👋 Good morning! Remember this one, Week 3 against the Steelers?

Carson Wentz got off to an awesome start to his NFL career, especially since he was not named the starter until the Eagles traded Sammy Sleeves a week before the season. Almost immediately, he had the little handshake celebration with Jordan Matthews down pat and got the nice win in Chicago on Monday Night Football. But when Wentz made that play and that pass to Darren Sproles (who, as it turned out, did not care for ol’ Carson), it really felt like the Eagles had something.

After covering that Stillers game, I remember coming back home. My roommate, my buddy Matt, was pumped. I always remember him repeatedly saying, “We got a guy! We got a guy!” And honestly, for a while we did. That first Super Bowl title just does not happen without Carson Wentz playing out of his mind for three months and securing homefield advantage.

What followed 2017 was two years of solid, slightly above-average starting quarterback play with an increasingly worse set of weapons. Look at those receivers on the 2019 NFC East champs. Woof. The Quarterback Factory was surprisingly opened up the following spring, and that was a sign of things to come. Wentz fell apart in that weird 2020 season, and by the end of that year, it was Jalen Hurts’ franchise. Still is.

Maybe Hurts-Wentz is the quarterback matchup we see this weekend, maybe it isn’t. That all depends on J.J. McCarthy’s ankle. But since this is the Eagles’ first matchup against Wentz in the history of The Newsletter outside of last year’s Super Bowl (which, you know, we kinda had other business to focus on), I am officially declaring this Wentz Week.

Have a favorite Wentz play? Least favorite Wentz play? Any Wentz memories? Send ‘em over to [email protected]. I will feature a few in tomorrow’s newsletter.

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.

Once upon a time, Bo wrote a great story for another publication in which he simply quizzed Josh McCown — Wentz’s backup at the time in Philly, and believe it or not, his position coach now in Minnesota — on all 37 of the touchdown receivers that McCown linked up with through a long, unique and well-traveled career.

(The highlight of that story, in my opinion: Nate Sudfeld interjecting and asking Bo if he would like to run through his career touchdown passes. And when Bo said yes, Sudfeld proudly said, “Nelson Agholor. Only one.” Suddy!)

Let’s do the same with Wentz and the Eagles. I tracked this manually for 20 minutes so I am not apologizing for any mistakes, but I think I am buttoned up here: Carson threw 113 touchdown passes with the Birds to TWENTY-EIGHT different receivers. How many can you name? As always, answers at the bottom.

And for no reason at all, no relationship to the trivia question at all, make sure you are checking out the latest episode of House of Action!

On the ep, DeSean Jackson and Clinton Portis break down Delaware State putting up a 70-spot on Homecoming weekend (Jaccpot!) and chime in on what they believe is ailing the Eagles. D-Jax does not mince words, noting that it’s not time to panic but that the Eagles are playing some bad ball. He also shares his opinion on what is going on with A.J. Brown. 👀

Here are the links:

▶️ Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-5uQ-RYEW4
🍎 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/desean-jackson-on-delaware-states-70pt-win-aj-brown/id1842430496?i=1000731999359
🟢 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/6oDlA2Ema1jlAOHyoBOaaF?si=b7a07a56c3fd4030

As a veteran of The Process, I always tell people that The Climb is the most fun part. And that seems to be where the Flyers currently are, with a nice prospect pool and a whole bunch of cap space this offseason to eventually supplement the current roster. Until then, Flyers fans are watching Bill and Charlie everyday, not just because those guys are awesome and there are true sicko hockey fans in this market.

But because The Climb is the most fun part!

Now, we have no idea what this season entails or where the Flyers actually are on their rebuild. But man, their first three games — respectable loss against the defending champs, respectable overtime loss/almost win against an awesome team, nice win against the defending champs — has me all Flyered up. I am so ready for the hockey team here to be good again. Maybe it will not happen this year, maybe this team’s talent level will catch up to it, but there is stuff here to be excited about.

I will give you a perfect example: Noah Cates, Bobby Brink and Tyson Foerster are not household names, but those guys are 26, 24 and 23 years old and… kinda already kick ass? They just buzz around and play a hard-nosed style on both ends of the ice. They have four of the Flyers’ nine goals on the season, and it would have been five of ten if Brink’s overtime goal was allowed. The best Flyers line last year is off to a good start this year. That should be a fun subplot to follow.

And there are even some Process parallels during the early season, including a mercurial talent with some conditioning issues and some questionable first-round draft picks. Time is a flat circle.

As Charlie wrote about a bunch last season, the Flyers goaltending was truly tragic. It is not that the Orange and Black were a good team last 1.5 seasons, but their skaters were not nearly as bad as their final record would indicate. Could they get competency in between the pipes?

Well, they are off to a good start. And it has mostly come from a guy that Charlie just profiled, Dan Vladar. Must-read feature.

Vladar seems like the man. Two of my favorite tidbits:

Winnipeg’s in town tonight — man, tough schedule to start to the season — and I will be watching. I do not know what Rick Tocchet has here, but I am excited to find out.

Injury report: I will be in the lab*, dissecting all of the nasty stuff Brian Flores is gonna dial up this weekend in Minneapolis. Not looking forward to that one, it might very much be a Run The Ball week against all of the funky stuff he draws up. Long time ago, but the Eagles ran 48 times for 259 yards the last time they saw Flores.

*Watching Fran on the PHLY Eagles Show and stealing his takes

Until then, here is an injury report. Jalen Carter, who does need to pick it up a bit, will be back in the lineup this week. We will see about Landon and Quinyon.

But until then, a couple of good pods to listen to: Mina Kimes on the Eagles show, and Brandon Graham talking to Bo about… what everyone wants to know.

Emil Andrae gets sent down: Cam York gets brought up, Andrae gets sent down.

As Charlie and Bill talked about, this is because Andrae is waiver-exempt and the Flyers do not want three Small Guys on the blue line along with York and Jamie Drysdale. But Andrae is clearly better than Egor Zamula and Noah Juulsen.

And while I do not know if Emil Andrae will be in Southern California in March — I hope he is going — I know the Flyers show and Phlly Sports Trips will be there. Getting out of Philly in March to watch the Flyers and stay in Santa Monica? Sign me up. Come check it out, spots are limited!

Schwarbs hits the small screen: And they happened to film this episode of Abbott Elementary on the same night that he went deep four times. How about that?

Good thing Kyle had all of that experience on those auto insurance commercials. We call those “reps” in the biz.

Jared McCain update: Well, I will let the man tell you himself.

Flyers against the J-E-T-S tonight (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). Outside of that, I believe we have a Dave Dombrowski and Rob Thomson season-ending presser. And we will continue to get ready for Eagles-Vikings and a Sixers preseason finale that might actually feature the whole team.

Your tentative Thursday schedule at ​PHLY​:

And oh, Wentz’s 28 receivers: Zach Ertz, Jordan Matthews, Darren Sproles, Dorial Green-Beckham, Nelson Agholor, Ryan Mathews, Trey Burton, Josh Huff, Alshon Jeffery, Corey Clement, Torrey Smith, LeGarrette Blount, Mack Hollins (Backpack Kid), Brent Celek, Dallas Goedert, Wendell Smallwood, Golden Tate, Miles Sanders, DeSean Jackson, Jordan Howard, Greg Ward, JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Joshua Perkins (honestly didn't remember him, checked it, nice snag in the 2019 division clincher), Travis Fulgham, Richard Rodgers, Boston Scott, Jalen Reagor, Jason Croom (when he scored against Baltimore in 2020, I had never heard of him)

Let’s make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS