👋 Good morning! Perhaps Joe Jurevicius did not ruin my childhood, but he was certainly a net negative.

The Friday links. Spread the word, spread the word:

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Righteous Felon Craft Jerky.

This Chester County based company has the perfect snack that satisfies your hunger and provides the right amount of protein to fulfill your body’s daily needs, and they have been doing it for over a decade. if you are the kind of person who wants a deal and snacks delivered right to your doorstep, you can order online using discount code PHLY20 for 20% off. Righteous Felon has all kinds of cool variety packs and bundles on the site.

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

Two 3-0 teams playing at the house of horrors known as Raymond James Stadium, but two 3-0 teams that have not exactly been lights-out in the early going.

I thought the Eagles were playing with fire, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are on a whole other level. The Bucs are 3-0 with a point differential of plus-six! Since you gotta at least have a point differential of +3 to go 3-0, that is, um, not a lot! In fact, +6 is tied for the lowest-ever number for a 3-0 team.

And yet, considering how banged-up these Bucs have been, this has still been an impressive start in many ways. Here are three overarching thoughts I have headed into this week’s matchup…

(1) The Boogeyman: Jalen Hurts is a Super Bowl MVP, so I do not think you can reasonably describe Todd Bowles as a “final boss.” But if you asked me the simple question, “Who gives Jalen Hurts the most trouble?” my answer would immediately be “Todd Bowles.” Like, not even a thought.

Here is Jalen’s history Tampa Bay since Bowles became the defensive play-caller down there. 1-4, and an especially ugly 1-4…

I like Todd Bowles, in large part because he seems to like Philly. Temple alum, Eagles interim defensive coordinator in Big Red’s disastrous final year (in retrospect, maybe Bowles should have run the defense from the beginning, not Juan Castillo), nice Ishkabibble’s shoutout earlier this week, etc. And I like that Bowles is fearless. His teams always rank highly in blitz rate (5th this season).

On the other sideline, weird start for the Eagles against the blitz this season. They have been blitzed the fifth-most and are only 30th in success rate. But Jalen legitimately looks more poised against pressure, and the negative plays have gone way down. Just have to hit on some more big ones, like the deep ball to DeVonta Smith in Kansas City two weeks ago. It’s worth pointing out that Jalen was without A.J. Brown the last two times against Tampa Bay, as well as DeVonta and Lane Johnson in Week 4 last season. That should change this time around.

(I cannot explain it, but NFL schedule-makers must get in a groove with some of these matchups. There must be something about “Philly at Tampa Bay, Week 4” and “Minnesota at Philly, Week 2.”)

And oh yeah, Haason Reddick plays for these guys. I am sure there will be a nice little reunion between him and Joe Douglas during pre-game warmups.

(2) Injuries galore! The Eagles linebackers are both banged-up, but it seems like Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell are likelier to play than not. Limited participants on Thursday, both of them. Same thing for Adoree’ Jackson. Is it Kelee Time like Uncle Vic hinted at? We will see. On a positive note, Lane Johnson was a full participant with that stinger.

Remember when I said the Bucs were injured? That is primarily in two spots: Offensive line and wide receiver. They have played for stretches with no projected starters at the spots they were supposed to play, which again, makes a 3-0 record pretty impressive. The Bucs might get all-world LT Tristan Wirfs back from injury this week, but even with Wirfs, there are still multiple weak spots on this line.

And then at receiver, the Bucs lose Mike Evans but likely pick up Chris Godwin. Good to see Godwin back, his injury last season was really nasty. And then Emeka Egbuka looks like a promising rookie.

(3) Shake and Bake: The Eagles have statistically been pretty poor against the run in the early going, which will not please Uncle Vic. This run defense was stout last season. But this is a get-right game, because the Bucs’ backs have not run it well behind that makeshift offensive line. Let’s get to run-stuffing, big fella.

That means it falls on Baker Mayfield, who has three late comeback drives in the last three weeks. Impressive stuff. He will let you hear about it, too.

Last season’s game against Tampa Bay was a turning point for the Eagles defense. Liam Coen and Mayfield schooled Uncle Vic, marching down the field for touchdowns on the first two drives. Every completion just felt so easy. And then after a well-timed bye, Uncle Vic and co. turned the ship around in a major way. They also inserted Cooper DeJean in Avonte Maddox’s place, that helped matters quite a bit. Of course Baker can just pick on Kelee or Adoree’ this weekend.

Mayfield has had success scrambling this season, but I would like to see him have to make some throws on the run like Patrick Mahomes a few weeks ago. He will give you a chance to catch some interceptions.

Three quick-hitters…

“The epitome of the American Dream”: Phenomenal story from EJ on Andrew Mukuba, who moved from Zimbabwe to Austin, Texas with his mother and siblings when he was nine years old.

Going down early: The Eagles are flying down tonight, as opposed to the usual day-before flight, in an effort to adjust to the heat. Why not bring some Pickle Juice while we’re at it?

The big guy on Tampa: The Bucs signed 449-pound Desmond Watson to the practice squad. And because the national media is so Tush Push-pilled, they wondered if Tampa Bay signed him for just that one play… as if the Eagles run 60 Tush Pushes per game. Well, he is just a guy on their practice squad. The Bucs have Vita Vea, anyway.

Flyers cut some guys: Ten players. And as Charlie pointed out, the only semi-interesting name is Samu Tuomaala. That is the natural consequence of the Flyers adding a bunch of high draft picks into the pipeline.

