scouting combine in February. He’s cited injury data, but not what injury data and positioning, but not what positioning.
McDermott’s stance allegedly, along with Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay, led to an animated discussion with Philadelphia Eagles brass at a hotel Sunday. The Eagles, along with the Bills, are among the main beneficiaries of the play.
Yet McDermott seemingly remains in favor of siding with the Green Bay Packers’ proposal to alter the play, prohibiting an offensive player from pushing a teammate lined up directly behind the snapper. NFL owners are scheduled to vote on the proposal during their stay in Palm Beach, Florida, which lasts through Wednesday.
“I've dove deeper into more of the data on it and just thought more about it as well and my position hasn't really changed at all,” McDermott said Monday. “I feel where I'm most concerned is, even though there is not significant data out there to this point, my biggest concern is the health and safety of the players, first and foremost.”
When reporters asked what data he was seeing, McDermott declined to delve into the conversation. Later in his press conference, though, McDermott cited the posture of players at the snap.
Linemen on both sides traditionally, particularly in Philadelphia’s version of the play, get into four-point stances, instead of a traditional three-point stance or two. As both sides are seeking leverage, it could create more head-to-head contact.
“I'm not going to get too specific to the teams, but there is different forms of it,” McDermott said. “I just believe that that posture, that I've seen, is not — and the doctors talk about that, so I'm going off some of what they're saying, as well, too — so that posture is not a healthy posture to be in, and then when you add force potentially to that posture, that's concerning for me in terms of the health and safety of the players.”
McDermott believes pushing adds more force to the play, while also saying data shows pushing adds very little to the success of the play. Before the Super Bowl, NFL Network conducted an interview with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who showed the force generated by Philadelphia’s offensive line makes the pushing of the quarterback irrelevant in the instances the quarterback is airborne due to his pushers.
But in instances where the quarterback isn’t airborne, not only does the offensive line get a headstart in momentum, but it uses the earth’s mass in its favor.
“The bigger the mass, the bigger the force you will need to create the acceleration,” deGrasse Tyson said. “The guys who are connected to the Earth, their mass includes that of the Earth because they are attached to the Earth.”
As successful as the Eagles were with the play, the Bills were not far off. Philadelphia went 39 of 48 on tush push plays (81.3%), according to CBS. Meanwhile, the Bills went 29 of 36 on their version of the play (80.6%).
The Bills do it differently, though. Quarterback Josh Allen often makes his move forward (and to the left) before being pushed. In fact, many times, Allen doesn’t get pushed from behind by a running back until he needs a little more force to get the necessary yards.
The Eagles’ version is a bit more compact and fluid. The quarterback often plows straight ahead and gets a push immediately. That’s partly why the Chiefs were able to solve Buffalo’s tush push in the AFC championship game.
Despite his own team’s success, McDermott seems to be placing his committee assignment first. It’s also important to ...
