A common refrain from the NovaCare Complex during the Eagles’ up-and-down 2025 regular season has been that finding ways to win, regardless of style or circumstance, is the team’s greatest strength. Based on the group’s track record, especially the past two years, the claim would be hard to dismiss. The Eagles’ belief in themselves, however, will be put to the test this weekend, when the playoffs begin Sunday with a Wild Card matchup against the San Francisco 49ers at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles might not be entering the postseason looking like the world-beaters that romped in last year’s Super Bowl, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of pulling off another title run. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane shares his reasons for hope and doubt for the possibility of a repeat.
00:00 Which version of the Eagles will show up Sunday? 02:22 Top reason for hope: Uncle Vic
09:06 Could Jalen Hurts run more?
13:05 The Lane Johnson effect
18:17 The biggest reason for concern…
27:43 About Kevin Patullo, and his future
unCovering the Birds is a production of The Philadelphia Inquirer and KYW Newsradio Original Podcasts. Look for new episodes throughout the season, including day-after-game reactions.
Heading into the Eagles’ wild-card matchup with the San Francisco 49ers, fans have plenty of questions surrounding the team’s offense, adjustments they could make in the playoffs, and players who may step up in the postseason.
Before Sunday’s game at Lincoln Financial Field, The Inquirer’s Olivia Reiner took to Reddit for an AMA — or “Ask Me Anything” — to answer reader questions about the team … and the future of its offensive coordinator.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Despite the 11-win season, the offense has felt ‘enigmatic’ (and at times dysfunctional) compared to the defense this year. In your opinion, is the disconnect primarily viewed as a play-calling issue with Kevin Patullo, or are there deeper issues with the offensive players this year?
Reiner: It would be very easy to chalk all of the offense’s dysfunction up to one thing, but I don’t think that’s fair. The blame deserves to be spread around. But just anecdotally speaking, I feel like there have been too many instances this year where Hurts doesn’t have anywhere to go with the ball. He’s been forced to make plays out of structure, whether he’s scrambling for yardage or extending the play.
I think we saw in the season finale with Tanner McKee and the backups what happens when the Eagles don’t have a quarterback who can do those things. Re: the lack of answers, how much is that on Patullo for the play call? How much is that on Hurts for not changing the play if he has the freedom to do so based on what the defense presents before the snap? Or on the offense for not getting to the line fast enough for Hurts to make a change? Only the Eagles really know.
Jalen Hurts’ designed runs have been more frequent during the second half of the season.
What adjustments could we hope to see for the offense to finally get going in the playoffs
Reiner: I’m curious to see if Kevin Patullo calls more designed runs for Jalen Hurts now that the team is in the playoffs and they could be a little less concerned with the self-preservation aspect of it. Hurts has insisted throughout the season that his designed rushes being down are more of a product of the offense, not so much an issue of keeping him healthy, though, although Nick Sirianni has acknowledged the health aspect of it.
I wrote about Hurts’ designed rushes being down this year last month. His rushing ability has the power to help keep defenses honest and open up opportunities for his teammates. That could be the most logical tweak to the offense this late in the game. I wouldn’t expect wholesale changes at this point.
Do you think the eagles offense will be able to get it done if they don’t put together four solid quarters in four straight games?
Reiner: Well, that’s how they’ve won most games this season! Many games have come down to Vic Fangio’s defense playing nearly flawless to bail out an inconsistent offense. A.J. Brown referred to it earlier in the season as the defense putting a “Band-Aid” over the offense’s inability to produce over a full four quarters.
I’m not sure if that method will fly in the playoffs. The competition, of course, gets better in the postseason. But can the Eagles offense suddenly become this consistent, well-oiled machine after sputtering so many times throughout the regular season? I think they’re still going to need the defense to bail them out, and that doesn’t sound like a recipe for success going forward.
Jahan Dotson has just 18 catches on the season. Could he be more impactful in the postseason?
If you had to pick a player likely to take a big step forward in production in the playoffs, who would it be? Is anyone unexpected going to break out?
