INDIANAPOLIS — This is the first season John Lynch is serving on the NFL’s competition committee, and when it reopened discussions for the third consecutive offseason about the Eagles’ Tush Push play, the San Francisco 49ers general manager sat in and listened to arguments made on both sides.
Several coaches have made their stances clear on the issue at their podiums during the NFL scouting combine this week, from Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott pointing to the injury risk associated with the play to Atlanta Falcons coach Raheem Morris saying the Tush Push “should have been illegal three years ago.”
While Lynch took time as his podium on Wednesday to congratulate the Eagles on winning the Super Bowl and said they “are fantastic at that play,” the 53-year-old entering his ninth season as general manager appears to be against it as well.
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“I’ve always been a proponent of, if you don’t like it, then stop it,” Lynch said, “but I have my own feelings on the play, and I long have. It’s not real pretty to watch. I think back to my playing days [as a safety] and I think that might have made me do things that I wouldn’t be proud of, because if they’re aren’t going to stop it, then I will. That kind of trickles into players that have a certain mentality to hit.
“There’s probably not enough significant data to show that a lot of people are getting injured on this play, but there is a fear that something serious could happen on that just because of the dynamics of it.”
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles, who also sits on the league’s competition committee and has faced the Eagles four times since the Birds popularized the play in 2022, went in the opposite direction, pointing out that learning how to stop the Tush Push would be better than eliminating or modifying the play.
“I think it’s a rugby element, but at the same time, when a team gets something that they’re good at, you’ve got to learn how to stop it,” Bowles told reporters on Tuesday. “I don’t think the first thing that you can do is try to take it out of the ballgame. That takes away the creativity of everybody trying to do everything else. Until we learn how to stop it, [the Eagles] are going to continue it — if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”
Lynch added that there has been “great discussion” and there’s been “a lot of strong opinions on both sides” regarding the Tush Push. He added that he expects the discussions to continue into the league meetings, which will be held from March 30-April 2 in Palm Beach, Fla.