👋 Good morning! It is rare for there to be a sports podcast that shatters records, bringing in millions of non-traditional fans on top of its usual massive audience. A podcast episode that everyone is talking about. But that is exactly what we got on Wednesday, a moment that briefly brought us back to the days of monoculture.

Of course, I am talking about the PHLY Eagles Podcast breaking down Day 1 of joint practices with the Cleveland Browns.

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

Let’s do a little Philly-Cleveland trivia on a summer Thursday.

(1) Eagles: Carson Wentz had a successful career debut against the Brownies in 2016. Who did his first touchdown pass go to, a beautifully placed fade into the back corner of the end zone?

(2) Phillies: Jim Thome listened to all of those electricians and joined the Phillies in free agency once his contract was up with Cleveland. What year did Thome make his debut with the Phils?

(3) LeBron: I cannot think of too many memorable Sixers-Cavs moments. A.I. dropped 50 against them when he was a rookie, I guess. LeBron James beat the Sixers a ton his career, I guess. But LeBron played a famous high school game at The Palestra with St. Vincent-St. Mary. Which Philly high school did he play against?

(4) LeBron x2: Speaking of St. Vincent-St. Mary (and yes, I know the school is in Akron), another alum played for the Sixers for 1.5 Process seasons (2014-16). Good dude to cover. What is his name?

(5) Jason Kelce: Before becoming Delco’s most famous resident, what is the name of the Cleveland suburb that Jason grew up in?

As always, answers at the bottom.

Love a good joint practice.

My favorite part of joint practices? Beat writers trying to subjectively weigh the results from two sides of the ball, with play simultaneously happening on three different fields, while also sifting through three levels of the depth chart… to declare one true winner at the end of the day. I am so jealous of the power that they have.

Seems like the Eagles might have (gasp) lost this one against Kevin Stefanski’s Cleveland Browns. Or if they won, it was a split decision that could have gone either way. Disappointing!

(Note: Not really disappointing.)

Seemed like on both sides of the ball, the Eagles were slightly sharper on the ground versus through the air. And here were the three biggest takeaways from the aforementioned Eagles pod…

(1) Myles Garrett, beast: I love Myles Garrett going up against Lane Johnson, two absolute masters of their craft. Battle of the Titans type stuff, with some mutual respect to boot. Fran took some heat for saying that Garrett is a “three first-round pick” type of player in the offseason, but he is a monster. From EJ’s practice notes:

I think no less of Jordan Mailata or Lane Johnson after reading that. And if you want to read more of EJ’s writing, plus everything else we have on the site, plus get an included shirt from the store, plus join our Discord, plus get discounted merch in the future… please sign up to become a Diehard.

(2) Johnny Wilson making some plays: Seems like Wilson did not do a ton the first two weeks of practice. But he must have heard that Elijah Cooks buzz, because he was excellent in the preseason game and good again in the joint practice.

The idea of Hurts actually passing to Wilson is kinda funny. “Actually” is doing the heavy lifting there. He was basically last in yards per route run in the entire NFL last season, which makes sense. If Jalen is not gonna look at Jahan Dotson, he sure as hell is not gonna look at Johnny Wilson. I do not even blame Wilson for that bad drop in the Super Bowl, he was probably stunned that the ball came his way.

Wilson’s strong blocking does give him a path to making the roster, if he also make a few plays in the passing game.

(3) Mac McWilliams, in the CB2 mix? I thought young Mac would be the backup nickel, but he is exclusively lining up on the outside right now. Very interesting. That is with the 2s, but the other CB2 candidates are all struggling.

Uncle Vic plays his cards close to the chest in the secondary. EJ made a good point here: Quinyon Mitchell got slow-played during training camp last year. Despite mostly looking the part, it was not clear that Quinyon would start in Week 1 for most of camp. Quinyon also got a bunch of reps in the slot last year, the Bizarro Mac.

My guess is Kelee Ringo is still gonna win this pillow fight. But Mac is probably more in the mix than we expected. Love that name, by the way: Mac McWilliams.

Some good 2017 Eagles stuff: Malcolm Jenkins, Eagles Hall of Famer #AsExpected. Only a matter of time.

One of my favorite Eagles of all-time, a guy who was simultaneously super thoughtful about off-field issues but also quietly a Concussion Uncle on the field. You could really get Malcolm going about the fines that defensive backs regularly got.

At the presentation, I hope Dave Spadaro or whoever is MCing thanks the New Orleans Saints for breaking the bank for Jairus Byrd and letting Malcolm walk. I think the Saints cap is still screwed up from that move.

Philly Special: In the mic’d up, you just hear Nick Foles say “Philly Special.” But according to the man himself, he told his teammates the following in the huddle: “Float to Pistol Target Left Bunch Philly Special on the Dummy Kill.”

Nick ended a video he posted saying, “I hope you enjoyed the fun fact of the day.” I did enjoy it Nick, thank you for sharing!

2026 Flyers free agency, could be fun: Bill gave a nice little explainer on The Curious Case of Ryan Johansen at the beginning of yesterday’s Flyers podcast. And he mentioned that this move does not force the Flyers to put Ryan Ellis on LTIR (long-term injured reserve)… which they could still do.

With that in mind, I just wanted to look at next year’s Flyers cap situation. Spoiler alert: They have a ton of money to play with. Here are some of the players coming off the books next summer…

That is almost $7 million from guys who are not even on the team. Add in Christian Dvorak’s $5.4 million and Ivan Fedotov’s $3.25 million, in addition to a bunch of other impending free agents, and we are cooking with gas. Per Spotrac, I am seeing a whopping $42 million in cap space before you pay the Bobby Brinks, Jamie Drysdales, Sam Erssons and Trevor Zegrases of the world… if you choose to, that is.

