Fox NFL rules analyst believes league will ban successful Eagles play next year

The NFL may clip the Eagles wings this offseason.

Per The 33rd Team's Paul Domowitch, Fox NFL rules analyst Dean Blandino believes the NFL will change its rules to make Philadelphia's QB sneak-push illegal in 2023 and beyond.

The NFL previously banned players from pushing ball carriers but modified the rule for the 2006 season to make it a legal act.

No team turned it into an art form quite like the 2022 Eagles, and after Philadelphia nearly won a Super Bowl due in part to its success running the assisted QB sneak, the play is under a lot more scrutiny.

It was nearly impossible to stop for the Eagles and will only become more prevalent across the league if the competition committee keeps the rule as is.

Blandino, a former NFL referee, relayed a conversation he had with Broncos head coach Sean Payton where he told Blandino, "We're going to do this every time next season if they don't take it out."

There are a few reasons why the league would want to get rid of the play. The NFL wants to protect the most valuable players on the field, and removing the possibility of QBs being in the middle of a rugby scrum is a good way of doing that. 

Blandino argued a different reason for the league wanting to get rid of the play. He suggested the NFL may want to eliminate it because "The NFL wants to showcase the athleticism and skill of our athletes... This is just a tactic that is not an aesthetically pleasing play."

The NFL has its reasons for wanting to ban the play, but there's already a great way to eliminate it without changing the rulebook. Defenses could not get in fourth-and-one situations by being better on the first three downs.

We shouldn't be too hard on defenses, though. With all the rules in place to benefit offenses, it might be time to throw them a bone.