After one season as Eagles offensive coordinator, Kevin Patullo’s play-calling career is officially over in Philadelphia.
Patullo was the favored target for disgruntled Eagles fans throughout the season, but especially after the team’s wild-card round loss to San Francisco. His home was vandalized in November, a local golf simulator facility let fans hit golf balls at a photo of his face, and of course, he’s been getting flack from fans on social media all season long.
So it was no surprise that the announcement that the Eagles would find a new offensive coordinator for next season was met with cheers from most of the fans.
The Schefter tweet announcing Patullo gone has done wonders for my mental health.
While most fans are celebrating the decision, it appears that Patullo might not be gone entirely.
Further clarification here from a source:
Kevin Patullo will no longer be the #Eagles OC, but that doesn’t mean he has been fired. He could remain on staff as I mentioned was a possibility on my podcast yesterday.
As far as former players, Ike Reese said on 94 WIP that he thought Patullo was being made a scapegoat for the team’s failures this season.
“Let’s be honest — Kevin Patullo is a first-year offensive coordinator,” Reese said. “He was supposed to take the 29th-ranked passing offense and turn it into what, exactly?”
Emmanuel Acho, on the other hand, praised the move, and said Patullo’s failure should be the end of coach Nick Sirianni’s attempts to hire from within.
Now don’t allow Nick Sirianni to promote from within.
Go out and find the best for Jalen Hurts and the Eagles, not the most convenient. https://t.co/TfGnintdq3
Even LeSean McCoy, who said earlier this week that he believed some of the problems on offense were due to Jalen Hurts, was thankful to see the team move on.
The Flyers are the fourth-youngest team in the NHL, with an average age of just under 27. Just 11 of the Flyers’ 23 roster players have played in the NHL playoffs. Of those 11, only six have played more than six postseason games.
The Eastern Conference and Metropolitan Division standings are extremely tight. The Flyers currently sit third in the division with 52 points in 44 games. The last-place Columbus Blue Jackets are just seven points back, with 45 points, which is why it’s key for the Flyers not to let their three-game losing streak snowball further on their upcoming road trip.
The back-to-back against Buffalo and Pittsburgh pits them against two teams that are right on their heels in the fight for a playoff spot. Coach Rick Tocchet said Tuesday after an optional practice that he thinks guys are “squeezing their sticks a little bit,” and it’s contributing to their lack of success on the power play and over the last three games.
“Early on, [Tampa Bay’s] first goal [in the Lightning’s 5-1 win on Monday] … there’s four or five mistakes,” he said. “You can’t have four or five mistakes on a shift, and it’s in the net, then you’re behind the eight ball, then guys squeeze the stick, and then they get frustrated.”
Tocchet pointed to the success of players like Tampa Bay superstar Nikita Kucherov, who cuts to the middle of the ice on the power play instead of sticking along the boards, as someone he wants players like Matvei Michkov and Trevor Zegras to emulate.
But right now, the Flyers are not making the right reads, and it’s preventing them from loosening up and being aggressive. Tocchet mentioned Brandon Hagel’s power-play goal in Monday’s loss as an example of something he wants to see more from the Flyers, instead of deferring to find the perfect one-timer opportunity with the man advantage.
“He tried to cross ice pass, doesn’t connect, the puck comes right back up, he sees an opening to shoot it, scores a goal,” Tocchet said. “We get it, we see an opening, but for some reason, we have a tough time pulling that trigger.”
Travis Sanheim credited the Flyers’ lack of power play success to poor communication, leading to players being out of sync on their reads away from the puck.
The Flyers’ power play is tied for second worst in the NHL this season, converting on just 15.3% of opportunities.
Rick Tocchet mentioned Nikita Kucherov as someone Matvei Michkov and Trevor Zegras should emulate when it comes to getting to the middle of the ice.
“The stuff that I get frustrated with is how [do] you not retain it,” Tocchet said. “We have to think of a way for players to retain some of the information we give them, because we’re not giving them a lot. Maybe early in the season we did, which wasn’t bad, but now we’re going to have to really dummy it down a little bit.”
As one of the more experienced players in the locker room, Sanheim is trying to lead by example as the Flyers enter this pivotal stretch, to keep everyone on the same page and moving in the right direction.
“Games are going to continue to get harder as we go along here,” Sanheim said. “It doesn’t get any easier. The race gets tighter, it already is tight, and just understanding that every play matters, and every battle matters, and it’s just a lot harder to win hockey games. You have to do the hard things to be successful in this league, and you have to do it on a consistent basis.”
