Why Peyton Manning has the Eagles’ back on the Tush Push, and what he loves about Jalen Hurts

Peyton Manning is one of the best passers in league history. Take a look at just about any all-time record list related to the quarterback position — from passing yards to passing touchdowns — and it won’t take long to find his name near the top.

Still, the Hall of Fame quarterback can appreciate a good Tush Push.

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Manning displayed his admiration for the rendition of the quarterback sneak the Eagles have popularized in his latest episode of ESPN+’s Peyton’s Places on Sunday. On the show, Manning returned to Philadelphia to learn the lore of the push play with the help of Jason Kelce, one of the key cogs who helped make it go before his retirement after the 2023 season.

The Tush Push experienced significant pushback this past offseason, as the Eagles’ upcoming opponent on Monday night, the Green Bay Packers, submitted a proposal ahead of the spring league meetings that effectively would ban it. The rule change failed to garner the support it needed for approval.

Detractors around the league may come for the play again in the spring, this time with a focus on the challenges to officiate it properly. But Manning sees the Tush Push’s beauty. He called the episode a “celebration of the play that [the Eagles have] perfected,” making his position on the play’s future clear.

» READ MORE: The history of the Tush Push debate

“I’m on the Eagles’ side,” Manning told The Inquirer. “They have perfected it. I can promise you that there’s other teams that are trying, that have tried to do it in practice, and maybe just can’t quite get it right. But it’s no different than a great Bill Walsh play that he came up with back in the day that the Niners perfected.

“Other teams, it’s a copycat league, and if you can copycat it, you will. If you can’t, then you probably complain that it’s not fair. So I’m on the Eagles’ side of it. I think it’s their niche, and it works, and they make it happen.”

In the episode, Manning sits down with Kelce to pore over film of the quarterback sneak’s origins, dating back to the 1940 NFL Championship Game, when Chicago Bears quarterback Sid Luckman ran the play for likely the first time in league history.

But Manning said he didn’t want to simply talk about the history that preceded the Tush Push. He wanted to participate in its history, too. To fully experience the Tush Push, Manning enlisted Kelce and the Temple football team to show him how to run it … as the center. The retired players swapped roles — and uniforms — and took to what was described on the show as a scrap of turf from the Vet rolled out at Lincoln Financial Field to execute the play.

Kelce, who was 6-foot-3, 295 pounds at the end of his NFL career, explained to Manning that he naturally achieved great leverage on the Tush Push because of his relative lack of size at the position.

“What I didn’t realize was that the play, according to Jason, was really kind of designed around him, and he told me that for the most part of his career, his size was sort of considered a weakness,” Manning said. “But once they kind of made this play their bread and butter, his size actually became his strength, and they kind of had a competitive advantage because he could get so low.”

It’s still the Eagles’ bread-and-butter play in the post-Kelce era. According to Pro Football Focus, Hurts has executed 17 quarterback sneaks this season, picking up 12 first downs and three touchdowns at a 88.3% success rate.

At 6-5, Manning doesn’t possess the same natural leverage that Kelce did, though. The longtime Eagles center had a cheeky coaching point for Manning in the episode to help him get low.

“‘Head down, ass high,’” Manning said. “[Former Indianapolis Colts center] Jeff Saturday said that’s the best quote of all time in Peyton’s Places history.”

While the play may have been centered on Kelce, Jalen Hurts still is an integral part of its success. Manning is well-acquainted with the Eagles’ franchise quarterback, dating back to when Hurts was in college at Alabama and Oklahoma. Hurts chipped in twice as a counselor at the Manning Passing Academy, a three-day camp for high schoolers run by Manning and his storied football family.

Since then, Hurts and Manning have maintained a relationship and a sense of mutual respect. Just two weeks after the Super Bowl, the Champagne barely dried from the carpet of the New Orleans Saints’ locker room, Manning said Hurts called him with questions about the Eagles’ upcoming season.

“He said, ‘Hey, there’s some things I think we can do to be even better. Peyton, what do you think?’” Manning said. “As opposed to being on some island celebrating, he was already into [the] 2025-26 season. So that tells you everything.

“He’s still a very hungry player. And how lucky the Eagles fans should be to have a guy like that.”

That conversation, Manning said, focused primarily on Manning’s responsibilities at the line of scrimmage in his playing days. After all, the two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback was heralded throughout his career for his ability to process the defense at the line and check to a different play if needed. Hurts has spoken about his increased autonomy in the offense as he continues to mature as a quarterback and gain the trust of Nick Sirianni.

That persistent desire to grow in his role, especially when it comes to the mental aspect of the game, impresses Manning most about Hurts.

“Jalen can throw it as far, can run as fast as anybody, but the fact that he’s combining that with a real appreciation of the cerebral part of understanding plays, mastering each play,” Manning said. “It’s mastering each play vs. each coverage. Just because you run a play and you get man-to-man coverage, OK, I got it. OK, what if you run the same play and they play Cover 2? What is the actual read there?

“I ran basically the same offense my whole career in Indianapolis and Denver, and that’s a lot of reps with the same play over and over again against each defense. So you never stop learning. And Jalen is still a young player, and the fact that he’s going all-in trying to learn and trying to master the cerebral part, I think it’s just a great quality.”

That conversation two weeks after the Super Bowl wasn’t the first time the younger quarterback consulted Manning. Typically, he said that Hurts comes to him with questions about specific plays within the Eagles’ offense.

Given Sirianni’s history with the Colts, Manning said that the Eagles’ scheme features some plays similar to those Manning used to run under Tom Moore, Indianapolis’ offensive coordinator from 1998 to 2009. Sirianni never coached under Moore, but he was the offensive coordinator in Indianapolis for Frank Reich, the former Colts head coach whose time with the organization began in 2006 as an intern.

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When Hurts calls Manning, the seven-time All-Pro quarterback offers his input on different concepts and how he would read them depending on the coverage.

“I just have great respect for guys that are just trying to learn and don’t assume that they know it all, and, ‘I don’t need anybody else’s help,’” Manning said. “And I don’t know if I’ve helped him or not, but the fact that he’s calling and asking me, he tells me that he’s always looking to learn and get a little bit better, and that tells you everything that you need to know about him.”

Manning holds Hurts in high regard, even if he left him off his top five quarterback rankings he gave at a Fanatics fan festival last year. Hurts let him hear it in the aftermath, causing Manning to swear off lists for the foreseeable future.

“I hate lists because you’re always leaving somebody out,” Manning said. “But, look, he’s definitely on it now, and easily could have been on it then.”

Plenty has changed for Hurts since that omission in 2024. He’s the reigning Super Bowl MVP after leading the franchise to its second Lombardi Trophy after yet another stellar postseason performance. But the Super Bowl ring wasn’t what landed Hurts among the league’s best to Manning.

“I just like the way that he carries himself,” Manning said. “So I’ve always been in his corner and a big fan, and he didn’t have to win a Super Bowl to prove anything to me. But the fact that he did it just tells you that he can do it, and I think he can continue to do it again.”