Every NFL season has its “meta” play. A few years ago, it was the RPO. Before that, it was mesh concepts and deep crossers. But lately, nothing in real-life football has been more guaranteed than the “Tush Push”, the Philadelphia Eagles’ infamous QB sneak where Jalen Hurts gets shoved forward by 600 pounds of humanity for a near-automatic first down (or touchdown) every time.
To say the Tush Push is controversial would be the understatement of the century. In fact, the play is so effective, the NFL considered banning it during this past offseason. NFL owners voted 22-10 in favor of outlawing the play, which was just short of the 24 votes the league needed to ban it.
Despite its infamous nature, Madden players have been racing into the Philly playbook each year to see if the play is featured. Spoiler alert: It’s not in Madden 26. And thank god it isn’t, because it would break the game wide open.
Why The Tush Push Would Be Broken In Madden 26
The Tush Push is essentially an unstoppable short-yardage nuke in real life (or, until some defensive genius figures it out). Now, imagine that nuke being dropped on Madden 26 for a second — you’d have every 4th-and-inches or goal-line play be a guaranteed conversion. Hell, I can envision a world where players would aim to collect a chunk of yards to set up 2nd-and-3 or 2nd-and-4, then just run the Tush Push for an easy 1-2 yards until a first down.
And honestly? The Tush Push isn’t really needed to begin with. I’m not a dedicated online Madden player by any means, but even with limited experience, I know that QB sneaks are already pretty overpowered in online play. You can make the case they’re a tad too effective in single-player, too.
Look, I get it — the Tush Push is a real play. And sports gamers like their immersion and being able to replicate what they see weekly on NFL television. However, at a certain point, one has to accept that Madden 26 is a video game and that it can’t handle certain things, especially in the current state it’s in.
Has the dev team over at EA done their best to make Madden as good as it possibly can from a technical standpoint within a yearly release cycle? I’m positive they have. But for now, I don’t foresee any way that the Tush Push can be realistically implemented into Madden, as doing so would almost certainly ruin the game’s competitive ecosystem. And in case you haven’t noticed, that’s pretty much the series’ bread and butter.