Reiner: Jahan Dotson was kind of that player last postseason, especially in the Super Bowl. I’m more surprised that he hasn’t been more of a factor in the passing game during the regular season given his contributions in February. Maybe he comes down with a couple of key catches in the postseason. Even if it’s just a couple, that would be notable, given that he has just 18 catches on the season (one fewer than 2024).
Regardless of Sunday’s outcome, do you expect major changes to the coordinator staff this offseason? Hopefully that change involves Kevin Patullo.
Reiner: This is pure speculation and not reporting: I would think that Sunday’s outcome has to be taken into consideration regarding any changes at the offensive coordinator position, and the outcome of any additional playoff games. A wild-card exit wouldn’t reflect well on anybody. Another Super Bowl win would. This postseason run is important for Kevin Patullo, as my colleague David Murphy wrote about this morning.
To check out the rest of Olivia’s AMA, click here.
After finishing the regular season with an 11-6 record, the Eagles are preparing for the first round of the NFL playoffs, where they’ll will host Christian McCaffrey and the San Francisco 49ers in what is expected to be a windy wild-card matchup.
Here’s how those in the local and national media are predicting Sunday’s game …
Inquirer predictions
As always, we start with our own writers. Here’s an excerpt from Jeff Neiburg’s prediction:
To see what our other beat writers are expecting from this NFC playoff matchup, check out our full Eagles-49ers predictions here.
Eagles safety Sydney Brown (left) tackles 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey during the two teams’ last meeting at the Linc in 2023.
National media predictions
Here’s a look at who the national media is picking for Sunday’s game …
ESPN: Six of nine panelists are picking the Eagles to win and advance.
CBS Sports: CBS Sports is also leaning toward the home team, with four of seven experts choosing the Birds.
USA Today: In a clear sweep, all six panelists like the Eagles Sunday.
The Athletic: They turned their picks over to a panel of 11 NFL insiders — coaches and high-ranking executives — and the majority (six) think the 49ers will upset the Eagles.
Bleacher Report: Bleacher Report picks against the spread, and their crew is leaning toward the 49ers, with five of seven analysts taking the away team and the 4.5 points they’ll be getting from the Eagles.
Yahoo! Sports: Frank Schwab has the Birds beating the Niners, 20-14.
Sporting News: Vinnie Iyer is picking the Eagles to win, 23-20.
Sports Illustrated: Six of the 10 MMQB writers have the Eagles advancing past the 49ers, and two (Gilberto Manzano and Andrew Brandt) have the Birds advancing to the Super Bowl, with Brandt picking them to win.
For a moment, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts sounded a bit like Jason Kelce, without the foul mouth and not wearing a Mummers outfit.
During an NBC event Wednesday in New York City to hype its upcoming broadcasts of the 2026 Super Bowl and Milano Cortina Olympics, Sunday Night Football announcers Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth discussed the teams they might see in Santa Clara next month.
Collinsworth said he was “hedging” a bit but sticking by his prediction the Seattle Seahawks will represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. The announcers also mentioned the Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills, and Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers as intriguing possibilities, along with Drake Maye and the bounce-back New England Patriots.
After the panel, Roberts, a Philly native, took the stage and directed some criticism at his company’s top NFL talent over one notable omission.
“Cris and Mike, what the heck? You don’t even mention the Eagles once in the Super Bowl conversation?” Roberts joked. “I’m just a Philly guy, what can I say?”
While we still have the entire NFL playoffs to get through, Comcast-owned NBC is preparing for a busy February that will include broadcasting the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics, and the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles.
While Tirico is an Olympics veteran and has long been praised as one of TV’s best sports announcers, he will be calling his first Super Bowl for NBC. It’s a fitting achievement for the Queens native who was baptized the morning the Packers and Kansas City Chiefs faced off in Super Bowl I.
“This has been a part of my life from truly the beginning of my life,” Tirico said. “To call the game, only a dozen people have done it, it’s the pinnacle of our business.”
Collinsworth: Eagles fans haven’t changed
Philadelphia Eagles fans cheer after the game against the Washington Commanders at Northwest Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025 in Landover, Md.