Rasmus Ristolainen, Bobby Brink, Adam Ginning, Nic Deslauriers, and Sam Ersson took the ice for the optional skate on Tuesday. … Brink and Jamie Drysdale are both a “possibility” to play on the road trip, Tocchet said. After practice, the Flyers loaned Ginning back to Lehigh Valley in a move that might hint that Drysdale is good to go on Wednesday. … The Colorado Avalanche’s ECHL affiliate will move from Utah to Trenton, and be renamed the Trenton Ironhawks, starting in the 2026-27 season.
On Tuesday, the final episode of HBO’s in-season Hard Knocks show following the NFC East will debut, which will encompass the Eagles’ season-ending loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the wild-card round.
The season didn’t end the way that Eagles producer Shannon Furman may have hoped, but the final episode is a 50-minute look inside the Birds’ final game.
Furman is the mastermind behind the Eagles’ segments of the show. Because the in-season Hard Knocks is released on the Tuesday the following week, Furman said it’s important for the film crew to come in with a plan each week on which players to spotlight.
Unlike the training camp edition, this year’s in-season Hard Knocks covered the entire division, leaving the Eagles with approximately 12 minutes to fill on the show every week, edited down from several dozen hours of footage per week.
“It’s so tough with the Eagles, because there’s so many guys and there are so many choices,” Furman said. “It ends up happening, like, ‘Who has an event this week? Who’s doing something?’ Week 1, it was like, ‘Let’s follow the quarterback,’ and then we had heard everybody saying Jordan Davis was a big personality.”
The team filming the footage sent it in batches to the editing team in Mount Laurel each day leading up to Tuesday’s release date, flagging segments it particularly liked or thought would be good to include. Sometimes, like after the Monday Night Football loss to the Chargers in November, the filming crew submitted the last of the footage after midnight, less than 24 hours before the episode aired.
There’s so much footage that often gets cut for time or is reused later. Furman said the Hard Knocks team shot a lot of footage of Davis for the first episode, which was released on Dec. 2, that got cut because of time restraints. But she loved the segment so much that they eventually worked him into a later episode.
Hard Knocks also mics up players during games, and the game footage caps the episode. Furman quickly learned that some players were much better mic’d up than in an interview setting, like DeVonta Smith.
“He’s a quiet guy off the field, and then he gets on the field and he turns into a completely different person,” Furman said. “Everybody is a little bit different. Some people stay completely the same. Some people get more quiet when they’re on the field than they are when they’re off, so you just get to see all different sides of people.”
Furman hoped that the show provided a new look into the team beyond what spreads on social media. She was struck most by the passion the players had for coach Nick Sirianni, and how much they respected and related to him personally.
“As a person who grew up in Philadelphia, learning about Nick, he is Philadelphia,” Furman said. “Everyone should love this guy, because he is the definition of our city, the fiery, where maybe it comes across as arrogance at times, but at the same time you still love him. It’s like a lovable arrogance. He’s perfect for this city.”
Up until the final failed fourth-down attempt, the Eagles still believed they were winning Sunday’s NFC wild-card game against the San Francisco 49ers.
But after Jalen Hurts’ pass fell incomplete, it all hit linebacker Nakobe Dean. It may have been his final game in an Eagles uniform.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen the next couple months, next couple weeks,” Dean, a pending unrestricted free agent said. “I don’t know if I’m going to play with the guys that I’ve been playing with for four years or had a good relationship with, or the guys that I went school with. I’m going through all the emotions.”
The Birds had much higher expectations for themselves this season than a 23-19 loss in the wild-card round. Eagles players looked shell-shocked in the locker room, knowing they will never all be together again.
Jordan Davis choked up in the locker room talking about how much Dean, his teammate since their days back at Georgia, meant to him.
“We love to have his face and his leadership and his poise, his effort and just everything about him, the way he plays the game,” Davis said. “But it’s just the NFL. I’m not here to make decisions. I’m more here to play and move forward, but it’s unfortunate that it’s just the nature of the beast. It’s the league, be here today and gone tomorrow. But I love that man like a brother. Like a brother.”
Dean said he took one last photo of his locker, unsure if he’d ever return to it. The Birds drafted linebacker Jihaad Campbell in the first round last spring to potentially serve as Dean’s replacement.
But Dean wasn’t the only player who may have worn midnight green for the final time.
Jordan Mailata said postgame that he couldn’t even look at Dallas Goedert, his teammate of eight years, without wanting to cry. Goedert signed a one-year contract extension to return to Philadelphia last offseason, but after catching a career-high 60 passes and 11 touchdowns, he might be out of the Eagles’ price range.
