👋 Good morning. Awful situation down in Dallas. RIP Marshawn Kneeland.

I am just gonna defer to Lane Johnson, who has done so much great work over the years on the subject of mental health.

There is not really a great transition to be made from such a tragedy to a normal newsletter, but we are gonna get to one after the break here. RIP Marshawn. — Rich Hofmann

The three new edge-rushers: Monday night game and all, everything gets moved one day back. So, the Eagles will practice Thursday-Friday-Saturday this week.

All three of the edge-rushing additions were back at the Birds’ first practice post-bye. Jaelan Phillips was rocking the new No. 50, and after the practice ended, he called the trade “literally the greatest thing that’s ever happened in my life probably.” I am not kidding you, that’s what he said.

And I get it, boarding a three-hour flight at 2-7 and touching down at 6-2 is pretty sweet. No wonder he and Vic Fangio get along so well, getting out of Miami was the best thing that happened to Vic too!

(Small tangent: I remember when Jay Ajayi went on Dan Le Batard’s radio show after Super Bowl 52. I cannot find it, but I promise you the clip exists somewhere. Ajayi mentioned how wild it was to go from Miami and Philadelphia that season, finding it comical how good the 2017 Eagles were. Oh, this is how it is? This team is embarrassing people! That was more or less Ajayi’s point. Anyway, let’s hope Phillips has a similar awakening.)

After six weeks off with the reaggravated triceps, Nolan Smith’s practice window was opened this week. Considering how violent Nolan plays, I am picturing him barreling through a window like a pulling guard. There is no “practice window” after Nolan Smith gets done with it. Anyway, Nolan was a full participant at Thursday’s practice.

BG, well, he was also out there as well. Nothing else to report about him. But you make sure you listen to Brandon Graham Unblocked wherever you get your podcasts. New episode is right here!

The injury report: Not too bad!

A.J. Brown did not play against the Giants, but it sounds like he will be back for Green Bay. Saquon Barkley got dinged up against the Giants, but he was also a full participant. Even Jakorian Bennett was a full participant, does he get back into the CB2 mix?

Really, the only concerning news here is Cam Jurgens. Man, the TothHeads are really getting their money’s worth this year. If it’s gonna be Toth at center again, get him pulling out in space like you did against the Giants, Kevin and Stout.

And speaking of undersized centers, Fran’s guy Willie Lampkin got activated. As a reminder, Lampkin is the incredibly small rookie interior lineman who all the Film Grinders love. Fran called him “a rollerball of razor blades.” The Eagles stole him from Los Angeles on cutdown day after the Rams cut Lampkin. Since then, Lampkin has been on injured reserve. Until now.

Nick Sirianni, torturing his coaches: Sirianni revealed at yesterday’s press conference that one day during the bye week, all of the Eagles coaches have to go over to his house and work. Must be nice to be the head coach, no commute that day. Nick said that his annoying dog was bothering Kevin Patullo the whole day.

There is no way Uncle Vic attended, right?

“The Cohabitation Matrix”: This ridiculous term eluded me until EJ brought it up in his most piece. But it’s what Howie calls the system that Joe Douglas set up during his first stint in Philly, where anyone in the NovaCare Complex who crossed paths with a prospective free agent or trade target gets asked about that player.

You might simply call that, “asking someone for a reference.” I did until yesterday. But now? It’s all about The Cohabitation Matrix.

The Matrix was in action this week, doing its thing:

The Matrix is alive is and well! And I did get a kick out of Howie shutting down the idea that Uncle Vic has “miniscule” input on defensive personnel. You’re not slick, Vic!

Figure It Out! Years ago, I cut the cord. A very Millenial thing to do.

It was initially an amazing feeling, but now “cutting the cord” costs a whole bunch more money. We are probably already at the point where going back to cable might be the move. I am getting nostalgic thinking about it. There was no better feeling in the world than getting in a groove with this thing.

I have a certain streaming service, let’s call it Internet Television. And for the past week, Internet Television has been unable to access any programming from a certain company because of a contract standoff. Let’s call that company, The Mouse.

Needless to say, it has been a very annoying week. My local news broadcast of choice? Not there. The best college football games last weekend? Gone. Wemby-Luka on Wednesday? Buh-bye. All of it, The Mouse programming. Annoying!

Well, the rubber is about to meet the road here. Because Eagles-Packers on Monday night is, of course, broadcasted by The Mouse. But as of now, Internet Television will not have my Eagles-Packers, despite the fact that I pay money for Internet Television. And it’s not just me, both sides are at risk of losing one of the biggest live broadcasts of the entire year. I am not picking sides here, but…

FIGURE IT OUT! FIGURE IT THE [redacted] OUT!

Or else I am watching Monday Night Football at the bar and you are getting a drunk, incoherent newsletter on Tuesday. Might not be such a bad outcome, after all.

Flyers 3, Nashville 1: The Orange and Black sweep the season series in the process. Man, tough time for Nashville sports. I guess Vandy football is having a nice year. Post-game show with Charlie and Bill is here.

And in that post-game show, the guys talked about how well Cam York is playing. That’s great, because Cam York was not playing all that well a season ago.

On a roster with a few players who did not get along with John Tortorella, York might have been at the top of that list. He got healthy scratched and said that Torts did not communicate with him. He got into the infamous screaming match that basically ended Torts’ run in Philly. And then he signed a 5×5.15 contract with the Flyers in the offseason, a sign of confidence in him.

