If there’s one thing that Super Bowl LVII taught us, it’s that Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts are two great competitors and two of the best players at their respective positions. While Mahomes is another tier than Hurts, the two went back and forth in one of the best Super Bowls in recent memory.
The Chiefs won 38-35. And while Mahomes, who was named the Super Bowl MVP, was just a bit better on that fateful day, the mutual respect between him and Hurts is pretty clear. That’s carried over into the 2023 NFL season, as the reigning NFL MVP recently commented on the Eagles and the “tush push” play that’s taken the entire NFL world by storm.
“It’s an advantage for them,” Mahomes said, via USA Today’s Chiefs Wire. “You see, other teams really try to do it, and they can’t do it as well as they do. It speaks to their offensive line and speaks to their quarterback. They know how to do it at a really high level. They’ve practiced and worked on it.
“So I think, as you see now, other teams have tried to kind of manipulate and do that different type of stuff. And then it might get the first down, but it’s not as pretty and as powerful as when the Eagles do it. So I mean, all to them, and that they’ve kind of mastered something that I think other teams are going to try to do as best they can.”
It’s the most controversial play in the league, and the most unstoppable. On their way to the Super Bowl last season, the Eagles had a lot of success with the play drawn up by head coach Nick Sirianni. They were 37-of-41 on “tush push” attempts last season, and that success has carried over into 2023.
Hurts will line up under center, usually with two or three players (Dallas Goddert, D’Andre Swift and AJ Brown for example) lined up behind him in the backfield, and after taking the snap, he’ll receive a huge push from behind.
It’s pretty big that the league’s best player has come out in support of the play. Mahomes is essentially saying that in a copycat league, no one can execute the play as well as Philadelphia can, and that’s led to some frustrations. While the Chiefs don’t necessarily need to use the “tush push,” you never know what type of wrinkle Andy Reid will have up his sleeve.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.