“I had a moment with Dallas, and I wasn’t crying until I saw him,” Mailata said. “We’ve been together for eight years, and we just played a lot of ball together, a lot of time in the locker room, and so that one was hard for me. I don’t know what’s going to happen next year, I hope we bring him back, but he was one face that immediately after the game, I had to stay away from him, because I’d just cry.”
Goedert caught four passes for 33 yards and one touchdown, and added another touchdown on the ground in the loss. He downplayed whether this game was more emotional than past losses as he approaches what might be the end of his tenure with the team that drafted him.
“Saying goodbye to this team, it’ll never be the same team again, it’s always tough,” Goedert said. “You just grow as a family, and I got a lot of love for the brothers on this team, you know, and it’s just a somber state.”
The playoffs are finally here. The Eagles officially kick off their quest to repeat as Super Bowl champions on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field against the San Francisco 49ers.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of their wild-card matchup.
How to watch Eagles vs. Niners
Eagles vs. Niners will kick off on Fox at 4:30 p.m. ET. Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady will call the game from the booth, and Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi will be on the sidelines.
If you’d rather listen to Merrill Reese and Mike Quick call the game, the radio broadcast can be found on 94.1 WIP, and if you’re not heading to the Linc, but want to watch the game with your fellow Birds fans, here are a few spots to check out.
There will be six games played over the next three days. Here’s the full playoff schedule for the wild-card round …
NFC
(4) Rams vs. (5) Panthers | Saturday, 4:30 p.m., Fox
(7) Packers vs. (2) Bears | Saturday, 8 p.m., Prime Video
(6) Niners vs. (3) Eagles | Sunday, 4:30 p.m., Fox
Bye: (1) Seahawks
AFC
(6) Bills vs. (3) Jaguars | Sunday, 1 p.m., CBS
(7) Chargers vs. (2) Patriots | Sunday, 8:15 p.m., NBC
(5) Texans vs. (4) Steelers | Monday, 8:15 p.m., ESPN
Bye: (1) Broncos
Who could the Eagles face in the divisional round?
First, the Birds need to take care of business on Sunday, but if they do, they could face one of three potential remaining NFC teams: the Los Angeles Rams, the Carolina Panthers, or the Chicago Bears. They could not, however, face the Seattle Seahawks or Green Bay Packers.
The lowest advancing seed will play the top-seeded Seahawks in Seattle. And because the Panthers and Rams — the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, respectively — play one another, a team with a lower seed than the Eagles is guaranteed to advance. The Packers (or Niners, if they beat the Eagles) could also be in that spot.
If the Packers beat the Bears, Green Bay would be the lowest remaining seed and would face Seattle. The Eagles would then play the winner of the Panthers-Ram game, and would get to host that team in the divisional round. However, if the Bears win, the Eagles would travel to Chicago for the divisional round, with the Panthers-Rams winner heading to Seattle.
Because the Eagles-Niners game is the final NFC wild-card matchup, the winner won’t have to wait to find out its opponent.
The Eagles could get offensive tackle Lane Johnson, left, back for Sunday’s wild-card game.
Final injury report
It sounds like the Eagles won’t know until Sunday whether or not right tackle Lane Johnson, who has been out since Week 11 with a Lisfranc (foot) injury, will make his return to the offensive line. Johnson, interior lineman Brett Toth (concussion), and outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari (hamstring) are all listed as questionable for the Birds’ wild-card game. Ojulari was the only of the three who practiced fully on Friday. Johnson and Toth were limited all week.
On the flip side, the Eagles will be getting several banged-up players back in time for the playoffs. Defensive tackle Jalen Carter (hip), linebacker Nakobe Dean (hamstring), edge rusher Jaelan Phillips (ankle), tight end Dallas Goedert (knee), and safety Marcus Epps (concussion) were all full participants in Friday’s practice and are expected to play.
Meanwhile the 49ers have quite a few injuries, including to several starters. Veteran tackle Trent Williams, linebackers Dee Winters and Luke Gifford — after the team put LB Tatum Bethune on IR earlier this week — and cornerback Renardo Green are among those listed on the injury report for Sunday’s game. The following players are all questionable:
WR Jacob Cowing (hamstring)
LB Luke Gifford (quadricep)
CB Renardo Green (ankle)
WR Ricky Pearsall (knee, ankle)
DL Keion White (groin, hamstring)
T Trent Williams (hamstring)
LB Dee Winters (ankle)
Eagles-Niners odds
The Birds are a 5.5-point favorite at DraftKings and a 4.5-point favorite at FanDuel as of Friday afternoon. The over/under on both sites is set at 44.5.
As for the Super Bowl, the Seahawks are the betting favorite to win it all. At FanDuel, the Eagles have the fourth-best odds, at +800, behind Seattle, the Rams, and the Broncos. At DraftKings, the Eagles have the fifth-best odds, at +950, also behind the Patriots.
Kevin Patullo is in his first year as the Eagles offensive coordinator.
Storylines to watch
What is the state of the Eagles’ offense? With Johnson potentially set to make his first start since Nov. 16 against the Detroit Lions, the banged-up offensive line could get a big boost.
In the starting offense’s final game of the year in Buffalo, they played one of their best first halves and worst second halves of the year. Which version will show up at the Linc on Sunday? And what will that mean for the future of offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo?
More storylines to watch:
Saquon Barkley is extra excited for this weekend’s showdown with Niners running back Christian McCaffrey, whom he calls “one of the best to ever do it.”
Jeff McLane: “There’s a push when it comes to the Eagles’ underperforming offense vs. the 49ers’ subpar defense; but I give the edge to a great Eagles defense over a very good, but not great 49ers offense.” | Eagles 23, Niners 17.
Jeff Neiburg: “It hasn’t been an encouraging season from the Eagles’ offense, to put it mildly, but the 49ers are down multiple linebackers and don’t have an abundance of talent in the secondary. If the Eagles don’t beat themselves, which you can’t rule out, they should be able to establish a running game that gets the offense back on track.” | Eagles 24, Niners 20.
Olivia Reiner: “Maybe the Eagles can finish what the Seahawks started last week and continue to punish the 49ers on the ground. Maybe Jalen Hurts and the passing attack can exploit the 49ers’ thin inside linebacker corps with passes over the middle of the field. Neither have been characteristic of the offense this season, though. Or, maybe, the defense will stifle Shanahan’s offense while Nick Sirianni, Kevin Patullo, and the Eagles offense do just enough to get by. It wouldn’t be the first time.” | Eagles 24, Niners 20.
Matt Breen: “The Niners had a great finish to the season before their dud against the Seahawks, but they just seem too banged up to hang with the Eagles.” | Eagles 24, Niners 13.
The national media is divided over this one, but there’s a definitely lean toward the home team. Here’s a look at how they are predicting Sunday’s game …
Nick Sirianni opted to rest his starters in Week 18 despite a chance to get the No. 2 seed in the NFC.
What we’re saying about the Eagles
Our columnists had plenty to say about the Eagles this week, including Mike Sielski, who believes their toughest opponent is not any team in the bracket, but themselves.
“From Eagles fans to the players themselves, there has seemed to be an ever-present blanket of expectations weighing on them. It’s as if the only thing that would make anyone happy and relieved at any moment this season would be another Super Bowl victory — a benchmark so lofty that it virtually guarantees people will be worried at best and miserable at worst unless the Eagles win every game 49-0.”
Here’s more from our columnists …
David Murphy: “The pertinent question for Kevin Patullo and the Eagles now is what the offense will look like moving forward. This is a weird time of year. Sunday’s wild-card game against the 49ers could be the start of a month of football that leaves us memory-holing our four months of angst. Or, it could be the start of the offseason, and a litany of questions that sound way closer to January 2024 than January 2025.”
Marcus Hayes: “It was Zack Baun. The best linebacker in football over the last two seasons. The man tasked Sunday with covering and tackling Christian McCaffrey, the best offensive player in football, and George Kittle, the league’s best tight end. In a city that still worships linebackers like Chuck Bednarik, Seth Joyner, and Bill Bergey, Baun somehow remains largely anonymous.”
Mike Sielski: “There’s more than one way to be an excellent head coach, even if one of those ways gets a little more attention, a little more scrutiny, a little more credit these days. The film can tell you how good a coach Kyle Shanahan is. What Nick Sirianni does well sometimes isn’t so easy to see. Come Sunday, may the best savant win.”
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is a big Vic Fangio fan.
What the Niners are saying
Kyle Shanahan is one of Vic Fangio’s biggest fans. Shanahan is such a big fan, that he’s tried to hire Fangio in San Francisco “all the times that there’s been an opportunity.”
“I mean, Vic schematically, he has always been the best to me,” Shanahan said. “As good as anyone there is. Has a very sound scheme that he doesn’t need to change up very much. It just naturally changes with how he does his coverages, how he does his fronts, the personnel groupings he does. He’s very good at getting a bead on what you’re trying to do and making you adjust.”
