Fare thee well, Harry B

👋 Good morning! And please, no more snow this weekend.

But please, more Wawa this weekend!

Is there any better deal than Wawa’s Big $5 Deal? From 5 a.m. to 11 a.m., you can get a Sizzli, coffee and a hash brown for just $5. Wherever you are in the area, there is a Wawa near you. Take advantage today!

As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

Joe Kasper, getting promoted: #AsExpected, the Eagles found their Christian Parker replacement in-house. Joe Kasper, the former safeties coach, will be the new pass game coordinator/defensive backs coach. Bo and EJ discussed here.

Kasper entered the NFL in 2021 with the Eagles as a defensive quality control coach. And EJ suggested on the show that Johnny Ganz might have wanted a reunion with Kasper in Green Bay, before the Eagles bumped him up a spot. After the 2022 season, Kasper then went to Miami to coach the safeties with Vic Fangio before turning back around to coach the safeties in Philly with Uncle Vic. Good choice, I would say.

I thought some of Kasper’s quotes in this Ted Nguyen piece($) were thought-provoking: “Most personnel departments are really way behind the times. They think that they need the outside guy first and the inside guy second, and you know that inside piece is really a mid-round type guy. I totally disagree (with their going that low), the way that the game is going. When you look at it, you look at these offenses that run in-breaking routes off of reductions, and then that is already defeating quarter leverage. And then we talk like, ‘Oh, well, the corner is still the most important one.’ I just think that that’s grossly inaccurate if you’re talking about keeping up with the times.”

Well, Cooper DeJean certainly has a fan in the building.

The Great Offensive Coordinator Search of 2026: Some updates, and then some words.

Let’s add two more names to the ❌ list.

And let’s add two more names to the ✅ list…

Some good points made by Bo and EJ: When it comes to Doyle withdrawing his name, you never know if that is the coach truly bailing on an opportunity or saving face through the media for a job that he was never gonna get. Or, perhaps it was somewhere in between. Maybe the Eagles were legitimately interested in Doyle, but unready to commit. The fact that this process is a two-way street is something to keep in mind.

In fact, EJ made a phenomenal Love is Blind (easily the worst show I have ever watched 3+ seasons of) analogy: Sometimes in the pods (interviews, for the Eagles), someone’s No. 1 option might be in-demand and sorting out their feelings between multiple suitors. Maybe Doyle was the Eagles’ No. 2 option, but they were waiting on No. 1 to decide. And then maybe he did not want to be anyone’s No. 2 choice.

In which case, and this is a reference only LIB-heads would get, Doyle should have simply told Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman that his offense looks like Megan Fox.

Now, to the two new names: Smith and Johnson.

Smith was the offensive coordinator for Mike McDaniel the last four years in Miami. I honestly had never heard of him before, which is unusual. Smith has worked with other coaches like Jon Gruden and Adam Gase over his career. I dunno, maybe he gets another job on the staff if he is not the OC?

Johnson worked with Sirianni for a year in Indy, and has been the Texans QB coach the past three years. And he interviewed for the Eagles OC job that went to Kellen Moore back in 2024. I dunno, just like Smith, I am not really seeing this with him.

After thinking it over, it is definitely fair to give the Eagles more time and not totally freak out here. And as always, the proof will be in the pudding when we start playing games again. This is a tricky job to hire for, in an owner/general manager-centric organization.

With all of that said, I would be pretty underwhelmed if the new OC comes from that list of green checkmarks.

The Flyers lost… The dreaded “first game back home after a road trip” strikes again.

I liked how Charlie put it here: Some nights, you just don’t got it. But when you lose six games in a row, you then forfeit the right to say “We just don’t got it” for, say, a month and a half.

That was a pretty sad 4-0 loss to an Islanders team that the Orange and Black are jockeying with for playoff position. The only thing that the Flyers had going for them yesterday is that they were not the Sixers.

That said…

Bill shaved his head: Give my guy a thumbs up, for commitment to the bit.

Harrison Bader, San Francisco Giant: We knew that Bader was not long for Philadelphia. Everyone’s favorite crab-walkin’ center fielder got a two-year deal for $20.5 million from San Francisco, according to Ken Rosenthal.

But at that price, should we have known that Bader was not long for Philadelphia?

There were rumors of a three-year deal, but Bader settled for two. And it does not take a mathematician to immediately compare Bader’s $10.25 million AAV to the nearly identical one that the Phillies handed out to Adolis García six weeks ago. We know that John Middleton primarily cares about the luxury tax bill this season, and when it comes to that, Bader’s contract would have cost the same amount of money as García’s.

Let’s start with the obvious: As magical of a two months as it was, Bader was not doing what you see below again. “The periphs” suggested that he was performing way over his head, and he had come off three straight years where he had a combined 80+ OPS and played for four different organizations. Bader’s BABIP with the Phillies was .415, which was unsustainable. The Baseball Savant page is mostly blue.

So, that would have been “buying high” on Bader. But when “buying low” on García is the exact same AAV, well, that seems like a fair thing to question. Bader plays a great center field, hit well in Minnesota prior to the trade deadline and is a right-handed bat. He seemed to get along well with the clubhouse, too. With all of the purple and the long blonde hair, Bader was certainly a memorable character.

To answer my own question, I would rather have Bader at that price, sustainability concerns and all. I wonder if either the Phillies or Bader’s agent misread the market, and if so, that would be a bummer. The good news is that García is a solid defensive right fielder, but this calculus is not just about him.

Justin Crawford will get the chance to play every day, and hopefully he thrives while García bounces back. Those two things would make Bader leaving a moot point. And to be clear, there is absolutely a world where García is a better player than Bader this year. But there will certainly be a microscope on this reworked Phillies outfield, both in spring training and the beginning of the regular season.

Even if Bader regresses overall, the Phillies make the trip to San Francisco and that house of horrors the second week of the season. If this year is anything like the last 15, I am unfortunately expecting Bader to hit two home runs and make three diving catches in a Giants sweep. It will be fine, just part of every Phillies season.

One last thing: I just wish we saw him healthy for that entire Dodgers series.

Charlotte 130, Sixers 97: Woof.

Post-game show is here, Kyle’s observations are here.

If you read yesterday’s newsletter, I expected the Sixers to lose this one. The weird 3 p.m. start cemented that feeling even further. But they were down by 50 points after three quarters in Charlotte. No matter how low the expectations are heading in, getting your butt kicked to that degree is never fun.

I have largely enjoyed this Sixers season, but there is something that has been bugging me about the reaction to it. And Kyle touched on it in his observations.

Maybe this is simply because I am too online and reading the YouTube chat after every game (love our chatters!), but there seems to be different factions of the fan base that are all-in on one thing or another.

And I think that going all-in on one aspect of this team is the wrong way to look at it, because this is a group that cannot rely on any one thing.

In fact, they need a whole bunch of stuff to go right at once. The Sixers are a team that, if everything clicks into place, has a mix that can form an interesting playoff team in a weak Eastern Conference. But they also have a lot of crucial players and elements that also can go very, very wrong on a given night or week.

So, after a loss like yesterday’s, I think a lot of things can be true.

For one day at least, all of those variables rolled snake eyes. If there is anything to take from a 37-point loss, to me, it’s how this group cannot rely on just one thing.

Sixers at home against Milwaukee (8:00 p.m., NBC). They need Embiid and George to give these guys a real lift.

Your tentative Tuesday schedule at PHLY:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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