Collinsworth said NFL fans across the country share one common thread — they all think he hates their team.
That anger lingered into the Birds’ Super Bowl parade, where fans booed Collinsworth during replay of the broadcast airing on TVs along Broad Street.
The animosity is one reason Collinsworth actually looks forward to calling Eagles games, pointing out the passion of Philly fans.
But have Eagles fans become nicer to him since winning two Super Bowls?
“Oh, heck no,” Collinsworth said. “It’s a passionate place, man. I’ll just say that.”
This will be Collinsworth’s sixth Super Bowl in the booth, and his first alongside Tirico. Collinworth’s first Super Bowl was in 2005 for Fox alongside Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, and he’s called four since returning to NBC in 2006 — all alongside former partner and current Amazon play-by-play voice Al Michaels.
“I’m the one dumb enough to replace John Madden twice,” Collinsworth said.
Despite picking the Seahawks to win the NFC, Collinsworth said the conference appears wide open and he could easily see the Eagles making another run to the Super Bowl. But only if they start looking like last year’s squad, where both the offensive and defensive lines were dominant.
“When I see that Philly team again, then I’ll know they’ve got a real shot,” Collinsworth said.
Why Eagles-49ers isn’t airing on NBC
Tom Brady, seen here with Birds’ owner Jeffrey Lurie, will call Sunday’s Eagles-49ers wild-card game on Fox.
NBC and every other network was angling to carry the two stand-out games of wild-card weekend — the Eagles’ matchup against the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers’ game against the Chicago Bears, just the third time the historic teams have met in the playoffs.
NBC got neither. Instead, they got Patriots vs. Justin Hebert and the Los Angeles Chargers.
49ers-Eagles landed on Fox in the Sunday 4:25 p.m. slot, a no-brainer considering last year’s Eagles-Packers game in that spot drew 35.9 million viewers, the most-watched game in the wild-card round. But instead of giving NBC Packers-Bears for the Sunday evening game, they tossed it to Amazon to stream on Prime Video Saturday night.
The move has largely been viewed by sports media pundits as a gift to Amazon as the NFL seeks to renegotiate its TV deals before they’re able to opt out in 2029. But it will also be the tech giant’s final NFL game in a season where they averaged 15.3 million viewers game, increasing the likelihood we’ll see a streamer land a Super Bowl during the next decade.
In addition to the Super Bowl, NBC will also broadcast one of the four divisional-round playoff games. If the Eagles win Sunday, they’ll hit the road to face Bears or host the Rams or Carolina Panthers at the Linc.
Tirico has been bullish on the Eagles, despite the Birds’ well-documented offensive struggles. During last Sunday’s broadcast, Tirico pointed out Jalen Hurts, last year’s Super Bowl MVP, is quietly lurking out there as Matthew Stafford, Josh Allen, and other quarterbacks dominate the conversation.
“There’s something about this Eagles’ team that I think even people in Philadelphia want to be a little skeptical of,” Tirico said. “But this team might be just as good as last year, and I can see them getting on a roll, 1,000%.”
And the possibility of an Eagles-Rams divisional playoff game landing on NBC?
“That would be awesome,” Tirico said.
Full wild-card TV schedule
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Other NBC notes
Beginning with their Chargers-Patriots wild-card game Sunday night, NBC will introduce a new graphics presentation that will include players’ hometowns, something they’re pulling in from their Olympics coverage. “We want to tell stories. We want to make you feel something about the human being inside that uniform,” Collinsworth said.
Sunday Night Basketball will debut on NBC Feb. 1, with Tirico joining the broadcast following the Olympics. So far, the Sixers aren’t slated to appear on Sunday Night Basketball, but that could change as the season moves forward.
Sunday Night Baseball, which is ending its 36-season run with ESPN, will begin on NBC at the end of May, following the Western Conference finals. Tirico has no immediate plans to call baseball games, but said “at some point I would like to.”
The winds evidently won’t be taking sides: The stadium’s orientation is more or less north-south, and the winds will be blowing from the west and then “swirling around in the Linc,” said Matt Benz, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.
