👋 Good morning! No better job in the world than “Fired Power 5 College Football Coach.”

What other profession negotiates contracts like this? You are paying a guy $50 million to go away. I would even wish you well on the way out! I would buy a bunch of your jerseys and gear (outside of the gear I already owned), and root for you every Saturday from my couch… in some exotic locale.

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As always, you can reach at [email protected]

Despite a 4-2 record, all is not well at the NovaCare Complex.

The Eagles have a negative point differential. They have been outgained in all six games. And, factoring in opponent quality, they are coming off what very well might be the worst loss of the (very successful) Nick Sirianni era. Maybe the Fightin’ Ganzes loss in 2023 was worse? If not No. 1, this one is way up there.

Before the season, most theorized that the 2025 Eagles were better positioned to defend the belt than the 2018 Eagles for myriad reasons: 10 of 11 starters back on offense, second-youngest roster in the NFL, healthy quarterback entering the year, etc. But, one-third of the way through, it has been a 2018-style slog.

The question is, why?

Les theorized that this is mostly a natural Super Bowl hangover. Mentally, it’s tough to get up for MetLife in October when you just had the Superdome in February. Physically, the Eagles played a full month of football more than most teams last season. Jordan Mailata told EJ that he felt like 💩 this offseason.

I can buy that, playing football hurts. And if the hangover continues, well, the Eagles are not going anywhere. But, for the sake of argument, let’s say they can get their hunger and physicality back. Now let’s move our focus to the tangibles, by working our way down the org chart.

Like my guy Lester Freamon, we are gonna drag out the cork board and get the wire tap on those burner headsets. All the pieces matter.

Entering the season, Howie built what was considered the most talented roster in the NFL. And entering the season, Howie had a bunch of 2026 draft capital burning a hole in his pocket.

Since then, Howie has traded a 7 for a swing tackle (fine) and a 5 and 6 for a kick returner who routinely gives the Eagles horrendous field position (not as fine), a player that causes Nick Sirianni to look like this.

As a professional lip reader, Nick is clearly screaming, “ASSET MANAGEMENT!!!!” on the sidelines here after Tank Bigsby Tank Bigsby’d.

The trade deadline is a month from now, and the Eagles have two glaring needs on defense.

Bo hit the great philosophical question here: Are you giving up a 2 for a few months Trey Hendrickson to bolster this specific roster?

Last year, Week 5 was a well-timed bye week for the Eagles. Well, I would argue this is a well-timed “bye stretch” for the Eagles: Mini-bye, at Minnesota, Giants at home, bye.

Let’s just follow last year’s post-bye blueprint. Step 1…

Fire up “Many Men” while you are at it. And Step 2…

That should get the team 85 percent of the way there. But last week’s Eagles were not, in Nick’s words, “tough, detailed and together.” That is a rarity, mind you. Nick usually gets his team to play hard and relatively smart.

This is the challenge of the CEO head coach. The best formula for NFL sustainability is “elite play-caller head coach, crusty old defensive coordinator that already got a shot as head coach.” The Eagles only have half of that equation. This is fine, by the way. These last two losses dropped Nick below Madden and Lombardi on the all-time winning percentage list. But both the vibes and details do have to be better, and to a large degree, that falls on Sirianni.

Know what else has to be better?

I know, I know, we do not know exactly how the sausage gets made.

I would advise Kevin Patullo to maybe listen to some music or history podcasts on his drive into work this week. He is persona non grata with the fanbase. But, ever the voice of reason, Fran pointed out that it’s not necessarily that simple. Sirianni is involved to a degree. And I am about to start a drinking game for every time that I hear, “The offense is gonna look how Jalen Hurts wants it to look.”

Regardless, we know the end product is not good enough. The offense is the team’s biggest issue, because this whole thing just should not be this difficult.

We can talk all day about how Jalen is seeing the field better this season. I did not even think he played that poorly on Thursday! Great first half, followed up by two uncharacteristic killer mistakes (the missed deep ball to DeVonta Smith, the red-zone interception). Killer plays, but out of the norm for him.

But the numbers do not lie. Lowest EPA per dropback and success rate of Jalen’s career, an average to below-average offense no matter how you measure it, etc. And that is inexcusable, considering how expensive this group is and how much continuity there is. However they are coming up with the offense, this is the worst collaborative decision-making in Philly since the Sixers’ front office in the summer of 2018.

Lane Johnson is a vet with real cachet, and perhaps because of that, he chooses his words carefully. So, I think his comments about the offense’s predictability (in EJ’s Early Bird piece!) should be taken more seriously than, say, myself rage-tweeting in the middle of a game.

Not worried about Uncle Vic. Tough job right now, but I am confident that he will put this defense in the best position possible. He is probably just bummed about the Phillies. I get it.

Some of this boils down to Hurts, Patullo and Sirianni adjusting to their new environment. They have essentially been playing a different sport than most of the NFL for years, because of the big fellas up front. Not anymore.

Some of this is on Jeff Stoutland. Has been one of the best assistant coaches in the NFL for a decade, let’s see him get the best out of this group.

It used to be so easy. Both in 2021 and 2024, the answer was simple: Run The Ball. During last year’s bye week, three offensive linemen squeezed together on Sirianni’s little couch and told him to Run The Ball. Because they could, and Saquon Barkley had already shown signs of hitting home runs behind them.

Now, it’s not so simple. Run The Ball Nation is not quite as vociferous. Landon Dickerson is hurt, and now Brett Toth is just a guy. Other players have regressed a bit. Anyway, I would love for Run The Ball Nation to get loud again. They just gotta see something to believe it, maybe a few more runs to the outside. Regardless, a solid first half on Thursday for Saquon is a start.

Mainly A.J. Brown, if we are being honest.

I think some of these issues get resolved if A.J. starts getting schemed up like he should. The offense needs to attack those intermediate zones. But the vultures are out — Dianna Russini has a new report every week quoting anonymous execs fanning the flames — and look, I can not blame them… even if I am fully aware of the dead cap hit. The beginning of this season has just been a nightmare on the A.J. front. He does not look happy.

But, if he starts playing like A.J. again, maybe he will seem less unhappy. Only one way to find out.

Even if the Eagles get some pass-rush help, I do think what I am dubbing “The Big Four” — Jalen Carter, Zack Baun, Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean — are all gonna have to be both available and awesome. That is certainly possible. But just watching this defense play without two of these guys last week, it showed their importance.

So, a lot to clean up for these Eagles. Any room for optimism? Sure, the talent is still here and they did it last year.

Carolina 4, Flyers 3 (OT): Man, Philadelphia sports cannot catch a break. Post-game pod is here, Charlie’s observations are here.

After Bobby Brink scores in overtime, everyone thinks it’s a goal. The Flyers are all on the ice celebrating, while Rick Tocchet is shaking hands with his staff and walking to the locker room. ESPN even sent out a “Flyers 4, Hurricanes 3” push alert.

But Travis Sanheim was ruled for goaltender interference on the pass. But the pesky powers that be in Toronto screwed us! What in the name of Colin Campbell was this?

As Charlie noted below, by the letter of the law, it’s the right call. Sanheim was in Freddy Andersen’s crease and made contact, and unless you get pushed, you are not allowed in the goaltender’s crease. But by the spirit of the rule, it seems harsh. Sanheim’s pass is away, he is getting out of the crease, and Andersen basically crashes into Sanheim seemingly in an effort to draw the call.

But… Sanheim is in the crease. Letter of the law yes, spirit of the rule maybe not so much. Kinda reminds me of the Zack Baun late hit against Denver last week. We are running bad on those “spirit of the rule” calls right now. Come to think of it, we are running bad on everything right now.