Sunday should be an extremely hostile environment for the Niners. Tight end George Kittle recalled a few of his craziest stories on Thursday.
“I just thoroughly enjoy it because it’s so unique every single time,” Kittle said. “I’ll never forget my rookie season, the year they won the Super Bowl, it was my first time playing in the Linc. There were like four 10-year-old kids holding a seven-foot tall papier-mâché middle finger that had a rotating thing on it that made the middle finger come up. That was the coolest thing, I’ll never forget it. That was my rookie year and I was like this is excellent.”
Kittle isn’t the only member of the 49ers offense looking forward to playing in the Linc. Kyle Juszczyk is also ready to take on Eagles fans.
“It’s more difficult [going into a hostile environment] but the payoff is better,” Juszczyk told reporters. “There’s nothing like that feeling of going into a hostile territory and getting a win. Yeah, it’s a little bit more difficult, but it’ll be worth it in the end.”
Donna Kelce made her reality television debut on Peacock’s The Traitors, with Thursday’s premiere including the first three episodes of the fourth season.
“People think I’m this sweet little old lady,” Kelce said to start the first episode. “They’re not going to know what’s coming.”
If you’ve never seen the show, which features reality stars, actors, comedians, and other celebrities, here’s our write-up of the rules and background. And here’s a recap of each episode from Week 1 …
On the way to Alan Cumming’s famous Scottish castle, Survivor’s Rob Cesternino asked Kelce what her two sons, Travis and Jason, thought of her being on the show.
“They’re so excited,” Kelce said. “They’re huge fans. Jason is the one that got me involved. We just literally, one weekend, during playoffs, we binged it. It was great.”
Immediately, her fellow contestants were worried about the potential for “murdering” — or eliminating — Kelce, “America’s mom.”
“No one’s going to murder her. The Swifties will kill you,” The Real Housewives of New York City’s Dorinda Medley said.
The show’s first twist was to name a secret Traitor, a position that comes with a certain set of extra powers. In the first episode, Cumming asked each contestant to come up and take a look inside a box with their name on it. One box had a card in it, and the person who got that box was the secret Traitor, identified in plain sight, kept secret from the other Traitors. The secret Traitor then wrote a shortlist of people from which the other three Traitors could choose a murder victim. That secret Traitor was Kelce — but you don’t find that out until the third episode.
Episode 2
During the first challenge, the contestants had to collect coffins to add money to the prize pot and determine who earned a shield, or immunity, and who was eligible for murder.
Contestants on one of the boats debated whether to put a coffin in Kelce’s casket and put her up for murder. Most of the Faithfuls, or non-Traitors, didn’t want to, but Traitor Candiace Dillard Bassett urged the group to do so. “I think it would shake this castle if we murdered Donna,” Dillard Bassett said.
“I know I’m going to see you tomorrow, because nobody would do that,” Big Brother’s Tiffany Mitchell said.
However, Kelce was not on the secret Traitor’s shortlist and was not murder-eligible — because she wrote the list. One person who was on it? Traitor Rob Rausch, who immediately put his sights on finding out who the secret Traitor was.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Kelce quickly drew suspicion from others across the castle due to her behavior.
“Only someone who feels safe doesn’t feel like they need to make connections,” Mitchell said.
Donna Kelce made her reality TV debut Thursday night on Peacock’s “The Traitors.”
This is a bit unfair. Most of the contestants have some previous knowledge of one another or even active friendships from previous shows. Kelce is not a reality star and only knew Ron Funches, who she said worked with Travis on a show before. Of course she was quiet!
“Looking around the breakfast table, I have so many suspicions, but also I am fangirling right now. It is so amazing to be in a situation with all these celebrities. I’m so happy to be here. Any extra day in the castle is bonus,” Kelce said.
Ultimately, the first murder victim was Big Brother‘s Ian Terry — he didn’t even make it to the first breakfast.
After the challenge, Kelce roused up more suspicion from Monét X Change after she didn’t have a person to name as a potential Traitor. She suspected The Real Housewives of Atlanta‘s Porsha Williams with Funches earlier. Kelce said she wanted to keep her strategy close to the chest, but on a show like this with so many big personalities, that just draws suspicion.
At the first Roundtable, where contestants vote to eliminate another player, Survivor’s Natalie Anderson tossed Kelce’ name out first, and Donna defended herself by saying she’s alone so of course she’s more quiet. Ron laid out the case for Williams, but Dillard Bassett, who knew her from Housewives, defended her, and threw the heat back on Kelce, saying she’d make a great Traitor. Kelce replied that Dillard Bassett would also make a great Traitor, because she’s put together and articulate.
Actor Michael Rapaport got so worked up about a shield issue from earlier, that he used “we” when referring to the previous night’s murder. His use of “we” immediately turned the conversation to him being a potential Traitor. Most of the table seemed pretty confident he was not actually a Traitor, but they found him so annoying and distracting — Anderson called him a “bad Faithful” — that they considered voting for him anyway, which would absolutely have been the right call in this situation for the viewers at home, who would no longer have to listen to him speak.
Episode 3
Kelce narrowly survived the first Roundtable, with Williams receiving the most votes and being eliminated. But Williams confirmed that she was a Faithful in the truth circle, so Kelce was not out of the woods.
She clearly learned from her mistakes, because she said in a confessional she needed to put herself out there more, and made an effort to talk to everyone afterward and at breakfast and share her ideas.
It was too little too late though, because immediately after the next murder in the morning before the challenge — this time it was Cesternino — the contestants went back to the Roundtable. And with minimal new evidence to draw from, Kelce was the obvious candidate. Kelce tried to pin the evidence back on Rapaport, who everyone already didn’t like, by saying that “92% of the time” the Traitors try to go for shields, to provide a convenient excuse for why they haven’t been murdered.
Michael Rapaport is one of the contestants on “The Traitors.”
But ultimately, Kelce was doomed from the end of the last Roundtable, received the most votes, and was sent home midway through the third episode.
“I know that I’m the sacrificial lamb, and I know that I had a blast meeting every single one of you,” Kelce said in the circle of truth. “On that note, I think I’m going to go, but you got yourself a Traitor!”
Honestly, she was set up to fail. The secret Traitor was an interesting idea to mix up the game, but the other Traitors were annoyed by the concept of a secret Traitor who had control over their decisions, and Rausch actively wanted to identify and eliminate that person. Dillard Bassett and Rausch were both very vocal at the Roundtable against Kelce, but if they’d all four been Traitors together from the start, there likely would have been more teamwork.
The biggest matchup in Sunday’s wild-card playoff game might be Vic Fangio’s Eagles defense vs. Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers offense. But in another universe, Fangio could have been back on the other sideline alongside Shanahan.
Fangio had a brief tenure as defensive coordinator with San Francisco from 2011-14 under Jim Harbaugh, but he left the team when Harbaugh was fired at the end of the 2014 season.
Shanahan revealed that he has tried to bring Fangio back to the Bay numerous times since then, but something’s always gotten in the way, including in 2022, after DeMeco Ryans left to become head coach of the Texans. Shanahan hoped to hire Fangio to replace him, but two days earlier, Fangio ended up signing with Miami.
“I’ve tried all the times that there’s been an opportunity,” Shanahan told reporters Wednesday in Santa Clara, Calif. “Just, he’s always been with someone else when that’s happened. I mean, I tried really hard in ’17 when we first came here and I tried like two other times on separate occasions.
“Vic’s a guy that I’ve always respected, gone against a number of times before I became a head coach, so that’s why I respect him so much and through the process have been able to become friends with him.”
A number of successful defensive coordinators have coached under Shanahan, including Ryans and current defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who returned to the Niners in 2025 after a stint as head coach of the Jets.
Vic Fangio was the 49ers defensive coordinator from 2011-14.
But Shanahan calls Fangio the best he’s ever seen. In four games against Fangio, Shanahan’s offenses have averaged 10.3 points and 290 yards.
“I mean, Vic schematically, he has always been the best to me,” Shanahan said. “As good as anyone there is. Has a very sound scheme that he doesn’t need to change up very much. It just naturally changes with how he does his coverages, how he does his fronts, the personnel groupings he does. He’s very good at getting a bead on what you’re trying to do and making you adjust.
The fourth season of The Traitors officially premieres Thursday night on Peacock, and it will feature a few Philly-adjacent stars, including Donna Kelce.
Whether you’re a reality TV aficionado or just hearing about the show for the first time, here’s everything you need to know about the show before you tune in …
What is ‘The Traitors?’
If you’ve never seen The Traitors, it’s basically a big-budget version of the party game “Mafia.” It’s also similar to The Mole, which, like The Traitors, is a spinoff of a Dutch-language show. It’s wildly popular globally, with over two dozen countries having their own version, and nearly a dozen more international spinoffs on the way.
In the American version, host Alan Cumming whisks the cast away to his castle in Scotland, and selects a handful of players to serve as “Traitors,” who then have to “kill” — or eliminate — the other contestants, known as “Faithfuls.” At the end of every episode, there’s a roundtable, where contestants interrogate and confront one another to pick one player to banish, with the goal of eliminating all of the traitors. In the middle, contestants compete in challenges to grow the cash prize pot, which can get up to $250,000. The Faithfuls win if they can eliminate all the Traitors and make it to the end, but if any Traitors make it to the finale, they keep the prize money for themselves.
