Few offensive concepts in recent NFL history have generated as much debate as the “Tush Push.” What began as a seemingly mundane variation of the quarterback sneak became a league-defining weapon for the Philadelphia Eagles — a play so effective and so controversial that owners have openly debated outlawing it for three straight offseasons.
And yet, for all its impact on the real game, it remains completely absent from Madden. Not a playbook formation. Not a contextual animation. Not even a situational prompt.
So the question has been floating around Madden communities for the last several years: Will the Tush Push ever make it into Madden? And if so, when?
As it turns out, there are several reasons why this one play is far more complicated than it seems.
Madden’s Engine Isn’t Built For The Tush Push
It’s easy to assume that the Tush Push is just a “QB sneak, but stronger.” But in reality, it’s a complicated, multi-body physics interaction that Madden’s current engine simply can’t handle cleanly.
A real-world Tush Push involves the following:
- A low pad-level surge from the offensive line
- Coordinated leg drive from the quarterback
- One or two backs driving the QB forward from behind
- A compact trench where 5–7 bodies collide and collapse as a unit
In Madden, offensive and defensive line play is still driven largely by animation branching, not full-body physical leverage. Player movement and contact are governed by paired interactions, not the sort of “everyone pushing at one” physics you see in rugby scrums.
To simulate the Tush Push effectively, EA would need:
- Multi-player momentum transfer
- Predictable pile progress
- Synchronized push animations from multiple offensive players
- New low-center-of-gravity models for trench play
- Smarter short-yardage defensive AI
Right now, that’s not something the Frostbite animation system can do without creating new exploits. If the play existed in its real form, players would call it on every 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-2. It would become the online meta, the same way stretch runs once dominated Madden 20, or corner routes were meta in Madden 16.
EA can’t add the Tush Push until they’re confident it won’t break the entire competitive balance.
The NFL Keeps Delaying A Final Call
There’s another layer: the NFL itself doesn’t know what it wants to do with the Tush Push.
The league’s Competition Committee has debated banning it every offseason since 2023. In fact, league owners held a vote in April 2025, in which 22-10 voted in favor of banning the play. Because the NFL requires a minimum of 24 votes to outlaw something, the play remains legal. However, it’s not unlikely that the Tush Push is put up for another vote in 2026.
This leaves EA in a bind. Each Madden title is typically developed for 12-18 months before its release. If EA invests development time into a fully animated, physics-heavy Tush Push and the NFL bans it three months later, that’s wasted work. Because if the NFL bans it, EA, as a licensee, is required to remove it.
Until the NFL officially rules on the play’s long-term legality, EA is unlikely to commit resources to implementing it.
Madden Would Need An Overhaul To Accommodate The Tush Push
Even if the league gave its blessing, Madden still needs foundational improvements before the Tush Push makes sense in-game.
Just days ago, our very own Kyler Wolff ran a simulation to see if offensive linemen’s ratings actually mattered. The article and research are great, and I’d highly recommend reading them in full. But, to sum it up, Kyler essentially created the greatest o-line in football and the worst. And while there were definitely differences in how the two units performed, the differences weren’t as drastic as one might think.
What this means is that offensive line play isn’t nearly as refined as it should be to accommodate implementing a play with as many moving parts as the Tush Push.
The QB sneak as it exists today is too upright, animation-locked, detached from real leverage battles, and missing pile formation and “scrum process” physics. The Tush Push requires a true short-yardage engine — something closer to rugby’s maul mechanics than standard line play. That means a rework of offensive engagement logic, defensive gap resistance, momentum-based mass interactions, and QB forward lean and center animations.
This is the kind of overhaul that typically comes with a new console generation or a foundational physics update. EA has hinted at larger-scale animation improvements before, but nothing has been implemented that would make the Tush Push possible.
So, will the Tush Push ever be in Madden? In all likelihood, yes. But I wouldn’t expect any progress on that front for a while.