Since business is boomin’, the NHL salary cap is projected to jump a bunch over the next few years. It was $88 million last year, and by 2027-28, it is projected to be $113.5 million. $23 million is a ton of money in that sport, with a hard, restrictive salary cap. Connor McDavid AND Leon Draisaitl make a combined $26.5 million this year!

Speaking of McDavid, he currently leads what is considered to be an unusually strong 2026 free-agent class. I love it when the Philly team has cap space for an actual exciting offseason! Connor, before you sign that extension in Edmonton, how does $20 million per year sound to you my man?

Anyway, this will be fun to think about all season.

Cincinnati 8, Phillies 0: Not a fun two days of Phillies baseball.

Long before Jordan Romano threw one of his patented meaty meatballs for another grand slam — I am sorry, he cannot be on the playoff roster — a good throw from Brandon Marsh would have got Austin “The Weasel” Hays at the plate and kept it 2-0 Reds through six innings. Instead, you can play the Benny Hill music for this one. So bad.

The Phils have played some good defense over the past few weeks. But not yesterday, unfortunately. Oh well, shake it off and put it on the sad-sack Nationals this weekend. Take 3 out of 4 and it is still a very productive 10-game roadie. The Mets blew a 6-0 lead last night, by the way.

You know who has not played some good defense over the past few weeks, though?

Nick Castellanos… What would you say… you do here?

I have danced around this subject over the past few weeks, largely because the Phils have played good baseball and Casty has made me laugh multiple times (the Rob Manfred-Bryce Harper running commentary, the Nelly and Snoop Dogg concerts). You make me laugh, I cut you some slack, this is how my life works. But enough is enough, we need to talk about how bad Nick has been.

Since June 23rd, which was a week after Nick had the gall to berate Rob Thomson for taking him (the worst defensive player in the sport!) out of a close game as a late-inning defensive substitution, here are his numbers:

Yikes. Let’s zoom out for the entire season now. When you look at stats like OPS+ and wRC+, which I like in part because the scale is pretty simple and digestible for a dummy like me — 100 is average, above 100 is above-average, below 100 is below-average — Nick is in the low-90s.

The big takeaway here: Nick is not a good enough fielder to also be a below-average hitter. Bryson Stott’s lack of development at the plate has been one of the most disappointing subplots of this season, and whatever he does in the field does not make up for it. But at least Stott has a few thoughtful at-bats per game and also has played Gold Glove-caliber second base all season. The same logic applied to J.T. Realmuto (a better hitter than Casty) when he was scuffling three months into the season. Even his biggest critics would admit that J.T. was handling the best starting rotation in the league beautifully. Nick does not have any of that going for him.

I am susceptible to falling into this trap at times, but the amount of criticism a baseball player takes often depends on which part of the season you are scuffling. Get off to a slow start, like Nick did in the 2022? You are gonna hear it. But play even decent baseball at the beginning and stink it up for the second-third of the season? You might escape some of the criticism.

On X (formerly Twitter) the other day, Charlie had an interesting point that I do not disagree with. The upside of Nick Castellanos is real. Think about all of those walk-off hits last year. Think about Game 2 of last year’s NLDS, when he and Bryce carried the Phils to a win. Those two were the only guys who hit all series! I know the WAR numbers and defensive metrics, but I also am willing to sacrifice some defense if Nick is the guy we saw from 2023 and 2024. He might give you the 2023 NLCS, but he also might give you the 2023 NLDS. It’s not ideal, but I can live with one super-talented, streaky guy like that in lineup.

But we gotta see the talent at some point soon. Rare game off on Saturday aside, my guess is that Nick will keep his spot through the end of the season. An underrated dispiriting subplot is that after Nick yelled at Thomson in Miami, Rob does not take him out for defense at the end of close games anymore. He got benched for a game, but then got exactly what he wanted. The worst possible message.

As I have written before, I like Nick (or, as little as I can glean from post-game press conferences and such) more than I like Nick The Baseball Player. Whether it was him yelling at Thomson or bristling every time the coaching staff has the temerity to suggest to him, “Hey, maybe take a pitch every once in a while,” Nick’s hard-headed approach has rubbed is super frustrating as a fan.

But if Thomson is not actually gonna bench him, I guess we just gotta hope he plays better.

Unrelated, I cannot believe this Brewers thing. The Phils have the second-best record in the National League… and they are seven games back! That team has been a machine.

Because It’s The Cup: As Kyle and Devon broke down, the Sixers are getting no love nationally. I like this, because one of two things happens…

(Side note: I am excited for NBC to get back in the mix. Give me all of your “Roundball Rock” and televised player intros. Make the games feel big and like an event again!)

I believe we get the full schedule tomorrow, and as always, I will go through all 82, W-L style. But Because It’s The Cup, those games get released earlier.

Kyle thinks a Cup run could be in the offing. But you know what would make the regular season matter more than the stupid NBA Cup, Adam Silver, owners and players? Fewer games.

Our first look at Paul George’s knee brace: Of course it is wearing this outfit.

I feel bad for Sixers fans, but this is tremendous content.

Union 3, NY Red Bulls 2: Lots of rain these past few days, but the Union are on to the U.S. Open Cup semis. Olwethu Makhanya wins it late.

Day 2 of Eagles-Browns joint practice! Gotta get up off the mat.

Your tentative Thursday schedule at ​PHLY​:

And oh yeah, the trivia answers:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS