• The Eagles lead the way in Tush Push plays: Since 2021, the Eagles have run 145 quarterback sneaks, nearly doubling the next closest team, the Buffalo Bills (77).

• While the Eagles outperform most of the league in EPA per quarterback sneak, there’s little evidence to suggest they hold a significant edge in execution: Their true advantage lies in volume: they’ve fully embraced one of the most efficient short-yardage plays in football, leveraging it more frequently than any other team.

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Though the news came earlier this offseason, the league’s decision not to ban the “Tush Push” — or in simpler terms, QB sneaks in which players line up behind the QB and help push him across the line to gain — remains one of the more impactful rule outcomes from the Spring League Meeting. With the play surviving the vote, it stays on the table for offenses heading into the 2025 season.

While the Philadelphia Eagles are no longer the only team running the Tush Push, they were the ones to popularize it during the 2021 season and have used it more than any other offense over the past four years. Their Super Bowl victory last season further spotlighted the play, drawing scrutiny and calls for a ban from opponents who have consistently struggled to defend it.

But just how much value have the Eagles extracted from the play that’s generated so many headlines?

No team has run the play more

As the chart below illustrates, Philadelphia has added nearly twice as many expected points on quarterback sneaks as any other team over the past four seasons, with the Denver Broncos trailing as the next closest offense.

It’s no surprise to see the Eagles atop this list. Since 2021, they’ve run 145 quarterback sneaks — including those nullified by penalty — nearly doubling the next closest team, the Buffalo Bills (77).

And quarterback sneaks typically result in positive EPA, given that it’s a high conversion rate play and that a successful quarterback sneak typically results in a new set of downs or a touchdown. The average expected points added of a quarterback sneak (tush push variety or not) in the NFL since 2021 is 0.25. So, it follows that the team that has run nearly twice as many quarterback sneaks as the next closest offense over the past four seasons has a comfortable lead in total expected points added on the play. 

Identifying the league’s best at executing the play

Does that mean the Eagles are also the best offense in the NFL at executing the play, though? Not necessarily. 

The Eagles have been amongthe best. 

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Ravens lead the way in that metric, though all three teams have run fewer than 25 quarterback sneaks over that time frame. The Denver Broncos, however, also rank above Philadelphia in average EPA per sneak on a healthy 57 sneaks since 2021 (fourth-most in the NFL). 

The debate around the Tush Push doesn’t concern all quarterback sneaks—it focuses specifically on how Philadelphia and, increasingly, other teams are executing them.

While PFF doesn’t explicitly chart the Tush Push variation, we can approximate it using available data points, most notably our “running back depth” field. On Tush Push plays, backfield players typically align just 2 to 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage to position themselves for the initial push, contrasting with the deeper alignments seen on standard sneaks.

By filtering quarterback sneaks to include only those with running back depths of 2 to 3 yards, we can approximate which teams are utilizing and succeeding with the Tush Push variation.

The results below reflect all quarterback sneaks since 2021 that meet those criteria, further narrowed to situations with 2 or fewer yards to gain. This helps eliminate outliers, such as when Philadelphia used the sneak to gain space near its goal line or manage the clock late in games.

QB sneaks with a RB/FB Depth of 3 or fewer yards and with 2 or fewer yards to go | Since 2021 (excludes plays nullified by penalty)

Only two teams have regularly run quarterback sneaks under these filtered parameters: the Eagles (82 attempts) and the Buffalo Bills (43). Both offenses have converted over 80% of those plays.

For context, the league-wide conversion rate on all quarterback sneaks with two or fewer yards to go is 81%. So while the Eagles lead the way in usage, their success rate on this approximation of Tush Push plays isn’t dramatically above the league norm. 

The average conversion rate on all play types with two or fewer yards to go is just 59%—more than 20 percentage points lower than quarterback sneaks in the same scenarios.

The bottom line

While the Eagles outperform most of the league in average EPA per quarterback sneak, there’s little evidence to suggest they hold a significant edge in execution. Their true advantage lies in volume: they’ve fully embraced one of the most efficient short-yardage plays in football, leveraging it more frequently than any other team.

The confidence Philadelphia has gained from its short-yardage success has also fueled more aggressive fourth-down decision-making, adding yet another benefit to its commitment to the quarterback sneak.

With the Tush Push ban failing and another offseason for teams to analyze and adapt, we may see more offenses attempt to replicate the play in 2025. Until that shift materializes, the Eagles remain well-positioned to keep capitalizing on one of the most efficient and difficult-to-defend plays in football, quietly collecting first downs and increasing their win probability one shove at a time.