Past contestants include former Bachelor stars like Gabby Windey and Peter Weber, iconic Survivor contestants like Boston Rob and Parvati Shallow, and members of the Real Housewives franchise like Phaedra Parks and Dolores Catania. Zac Efron’s brother, Dylan, won Season 3 of The Traitors despite no past reality TV experience, so Donna wouldn’t be the first nepo-Traitors winner. There’s also usually a random old British guy.
Host Alan Cumming won an Emmy for outstanding reality competition program for “The Traitors.”
Who is in the Season 4 cast?
For Philadelphians, Kelce might be the biggest name, but Olympic figure skaters with local ties (Johnny Weir, Coatesville, and Tara Lipinski, Sewell, N.J.) will also factor into this season, ahead of the Winter Olympics in February.
“That was so much fun, just being able to do that, especially at my age, it was just a blast,” Kelce told the Kansas City Star. “The [Scottish] Highlands are absolutely gorgeous. The people were so kind. And it just was kind of like a dream to be able to do something like that and to interact with individuals on such a high level.
“And it was a little bit daunting when it comes to some of the missions, but it was fun. It really was. It was a good time.”
Here’s the full cast list:
Donna Kelce
Johnny Weir
Tara Lipinski
Lisa Rinna, Real Housewives
Dorinda Medley, Real Housewives (and Traitors Season 3)
Rob Cesternino, Survivor
Natalie Anderson, Survivor
Tiffany Mitchell, Big Brother
Ian Terry, Big Brother
Yam Yam Arocho, Survivor
Monet X Change, RuPaul’s Drag Race
Colton Underwood, The Bachelor
Mark Ballas, Dancing with the Stars
Porsha Williams, Real Housewives
Candiace Bassett, Real Housewives
Maura Higgins, Love Island
Eric Nam, singer
Ron Funches, comedian
Rob Rausch, Love Island
Kristen Kish, Top Chef
Stephen Colletti, actor
Michael Rapaport, actor
Caroline Stanbury, Real Housewives
Can Donna Kelce win ‘The Traitors?’
“Missions” plural? Could Mama Kelce be sticking around for a while?
Shortly after she was revealed to be a part of the cast, the three Kelce boys — Jason, Travis, and their father, Ed — discussed the matriarch’s chances on the show … but only after the brothers explained to dad what the show was all about. However, once they explained the game, Ed’s response was to snore.
“I haven’t got a [expletive] clue,” he said when asked about Donna’s chances. “I don’t know, I’m not a reality TV show type of person.”
Before their mother joined The Traitors cast, the Kelce brothers revealed they were fans of the show, but neither thought they would do well, especially if picked to be a traitor.
The first three episodes of the show will premiere on Peacock Thursday at 9 p.m. ET (although last season, they usually ended up dropping early, at around 8:30 p.m.). New episodes will premiere each subsequent Thursday at 9 p.m. ET. There will be 12 episodes total, including the reunion show, which is hosted by Andy Cohen.
Here’s a look at the full schedule:
Jan. 8: Episodes 1-3
Jan. 15: Episodes 4-5
Jan. 22: Episode 6
Jan. 29: Episode 7
Feb. 5: Episode 8
Feb. 12: Episode 9
Feb. 19: Episode 10
Feb. 26: Episode 11 (the finale) & Reunion
If you can’t wait, a pair of clips showing the contestants’ arrival at Cumming’s castle were recently unveiled.
On Tuesday evening, a few days ahead of the Eagles’ wild-card round matchup against the San Francisco 49ers, Center City bar Ladder 15 received an email, with a group of 100-200 people looking to book out the space over the weekend.
The only problem? It was a large group of Niners fans, looking for a place to take over on Friday night in preparation for Sunday’s game at Lincoln Financial Field.
Manager Steve Dowling, who handles event bookings at the bar, sent the email to fellow manager Joe Chilutti, who was at Tuesday’s Flyers game against Anaheim. The two lifelong Eagles fans quickly agreed they could not betray the city in a time like this.
“After very little consideration, we cannot in good conscience host anything that has to do with the 49ers,” the bar wrote back in response, in an email they shared on Instagram. “We’re Birds fans til the end. We Bleed Green. We Back our team even when it comes at a cost. Only reason I wish you luck, is because the 49ers are going to need it.”
“Was there a little part of me that felt bad sending that email? Somewhat, but minuscule,” Dowling said. “But what I felt better about was that we were backing our city.”
That said, turning down a large group did mean turning down a fair amount of money. Chilutti knew they couldn’t sell out by taking in a big group of opposing fans on playoff weekend, and Ladder 15 happily made that sacrifice — but he decided to post it on Instagram in hopes of making a funny moment out of it, and maybe attracting a little more attention to the bar.
The post quickly went viral on social media, and Chilutti’s phone has been blowing up ever since. Even if it hadn’t, though, no regrets.
“Obviously money’s green to us, and we love it and we need it in order to survive as a business,” Dowling said. “But in a weekend like this, going into the playoffs, the only green we really want to see is Birds green.”
That was the message from Flyers fans for former top prospect Cutter Gauthier on Tuesday in his second career game in Philadelphia — at least on some of the pregame signs.
If fans had somewhat gotten over the whole ordeal in warmups, Tuesday’s game — a 5-2 Flyers win over the Anaheim Ducks — unfolded perfectly to hook them back in.
“The crowd was outstanding,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “I remember the days when I played, that’s a loud building tonight. They were awesome. I think they really gave our team some juice. Even when they scored the first goal, they didn’t let up.”
Colin Meehan, a 19-year-old St. Joseph’s student, came armed with a sign he made with a picture of Jamie Drysdale and a picture of Gauthier to support the player the Flyers received in the trade out of Philly that Gauthier forced nearly two years ago.
Drysdale is having the best season of his young career, but Meehan still wondered pregame what could have been if Gauthier hadn’t asked out.
“Imagine if we had Trevor Zegras, [Matvei] Michkov, Cutter, [Travis] Konecny, we would have been unstoppable,” Meehan said. “I feel like we would have been first in the league.
“Jamie, he’s not a quitter,” Meehan added. “I’ll tell you that. He tried with the Ducks. The Ducks didn’t want him. We’ll happily take him.”
St. Joseph’s student Colin Meehan yells at Anaheim’s Cutter Gauthier as he skates by during warmups before Tuesday’s game.
While Gauthier still got a healthy round of boos as the Ducks took the ice for warmups, most of the signs lining the glass weren’t about him at all. Many celebrated the addition of former Duck Trevor Zegras, who was playing his first game against his old team.
Gauthier did have a small group of supporters in the form of two Boston College students from Philadelphia who, for the second year in a row, made a sign supporting the player who’d brought their college hockey team to the national championship game.
“I think it’s a lot to put on someone who’s 21, 22 years old,” one of the students said. “It might be really loud in here and people are rooting against you, but there is someone in the building who’s rooting for you.”
Compared to his first game here last year, the proceedings in warmups were civil. Instead of a raucous crowd shouting expletives the entire warmup, fans mostly stayed quiet after the Ducks had taken the ice.
When the puck dropped, though, fans started chanting “We want Cutter!” Once Gauthier was on the ice, he was greeted by a loud chorus of boos.
But Gauthier quieted the crowd by scoring the first goal of the game to give Anaheim an early lead, and he gave it back to the crowd.
Not to be outdone, Zegras scored against his former team to tie it at 1 later in the first, and then hung up the phone on the Ducks, which he said postgame was meant to mimic the length of the phone call he got when he found out he was getting traded.
Zegras scored his second goal of the game from the same spot a few minutes later, pumping up the already-juiced crowd even more.
“This is home for me,” Zegras said. “I love being here. These guys are amazing. I’m having a blast, but it’s always going to feel good playing them for sure.”
But the game took a more somber turn after Ross Johnston checked Drysdale behind the play. Drysdale was down on the ice for a long time and nearly left the game on a stretcher, but he ultimately stood up and left the ice on his skates with assistance. The crowd rang out with a supportive “Jamie’s better” chant.
Anaheim’s Cutter Gauthier carries the puck during second period while facing the Flyers on Tuesday.
Drysdale’s injury took some of the bite out of the crowd, but, as the game continued, Flyers fans got back in the hating spirit.
As the Flyers closed out their win, chants cursing Gauthier continued to ring out, and the team left the ice to a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd.
It wasn’t quite as raucous as a year ago, but the crowd still created a playoff-type atmosphere. Cam York said postgame that what’s important now is continuing to play meaningful games so that Xfinity Mobile Arena doesn’t get loud only once a year.
“Pretty crazy, great atmosphere, felt like a playoff game,” York said. “It was really cool, a little bit different when there’s so much noise during the play, but I think I’d probably rather have it that way.”