In any event, they won’t be much help to the quarterbacks or the kickers — San Francisco’s Eddy Piñeiro or Elliott, whose 74.1% field goal percentage this season was the second-lowest of his nine-year career. Piñeiro hit on 28 of 29 attempts.
Temperatures at the 4:30 p.m. kickoff are expected to be in the mid-40s and drop into the upper 30s during the game, and steady winds of 20 mph may drive wind chills into the upper 20s.
“At least it will be dry,” said Benz.
That won’t be the case around here Saturday.
The winds are to follow some drought-easing rains
After temperatures again climb well into the 50s on Friday, showers are possible at night, but the rains will be more “widespread” on Saturday, said Zach Cooper, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly.
No severe weather is expected, although rumbles of thunder are at least possible, he said.
Said Benz, “It’s going to be soaking rain Saturday afternoon into the evening.”
While rainfall amounts remain uncertain, about an inch was likely, the weather service said. Given the local rain deficits and the low water levels in the streams, no flooding was expected.
The only precipitation measured this month at Philadelphia International Airport, all of 0.1 inches, came from a dusting of snow on New Year’s Day.
Snow prospects are not exactly robust
Rain is possible the middle of next week, but the extended forecast remains flakeless, in least in the reliable range.
Temperatures on Monday will top out near 40 degrees, close to normal for the date, and reach the mid and upper 40s Tuesday and Wednesday. Another cooldown is expected late next week.
NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has chances favoring below-normal temperatures in the Northeast in the Jan. 16-22 period, which would be approaching the season’s climatological peak snow season.
As for winter storm potential, its Thursday afternoon discussion that accompanied the extended outlook foresaw “an overall more active pattern.”
Eagles tight end Kylen Granson says he is still wrapping his head around the dichotomy of Dallas Goedert, nine months into their time as teammates.
Goedert’s reputation as a tight end preceded him, long before he set the franchise record in single-season touchdowns at his position this year. Granson was already familiar with Goedert’s greatness on the gridiron when they first met at Tight End University, the offseason summit for the do-it-all offensive skill players organized by George Kittle, Travis Kelce, and Greg Olsen.
It wasn’t until they became teammates this season when Granson got to see the other side of the 31-year-old tight end. Goedert, he says, is a “big goofball.”
Players across the locker room corroborate that stance. Their examples are endless. Jordan Mailata says he cherishes Goedert’s “ah-ha-ha” awkward laugh that slices through uncomfortable conversations and gets his teammates giggling again.
EJ Jenkins, the practice squad tight end, is always on his toes around Goedert, bracing himself for “I-got-you” tricks, when he points at Jenkins’ shirt as if there’s something on it only to swipe up at his nose when he looks down.
Goedert’s pièce de résistance is his pregame breakdown of the tight end huddle. Instead of a “hoorah” message, he explained, he tries to lighten the mood. His quote before the 2024 season-opener in São Paulo, Brazil against the Green Bay Packers — “You know why they made sidewalks? ‘Cause the streets aren’t for everybody.” — remains a crowd favorite.
“It’s kind of funny, seeing the offset between the two,” Granson said. “It’s like, this goofball and this competitor are the same person?”
The affable Dallas Goedert has been a popular teammate throughout his eight years in Philly.
But one doesn’t exist without the other, Goedert says.
“I think it’s important for me to be loose when I play the game,” Goedert said. “When we’re going out for pregame, I just kind of want to be able to make people smile. Be able to make people laugh, ‘cause that’s when I feel like I play the best.”
Goedert must be earning a few extra chuckles in the huddle this year. After an offseason of uncertainty, the veteran tight end is having a career year, scoring a personal-best 11 touchdowns through 15 starts, the most he’s had in the regular season in his eight years with the Eagles.
That touchdown total is tied for the league lead among tight ends and is more than double his previous career high (five touchdowns in 2019). Ten of those touchdowns have come in the red zone.
More uncertainty looms, as Goedert is nearing the end of his one-year, $10 million deal. But for now, Goedert is focused on the playoffs, with another milestone within reach — he’s two scores away from tying the franchise record for career postseason touchdowns (six, held by Harold Carmichael).
