PHILADELPHIA -- With a vote coming Wednesday that could ban the tush push, a pair of prominent Philadelphia Eagles players downplayed the significance of the assisted quarterback sneak, which has become a staple of the team's offense over the past few seasons.
"I don't have any thoughts on it," wide receiver A.J. Brown said. "It's only 1 yard."
Left tackle Jordan Mailata struck a similar tone, saying: "They're ruling [on] the push? I guess we'll just do it with no push.
"In terms of them banning the tush push, I hate that name, so I hope they do ban it -- it's a stupid name," Mailata joked.
"But I can't control it, we can't control it, so we don't even worry about it. Right now, we're just installing our schemes, whatever [offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo] is installing that day, that's what we're focused on because worrying about if they're going to ban the tush push or not ain't going to win us a championship."
NFL owners decided to table a vote at the league meeting in April on the Green Bay Packers' initial proposal to ban the tush push -- a play in which a team lines up one or more players behind the quarterback to push him forward in short-yardage situations. The Packers have since submitted a revision of their rule proposal that would more broadly ban pushing or pulling the ball carrier anywhere on the field.
A vote is expected Wednesday at the spring meeting in Minneapolis.
"We'll see where that goes," Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. "We're not waiting very long to figure it out. It's going to be public [Wednesday]. And you know how I feel about it."
In February, Sirianni called it "a little unfair" that some teams are angling to have the play banned because it's highly successful for Philadelphia, adding that the idea that it's an automatic play is "a little insulting."
At the league meetings in April, Eagles CEO Jeffrey Lurie called it a "precision play" that is effective for Philly in part because of the team's top-end offensive line and quarterback Jalen Hurts, who can squat 600 pounds.
"I don't ever remember a play being banned because a single team or a few teams were running it effectively. It's part of what I think most of us love about football is it's a chess match. Let the chess match play out. And if for any reason it does get banned, we'll try to be the very best at short-yardage situations. We've got a lot of ideas there," he said.
There was little defense of the play during Philadelphia's media availability Tuesday. Hurts declined to comment on the topic.
The tush push appeared in only 0.28% of total plays last year, according to ESPN Research, but the Eagles and Buffalo Bills ran the play more often than other teams. The two combined to run 163 pushes in the past three seasons, more than the rest of the NFL combined, according to ESPN Research.
Not only did the Eagles and Bills run the play the most often, but they also were the most successful. They scored a touchdown or achieved a first down on 87% of their tush push attempts, according to ESPN Research, while the rest of the league was successful 71% of the time.
ESPN's Brooke Pryor contributed to this story.