Free of Torts, Yorkie is killing it. As Charlie noted, the #FancyStats are loving what they are seeing. York’s Expected Goals For at five-on-five was over 60 percent heading into Thursday’s game. That’s a huge number, I believe most players are just above or below 50 percent. And the old-fashioned numbers like what York is doing, as well: Two assists on Thursday gives York nine points in 11 games this season. Pretty darn good for a defenseman.

York’s first assist on Thursday was an awesome play. He got held way worse than JuJu Smith-Schuster, no call of course, but he fought through that hold and made a perfect pass to…

Matvei Michkov, who broke a nine-game goalless drought for his second of the year. I love the hockey phrase, “He’s gripping the stick a little too tight.” Well, Michkov was doing just that. This was his first non-garbage time goal of the season.

Dan Vladar rocks, by the way. Another great game from him, and a bounce-back after giving up four goals on 20 shots due to Montreal’s voodoo puck luck.

Donnie Baseball: If you will recall, the Phillies looked at their entire coaching staff and decided that they needed… a bench coach. A veteran bench coach. Like, that’s all they need. Get that guy, and we're all good.

Anyway, I mentioned former Pirates manager Derek Shelton as an option for the all-important role because of his managerial experience and past relationship with Rob Thomson. Well, Shelton just got named manager of the Twins. Good for him, cross him off the list.

How about Donnie Baseball, though? Jimmy Steaks said it’s a possibility on the site.

Don Mattingly, who was the Blue Jays bench coach the past three seasons, is now available. He certainly checks a bunch of boxes…

Seems like a good fit. And unlike Mr. Burns, John Middleton might let him rock the sideburns.

A mix of contractual news: Some smaller moves…

The Greatest Homestand Ever: I cannot wait for the summer for a million reasons. The calendar below, which includes the last three weeks of July, is partially why.

So, you are telling me the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game are in Philly… followed by nine straight home games against the Mets, Dodgers and Yankees? I might be so exhausted from that stretch that I skip that Marlins series entirely.

Two quick Sixers thoughts for you. Nick Nurse, you might want to skip ahead to the next section.

Those pesky third quarters: When I covered the Sixers, sometimes other reporters would ask Brett Brown questions about specific parts of the game. Questions like, “Why have you been really good in second quarters?” And unless it had to do with crunch time, or with a particular five-man unit, or something else that was specific, I would typically write those questions off as random noise. You are gonna play well during some parts of NBA games and you are gonna play poorly during other parts. It is, after all, a game of runs.

OK, with that said…

It’s early, and I imagine this will normalize, but the Sixers’ game pattern has been so consistent in the early going that even I am wondering if there is something here. Here are the Sixers’ net ratings by quarter, and where they rank among all 30 NBA teams…

Yes, it is not lost on me that Joel Embiid plays most of his minutes in the two bad quarters. But outside of that, the third quarters have been rough. I dunno, maybe Nurse has gotta change up the halftime speeches? Give the guys some of Michael’s Secret Stuff? I would be all ears for any suggestions.

🚓 More Minutes Police 🚓 I promise, The Minutes Police will be off duty all next week. In fact, we are gonna do some doughnuts in the parking lot with McLovin right after the newsletter publishes. But I went over to our friends at Sports Reference (a fine local company!) to check out the NBA leaders in minutes per game, and what did I see?

(Austin Reaves is off to a great start, by the way. He’s him.)

Thibs has typically been The Minutes Police’s No. 1 Most Wanted, but Nick Nurse was a frequent offender in Toronto. Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet were perennial top-10 guys in minutes per game from 2019-2023.

I understand why some of the heavy workloads were necessary, but I am not being unreasonable when declaring that this has gotta get throttled back ASAP. Maxey will be among the league leaders in minutes per game, sure. But 41.8 minutes per game? The last two players to log 41+ per game over a full season were Monta Ellis and Gerald Wallace… back in 2009-10. And that might as well have been a different sport. The game, particularly for Maxey who gets picked up fullcourt for all 41 of those minutes, is so much harder to play now. This is madness.

VJ Edgecombe stunk on Wednesday. But when looking at those minute totals, of course he stunk! He is a rookie playing the second-most minutes in the league!

Speaking of Edgecombe, this was funny.

Bradley Carnell, Coach of the Year: When a team wildly exceeds preseason expectations, their coach tends to be in the running for Coach of the Year.

Well, hard to exceed expectations more than the Union this season. And on Thursday, Bradley Carnell was named MLS Coach of the Year. A well-deserved honor for a guy who took over what looked like a difficult situation, a low-spending (but well-run!) organization adjusting to a new manager after a full decade with Jim Curtin at the helm. Carnell made the transition look easy.

Nice message from Canadian national team manager (I wish he was the United States national team manager) Jesse Marsch in the video below. Carnell worked under Marsch both with the New York Red Bulls and Canadian national team.

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It’s that simple. Enter now and you might be watching the next big game in a fan cave built by you, courtesy of Ashley.

We have a home back-to-back for the Sixers on Saturdee and Sundee (Toronto, Detroit). I love NBA basketball more than most, but it should not be played at 7:30 p.m. on a Sunday night in November. What an awfully laid-out schedule for the Sixers so far this season.

And the Orange and Black are back home against the Ottawa Girouxs on Saturday afternoon.

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