As much as Goedert tries to keep things light, there’s no joking about his ascent in Year 8.
“He’s been able to take advantage of the opportunities he’s had, and it’s awesome to see a guy like him who means so much in the room, to the offense, to this team,” said Jason Michael, the Eagles tight ends coach. “I don’t think there’s any question that his leadership shows who he is every day, and it’s cool to see that he’s been able to be rewarded for that.”
Dallas Goedert has been a touchdown machine for a team that has struggled in multiple aspects of offense this season.
The play that once worked “92% of the time,” according to former Eagles center Jason Kelce, isn’t the short-yardage juggernaut it was four years ago. Hurts has converted or scored on 77.8% of his quarterback sneak attempts this season, per Pro Football Focus, down from the 83% success rate the Eagles had achieved going into the year since 2021.
“The quarterback sneak hasn’t been working as good for us this year,” Goedert said. “So I feel like the next option [in the red zone] was me down there.”
The Tush Push was Goedert’s entry point to his red-zone scoring surge this season, beginning in the first quarter of the Eagles’ Week 4 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On first-and-goal from the 2, Hurts lined up under center in his typical quarterback sneak position — a staggered stance with his left leg forward and his right leg back.
He had no pushers behind him, though, giving the illusion that he was running a traditional quarterback sneak. Instead, Hurts shoveled the ball to Goedert, who was aligned tight to the formation in the back of a bunch set to the quarterback’s right. Goedert followed a trio of blockers into the end zone for his first red-zone touchdown of the season.
That touchdown gave way to nine more in the red zone over the next 12 games. Goedert has accounted for 58.8% of the Eagles’ red-zone receiving touchdowns, according to Next Gen Stats, which is the greatest share for any NFL player in 2025.
“We’ve just kind of been running with it and I’m going to keep trying to make them work,” Goedert said. “But until they don’t work, I see us still trying to find different ways to give me the ball in that situation.”
Dallas Goedert has proven easy for Jalen Hurts to find in the red zone this season.
Why is Goedert the most logical red-zone target in the Eagles passing offense? To Granson, the answer is simple.
“Big body, big body, big body,” Granson said.
At 6-foot-5, 256 pounds, Goedert is a big, strong target primed for physical catch-and-runs in the most crowded area of the field. Five of his touchdowns came on catches made behind the line of scrimmage, requiring him to run with a sense of “anger,” as Nick Sirianni puts it, to overpower defenders on his way to the end zone.
Size isn’t the only factor that makes Goedert a go-to target. To get vertical quickly and have success running after the catch, Michael said that the veteran tight end has to be able to trust his hands to secure those passes in traffic.
Michael asserted that Goedert catches more balls in practice than anybody on the team. He isn’t involved in the special teams periods, a time when Goedert can typically be found going through a catch circuit. Together, Michael and Goedert work on a plethora of catches, from one-handed to contested.
Goedert’s ability as a run blocker gets him on the field in the red zone, too. Four of Goedert’s red-zone touchdowns this season have had some sort of run-action component, including three scores on run-pass options and one on a play-action pass. The tight end credits Hurts and Saquon Barkley for forcing defenses to respect them as run threats, thus allowing Goedert to get a step on the defense before making a play.
“The more you can do as a player, the more opportunities you’re going to open for yourself,” Michael said. “The fact that Dallas is a player that can stay on the field every down as a run blocker, as a pass protector, and be able to do those things, when you can do that, it allows you as an offense to use those things to your advantage in certain situations.”
Dallas Goedert’s contract situation threatened his status as a member of the Eagles in 2025.
Uncertainty leads to opportunity
Guard Matt Pryor, a member of the same 2018 draft class that brought Goedert and Mailata to Philadelphia, has a preferred nickname for the tight end.
“I call him ‘Philly,’” Pryor said. “Yeah, ‘Philly Goedert.’ ‘Cause Dallas wanted him, but we drafted him.”