I liked how Rick Tocchet handled it, a Sirianni-esque “those calls will even out” answer. I am sure the Flyers will benefit from a few of those calls this year, if that remains the standard. But the real shame here is that Tocchet was unable to blast J. Cole in the locker room and redirect the team bus through downtown Raleigh after an upset win.

Anyway, the Flyers then lost. Not all that surprising. At Florida and at Carolina is a super tough two-step to start the year. The NHL is a Sun Belt hockey league nowadays, take that Toronto!

Tale of two usages in the first two games…

If the Flyers are gonna make it to our California Takeover in March, which just looks like an awesome trip, Sanheim’s minutes will have to go down and Michkov’s numbers will have to go up. Check it out here!

On the farm: Porter Martone dropping dimes for Michigan State. Good to see the Sparty faithful had something to cheer about this weekend, as their football team got dummied by the future of college football, Jerry Neuheisel. And Jack Murtagh had a nice goal for Boston University.

Considering all of the top prospects that the Flyers have playing college puck, we will make this a more official/organized running feature.

James Franklin fired: The all-time definition of “Boy, that escalated quickly!” He was hosting College Gameday with the No. 3 team in the country 15 days ago!

To my Penn State friends, I am sorry that this season took this level of turn. Everyone thought the Nittany Lions were a real national title contender — I mean, they came close last year — and then they lost two straight games as 20-point favorites. Unthinkable stuff. I do think this type of nightmare season is gonna be more common in the current college football landscape, Clemson joined Penn State in freefall this year. It will happen to other schools in the future.

As for Franklin, he just had too many bad losses to weather a stretch like this. The big question is, who’s next? Curt Cignetti is killing it at Indiana. This is also Matt Rhule’s dream job, and the current PSU athletic director was his boss at Temple. Should be interesting!

Nobody (except Tyrese Maxey) plays in a real game: Well, “real” as far as preseason goes.

The Sixers lost to a Magic team playing most of its guys by 30, but that was a misleading final score. Tyrese Maxey only played 12 minutes, and the game did not get out of hand until the Sixers went deep into their bench. It was just a four-point game after three quarters.

Maxey dropped 17 points in the first quarter. Jase Richardson (son of Jason) looks like a pretty promising rookie shooter. But unlike his dad, Jase is small and Maxey gave him the business on the other end of the floor. Nice night for him.

Adem Bona looked good blocking shots before Nick Nurse gave him the rest of the night off. The biggest surprise was two-way guy Dominick Barlow, who pulled down four offensive rebounds in six minutes against a big, physical team.

Kyle wrote about Barlow here. Barlow is one of two two-way guys that could actually get rotation minutes, along with Jabari Walker. And that is because they both play the 4 (the Sixers’ comically weakest position) and rebound (the Sixers’ comically weakest skill). I would like him to play, if for no other reason than Joel Embiid used to do a radio ad campaign with a brand called “Barlow” that is stuck in my head for some reason.

Speaking of Joel…

Most guys play in a fake game: The Blue-White Scrimmage on Sundee in Wilmington… which, to me, will always be the place where everyone realized, “Oh man, this Markelle Fultz thing is not good.”

Anyway, Quentin Grimes and VJ Edgecombe mixed in there. But the big story was, well, the big fella. That looks like a dunk.

And, I am rubbing my eyes to make sure, but this looks like a pretty standard Embiid pull-up jumper from the nail due to elite ball skills.

I am not trying to build up any false hope, these guys were mostly just getting cardio. We will see if and how Joel is playing when the games start up. But I dunno, maybe the rest of Philadelphia sports had to crumble for the big fella to get back to doing big fella things? Honestly, he is probably just as bummed about the Phils as Uncle Vic.

Flyers home opener against Florida (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly)! Boy, tough schedule to start. Let’s get some positive vibes for the Orange and Black.

Also, Brewers-Dodgers (if you can stomach it) and Commanders-Bears tonight. I am a masochist, but I am curious how The Crew handles that Dodger pitching.

Your tentative Monday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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