The Philadelphia Eagles have been one of the most-discussed teams in the NFL this season and a big reason is their signature play, the tush push. The play has been a staple of Nick Sirianni's offense dating back to 2022 and has taken a physical and mental toll on the rest of the league as they've tried to find ways to stop it.
One way teams have tried to thwart the play is by enforcing a ban and 22 teams voted to abolish the play in a failed attempt this offseason.
After failing to stop the play in a Minneapolis conference room, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who voted for the ban last spring, must now find a way to stop it on the field on Sunday. Their latest attempt involves 437-pound defensive tackle Desmond Watson, who was added to the the team's practice squad ahead of the Week 4 matchup.
Bucs Sign Massive DT Desmond Watson Before Facing Eagles in Week 4
There haven't been many answers for defenses to try and replicate when it comes to slowing down the tush push. According to a recent report by ESPN's Stephen Holder, the Eagles convert on the play well over 80% of the time and it's resulted in teams bending over backwards to try and stop it. With that being the case, the Buccaneers are going into their Week 4 matchup with the idea of simply plugging the hole in the middle with a player that could be one of the largest players to ever wear an NFL uniform.
Watson is one massive human being, and is still quite large despite losing a significant amount of weight since the end of his collegiate career. After weighing in at 464 pounds during Florida's pro day, Watson was able to get down to 437 pounds during camp, but was ultimately released as part of the team's final cuts as he couldn't pass conditioning tests.
According to NBC Sports's Mike Florio, Watson lost even more weight since his release "was in much better shape" during a workout last week. After signing with the practice squad, Watson will have the rest of the week to work toward being on the active roster for Sunday's game, but Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowls made no guarantees that would happen during Wednesday's press conference.
“We’ll never bring him in just to stop a tush push,” Bowles said, via ESPN's Jeanna Laine. “If we bring him in, we think he can play, not just for a Philadelphia thing. It’s very unlikely he’d be ready to play, once we bring him in, for Philadelphia right now anyway.”
Perhaps this is gamesmanship on behalf of Bowles. But the Eagles will find out Tampa's plans soon enough. With both teams making drastic changes going into Week 4, all the Eagles should do is continue focusing on themselves and the game plan as another team goes to extreme measures to stop the tush push.