Eagles Nick Sirianni Putting Brotherly Shove In Deep Freeze Without Jason Kelce?

The Eagles head coach showed it a couple of times in the preseason, but it has been with backup players, so will he try it as often as he did last year when he did it 40 times with Kelce at center?

Aug 9, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni reacts during the first quarter of a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports / Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

PHILADELPHIA – The Brotherly Shove is still under wraps. Sort of.

The Eagles unveiled it twice against the Ravens with the backups in, and it was successful both times, with Kenny Pickett engineering it once and Tanner McKee executing later in a 16-13 win in the preseason opener. The Eagles converted another fourth-and-one with a simple handoff to Lew Nichols in that game.

In last week’s 14-13 win over the Patriots, center Dylan McMahon and McKee gave it a shot, but the play resulted in a fumble.

Naturally, Nick Sirianni isn’t saying how often the Eagles will try the Shove this year, but there’s no question it will look a little different with Jason Kelce retired and Cam Jurgens taking over for him. Jurgens played right guard last year and Tyler Steen filled in there at times, too, and the Eagles didn’t skip a beat with it.

This year, even though Kelce is gone, Dickerson is back, and the right guard may be someone just as big as Dickerson, and that is Mekhi Becton.

Dec 31, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce (62) against the Arizona Cardinals at Lincoln Financial Field. Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports / Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

“Jason is one piece of that puzzle,” said Sirianni. “Jalen is another huge piece of that puzzle. And then Landon and the guards will be a huge piece of that puzzle. And the offensive line, right?”

We just don’t know how often the Eagles will attempt it because they don’t show it during team drills in practice and Sirianni has elected not to play his starters in the first two preseason games. Even if the first-team plays in Saturday’s game against the Vikings – highly unlikely – it’s doubtful Sirianni would show the Shove, anyway.

“You're just getting reps with guys that haven't got reps of it,” said Sirianni. “So, we'll see. We'll see where that is. Obviously not giving any answers until we get out there and play a game.”

Nobody does the Brotherly Shove better than the Eagles, and that has led other teams to cry foul and push to have it banned. The NFL doesn’t see it that way, and it is still a legal play that doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere.

The Eagles converted 37 of their 40 Shove attempts for a 92.5 percent success rate in 2023. Whether they reach that high of a percentage, or even attempt it that many times, remains to be seen.

“You're seeing that it is a hard play,” said Sirianni. “Like I'm glad they didn't take it out of the game because it's not just a gimme. It really shows you the talent of the guys that have been out there succeeding at that play for the past two and a half, three years, right?

“And so I feel like that should give you an appreciation of how good we've done it in the past. We'll see. We will continue to rep it, we’ll continue to walk through it. We'll see if we practice it.”

It didn’t look like the Eagles practiced it on Saturday, though there was one rep from the offensive line, working away from the center practice field at NovaCare Complex, where it appeared they were practicing it without the quarterback.

Regarding team drills, though, the Shove is nowhere in sight, at least in view of the media and a hundred or so fans allowed to attend practices.

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