WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Colts coach Shane Steichen hasn’t forgotten his roots.
When Nick Sirianni arrived at the NFL’s owners' meetings this week, the Eagles head coach was immediately asked about Green Bay’s proposal to ban the “tush push,” Philadelphia’s famous rugby-style quarterback sneak, a motion that is reportedly gaining traction around the league.
Sirianni, a former Colts offensive coordinator, responded by saying he has three former coordinators in head coaching jobs around the league, including Steichen, and that he better be able to count on their vote.
Steichen’s heard from his former boss.
Sirianni didn’t have to twist Steichen’s arm.
“Of course he has,” Steichen said with a laugh. “I’m not in favor of taking it out. I think it’s good for the game. I think that what they do, obviously they do it better than anyone. Other teams are doing it. Buffalo’s doing it.”
Steichen was Philadelphia’s offensive coordinator when the Eagles first started using the sneak, alternately called the “brotherly shove” because of the way Philadelphia lines up its backs and tight ends behind quarterback Jalen Hurts to shove the line forward.
Philadelphia uses it so often, and with so much success, that it has become a hot topic around the league. For the second consecutive offseason, a team submitted a proposal to ban the play (the Packers), and Bills head coach Sean McDermott said Monday that he supports a ban even though Buffalo's version of the play with Josh Allen has become almost as lethal as Philadelphia's.
But Steichen believes it’s always been a part of the game.
“I think it’s been around for a long time, to be completely honest,” Steichen said. “When you’re on the half-yard line, backed up and you’ve got to run a QB sneak, people are usually back there pushing. They just brought it to the field of play.”
Steichen’s support of the tush push might seem a little surprising, considering that the Colts haven’t used it often in his coaching tenure so far.
That decision wasn’t philosophical.
It was practical. The Colts want to do what works, and Indianapolis hasn’t been nearly as lethal as Steichen’s former team.
“We tried to do it early my first year,” Steichen said. “We ran it against Jacksonville Week 1, fourth-and-1, and we didn’t get anything. … We ran it again later that year against New England, my first year, when we were playing over in Germany, and we got stopped again, and then we ended up going, ‘Well, it’s fourth-and-1, we’ve gotten stopped twice on this thing, so we’ve got to switch it up.”
Frustrated by its inability to replicate Philadelphia’s success, Indianapolis has instead often leaned into the versatility of Anthony Richardson and Jonathan Taylor, attacking defenses with a variety of different runs.
Hurts and Saquon Barkley could obviously do most of the creative things the Colts do with Richardson and Taylor.
The Eagles don’t have to do anything different because ...
