The Philadelphia Eagles won the biggest debate of the National Football League this week and the New Orleans Saints played a role in helping.
Philadelphia's 'Tush Push' was up for debate after the Green Bay Packers put forth a proposal to get the play banned. For the play to get banned, 24 votes were needed. The resolution fell short with 22 votes against the play. One of the teams that supported keeping the play in the game was the Saints.
This wasn't too shocking as head coach Kellen Moore utilized it plenty last year while serving as the Eagles' offensive coordinator. He shared his thoughts on the play on Thursday while speaking to the media.
"It’s a play that obviously has drawn a lot of discussions,” Moore said. “As you go through the process, I know there was an injury component that was emphasized and a speed of play both, [but I] didn’t feel like there was much data or proof to say that was justifiable as we went through that process and so, I feel good.
"I’m really happy that it didn’t go through that process, especially the way they counter moved it, with the way the potential latest proposal was to eliminate all pushing from an offensive player perspective, which created another whole can of worms that I don’t think everyone quite realized — that that occurs in a lot more football plays than just that, and so we were drastically changing a number of plays in this. . . . I feel like it’s a play that ultimately one team or a couple of teams that invested a ton of time into, put a lot of work into it, and they’ve been able capitalize on it. But it’s just like any other play: It’s available to everyone, and we’ll see."
So, now the big question is will Moore bring the play to New Orleans? He didn't rule it out.
"I’ve had great experience with it," Moore said. "It’s an investment. It’s a play that Philadelphia has done a great job of investing a lot of time into, spending a lot of time embracing that play, and there’s a skill component to it as well that we’ve got to evaluate."
It's going to be an interesting few months, to say the least. The Saints have a quarterback competition on their hands. If Tyler Shough wins the job, he has great size at 6’5’' and 219 pounds. He has the size to run it well, but do the Saints have the offensive line to do so? Plus, Shough suffered some serious injuries in college. Will they put him in that position? We will see.