Washington 5, Flyers 1: Sounds like a bad game for the Orange and Black in Hershey of all places, but I am not gonna sweat it too much. Half the team was playing, Rick Tocchet said the group was tired.

I did get a kick out of Sean Couturier’s power play comments, though, which seemed like just another reason to take a jab at John Tortorella. Coots has been doing that a whole bunch in training camp.

Phillies 1, Miami 0: Not like the result matters much — Milwaukee will clinch the No. 1 seed in the National League with just one win this weekend, which would lock the Phils at No. 2 — but the reverse-piggyback from last week (Walker Buehler and then Taijuan Walker) put up a bunch of zeroes.

Buehler has a 0.66 ERA in 13.2 innings with the Phils, he has certainly made the most of his late-season cameo. He even went back to the bullpen and threw a little more after his five innings were up, a move you would usually see in spring training. Nice to see. Also nice to see: J.T. Realmuto back in the lineup after the injury scare from the other night.

All that is left before Red October is three games against the terrible Minnesota Twins. I would say Jhoan Duran and Harrison Bader can see their old friends, but the whole team basically got dealt at the deadline. We will see our old friend Mick Abel on Saturday, let’s hope The Mick gets a nice ovation from the home crowd.

And I saw a bunch of nonsense about this, but Kyle Schwarber should absolutely play this weekend and try to break Ryan Howard’s record. Like, not even a question. This is not the same thing Saquon Barkley, for multiple reasons…

Same as it ever was. We did not even make it to media day, gang.

I saw some photos of Skinny Joel, I looked around at the sorry state of the Eastern Conference and offered some (admittedly tempered) Sixers optimism in this little newsletter. Here I thought that the recent ESPN player rankings would be a major, made-up talking point, because there was nothing else to talk about. I was gonna do a media day prediction game, but you know what, let’s just learn about the bad news one story at a time.

(Joel Embiid being ranked 47th is totally fine, by the way, because he is impossible to rank properly. When Joel is healthy-ish and playing, he is way higher than that. When Joel misses three-quarters of the season and limps through the games he does play, he is way lower than that. It’s fine, we do not have to get worked up about this.)

But, silly me, these are the Philadelphia 76ers. And there is seemingly bad news around every single corner for this franchise. Yesterday’s Sixers show was a must-watch, because the guys got to react to bad developments in real time.

Remember when the Sixers had four interesting young guards with diverse skill-sets to plug into their rotation? Well, at least they have two…

Quentin Grimes is still not signed: We have reached the point where the negotiation is being aired out in the court of public opinion. All rise! 👨🏻‍⚖️

My friend Gina Mizell quoted Grimes’ agent that the Sixers’ formal offer is four years, $39 million. If that is the case, the Sixers are lowballing and Grimes should take the qualifying offer or the Sixers’ one-year balloon deal. Now, do I believe the agent, or do I think there could be some missing context here? Hard to say, we are at an information deficit, but the agent is also on record that Grimes should get $20 to 25 million. As Derek put it bluntly, I disagree with both of them then! I think it should clearly be right in the middle, at around $15 million per year… which is what we have suggested for months. Court adjourned! 👨🏻‍⚖️

Seems like we are headed toward a one-year deal of some sort. Not a great outcome, in my humble opinion.

Jared McCain hurt his thumb: And no, it was not from the tiny weights. Man, this kid can’t catch a break after his promising rookie season was derailed by a torn meniscus.

Per the Sixers, McCain suffered a UCL tear in his right (so, his shooting) thumb in a workout yesterday. The guys reacted here. Jeff Stotts is an authority on basketball injuries, and he said a surgery (if McCain gets it) has a high success rate and a track record of no dip in performance. That’s good. The average recovery time is 7.5 weeks, which would put McCain’s return around Thanksgiving with 13-ish missed games.

Does not seem like the end of the world, but this is the Sixers, and fans are wondering if McCain will return with some other supernatural malady. And look, I get it. Even if McCain does come back in mid-November, he will have missed valuable practice and in-game reps during that time. Not the end of the world, but not nothing either.

Kyle wrote about the ripple effects of the McCain injury. The big one? We might see VJ Edgecombe sink or swim early on.

Kyle Lowry, studio show: Lowry will make select appearances on Prime’s new NBA studio show this season. They do realize he is under contract to play with the Sixers, right?

(Draymond Green has done television work while still an active player, so there is some precedent. But I am still gonna get these jokes off.)

Gang, enjoy the weekend. I think this has the chance to be the best one of the year sports-wise.

The Ryder Cup is one of my favorite sporting events. Like, way up there. And hey, you might not be a golf person and that is fine. But the fact that, for one weekend every two years, there is cheering and booing in that sport is amazing. Europe is going into a hornet’s nest at Bethpage, I want those New Yorkers as rowdy as possible. USA! USA! USA!

Insane college football slate. I am counting four Top-25 matchups, even before you get to the other games. Including, for the locals, a massive game in Happy Valley with Penn State hosting Oregon. Let’s hope the Main Line boys gave the Nits the test that they needed a few weeks ago.

Schwarber chasing The Big Piece. Even if you do not wanna watch the Phils this weekend with no stakes, a little football palate cleanser before the gauntlet of playoff baseball, I would not mind a text alert right before every Schwarbs at-bat. Can we set this up somehow? Plus, we have the Mets and the Tigers to track all weekend.

Union are in D.C., looking to stay in first. I got you, Union fans!

Eagles-Bucs on Sundee. Winning one in that stadium would feel great. And to close the weekend, Micah Parsons in Jerry World.

Your tentative Friday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Have a great weekend. Let’s make it a good one today.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS