Here To Stay?

The Breakers resort in Palm Beach, Fla., site of the annual NFL Owners Meeting, was anything but dull Tuesday morning during the NFC coaches’ breakfast.

The name cards on the tables scattered throughout served as a logistical guide, but the table at the center of attention seated Eagles head coach and Super Bowl champion Nick Sirianni.

Sirianni fielded an assortment of questions ranging from staff hires to offseason decisions, but the primary talking point centered on his team’s signature play – the “tush push” – and many of Sirianni’s colleagues discrediting the play and actively attempting to have it outlawed.

For the play to vanish completely, the NFL requires votes from 24 teams. And for as effective the short yardage play has been for Philadelphia, Sirianni offered his stance on the proposal while also addressing other pertinent topics.

Here are some of the notable storylines to emerge from the NFL Owners Meetings:

GETTY IMAGES: Eagles HC Nick Sirianni didn’t exactly commit to TE Dallas Goedert (88) being on the team in 2025.

“Tush-Push” Tabled

The much-anticipated ruling concerning the “tush push,” a wildly successful short-yardage play for the Eagles, has been delayed until May.

For the play to have been outlawed Tuesday, however, 24 teams would have had to vote against it. The tally was reportedly eight shy, so the thinking behind the delayed ruling is that it gives other franchises additional time to reconsider their stances as more data is gathered.

The primary cause for concern continues to be player safety, with Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott among the coaches echoing that sentiment, while others question the validity of the play itself.

Rich McKay, chairman of the Competition Committee, addressed what has become the NFL’s most compelling storyline.

“No. 1, I’m gonna go back to what I said the other day on the call, which is, you never like any discussion – in any room – to be projected towards a team or two. It’s never something we ever like doing, because that’s not why it’s being discussed.

“In this case, I think the discussion became, No. 1, safety. No. 2, should you have to defend it? No. 3, is this part of the history of football? All those kind of discussions happen.

“I think we evolved to the idea that we did, up to 2004, we had rules in place that prohibited pushing and pulling – just prohibited it – and we deleted that from the book because it became harder for officials to officiate downfield what was going on.

“From that came a play like this, and a formation like this. So, I think, the ideas was, listen, if it goes to voting on this particular proposal [Tuesday], Green Bay asked, ‘Could we go back and talk about reintroducing the 2004 language? Study it, understand it, and talk about it again when we get back in May?'”

Pushing the decision to next month rather than dismissing the proposal outright would appear to indicate there’s a world in which the play eventually becomes unavailable to every team in the future.

For now, though, it appears we’ve reached a stalemate.

The saga continues.

Dallas Goedert’s Future

A decision also looms large regarding the future of longtime tight end Dallas Goedert.

A second-round pick in 2018, Goedert has appeared in 93 games (76 starts), reeling in 349 passes for 4,085 yards and 24 touchdowns. While Goedert’s impact is apparent when healthy, which has been a problematic throughout his career, his age (30) and 2025 price tag complicate the issue.

For a team looking to cut costs to free up flexibility to commit to some of its younger nucleus with long-term deals, retaining Goedert might not be feasible.

Sirianni offered a lukewarm answer when asked if he’d like to keep his tight end, suggesting an eventual parting of ways could be imminent.

“Right now, he’s on our football team,” Sirianni said. “And obviously, Dallas Goedert has meant a lot to us. We’ll see how that plays out. He’s a heck of a football player, a heck of a leader.

“And I want to be able to have back as many guys as you possibly can, but that is not the reality of the NFL. So, we’ll see what happens and how that happens. But of course, you want everyone back.”

While Goedert would likely have to agree to a restructure to stick around, working in his favor is the lack of depth at the position, with Grant Calcaterra, E.J. Jenkins and free-agent signings Harrison Bryant and Kylen Granson filling out the depth chart.

None of those Eagles are equipped to play starter’s snaps. The likeliest course of action would be identifying Goedert’s replacement in the draft, though it often takes some time for young players to find their footing.

Perhaps they make it work with Goedert for one more year, where he can serve as a veteran mentor for his successor.

Optimism About Who?

One takeaway from Sirianni’s morning availability was his overall excitement for several of the new additions ushered in via free agency, though Sirianni seemed particularly intrigued with return specialist Avery Williams.

Williams, a 2021 fifth-round selection of the Atlanta Falcons, offers 4.4 speed and the ability to return both kicks and punts. He also has versatility working in his favor, as the 5-foot-9, 195-pounder served as a cornerback at Boise State before the Falcons in 2022 deployed him as a running back – the position he played in high school.

As a cornerback for the Broncos, Williams was a twitchy, explosive athlete. Williams calso has some experience repping at gunner, boosting his special teams profile, but Sirianni indicated a potentially more expanded role.

“I can’t say enough about Avery Williams,” Sirianni said, “and just what I think of him and the things we can do with him and what he’s gonna bring to this football team. Just really pumped.”

Kelee Ringo’s Development

With Darius Slay and Isaiah Rodgers no longer on the roster, the Eagles have a glaring void at cornerback opposite Quinyon Mitchell.

The team will soon find out whether veteran Adoree’ Jackson or third-year holdover Kelee Ringo are equipped to undertake a starting role, but Sirianni didn’t exactly tip his hand when specifically asked about his confidence in Ringo becoming a starter.

“We’ll see here,” he said. “A lot of time. He’s continued to get better. A lot has to happen before next year, before we play a game. We’ll have OTAs, we’ll have training camp. There’s a lot of time before we play a game.

“All these guys just continue to develop. That’s our job as coaches, is to put them in positions to succeed and then develop them with their fundamentals, in the weight room. Just continue to get them better. So we have a lot before that happens.

Ringo, a 2023 fourth-round pick, entered training camp with a legitimate chance to carve out a prominent defensive role, but was eventually bypassed by Rodgers.

Instead, Ringo took ownership of his role on special teams, logging a team-high 340 snaps, appearing on the Pro Bowl ballot and even earning an AP All-Pro vote.

Still, that the former Georgia Bulldog was unable to stave off Rodgers or even factor into the 2024 defensive equation –he accounted for 11% of the defensive snaps – should conjure skepticism.

Beyond measurements and athleticism, a key component to being a successful NFL cornerback is the mental aspect, which we’ll learn more about as Ringo vies to wear a crucial hat in Vic Fangio’s defense.

Based on that answer alone, I’m not convinced the team doesn’t look to add another player at the position through the draft.

– Andrew DiCecco (@AndrewDiCecco) is a Staff Reporter/Content Producer for InsideTheBirds.com.