The Eagles ensured that the Dallas Cowboys, bracing for the retirement of tight end Jason Witten, wouldn’t have a chance to select Goedert. Howie Roseman moved up to select him out of South Dakota State with the No. 49 overall pick in the second round, hurdling the Cowboys at No. 50.
Philly and its offense have become synonymous with Goedert. The Britton, S.D., native is the longest-tenured member of the Eagles’ passing game and one of the most productive tight ends in franchise history. With his goal-line touchdown against the Buffalo Bills two weeks ago, Goedert broke Pete Retzlaff’s 1965 record for single-season touchdowns by an Eagles tight end.
Tush Push inefficiency aside, that feat wouldn’t have been possible a year ago. Goedert missed seven games due to injury, including three games with a hamstring injury and a four-game stint on injured reserve with a knee issue.
Even after the Super Bowl, Goedert’s odds of setting a franchise record this season — or suiting up for another game as an Eagle — would have seemed long. At the start of the new league year, Goedert’s future in Philadelphia hung in the balance entering the final year of his contract, which contained no guaranteed money. Grant Calcaterra said he didn’t expect Goedert to come back to the team this year as negotiations carried on into May.
Initially, Goedert didn’t return, missing the beginning of the offseason program. But the two sides eventually agreed to a restructured deal, bringing Goedert back into the fold for one more season at $10 million.
Dallas Goedert made up for lost time after returning to the Eagles before camp.
Between the injuries and uncertainty that characterized last year for Goedert, Calcaterra said their leader in the tight ends room never lost his sparkle.
“He’s definitely had a lot of ups and downs,” Calcaterra said. “I feel like, especially last year, he’s always been a really consistent guy, on and off the field. He’s never too high, never too low. He always stays really consistent. I think that’s really important as a football player, and then also just in general, especially as a guy who is one of our best players. Just to be the same guy all the time. And I feel like it’s really easier said than done, and he always has done a really good job of that.”
Goedert said he never lost belief in his abilities, even when “really unfortunate” injuries prevented him from getting on the field. Neither did Hurts, who reached out to Goedert last offseason to lend his support amid contract negotiations.
In June, Goedert explained that while Hurts didn’t recruit him back to the team, he made him feel like he was an important piece of the group. Seven months after Goedert’s return, few players have been more integral to the Eagles’ top-ranked red-zone offense this season. That success, Hurts said, is a result of the time they invested in the work.
“No one knows necessarily what the offseason looks like or what the future looks like in the offseason,” Hurts said. “But I know he’s working and I know we’re spending that time together to improve. So just to see all of that play out the way it has and knowing that everything has been earned … it’s been good to be able to get that quality work in and then see it come out and shine and just build upon it.”
Goedert will have at least one more opportunity to shine when the Eagles face the San Francisco 49ers in the wild-card round on Sunday. The 49ers defense and its banged-up inside linebacker corps have given up the fourth-most touchdowns in the league to tight ends this season.
Dallas Goedert’s touchdown-making has been a constant for the Eagles in an uneven 2025.
The veteran Goedert ought to know a thing or two about getting into the end zone. He said he also knows he plays his best when he’s feeling loose and cracking jokes before the game with his teammates.
“I think you’ve just got to be yourself out there,” Goedert said. “You’ve got to have fun. I’m really close with all the guys in the tight end room. They understand who I am from the time we’ve spent together. And if I get nervous, if I’m worried about something, if I’m scared, I feel like that will just pass on to them. So I keep it lighthearted knowing that you’ve just got to play the next play and play as hard as you can.”
More uncertainty lies ahead for Goedert, who is set to become a free agent this offseason. But Goedert ought to know that uncertainty can lead to opportunity, as evidenced by his whirlwind of a year.
“I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Goedert said. “I’m glad it worked out the way it did. I’m glad I’m back here.
“And hopefully, we can continue this year and go down the road and look back and maybe appreciate it a little bit more.”
With all due respect to Ralph Waldo Emerson, a door can be a wall sometimes, too.
Take poor Kevin Patullo, for instance.
The goal of every NFL assistant on either side of the football is to eventually land a coordinator gig. It can be a tough slog. In addition to the long hours and relative anonymity, a position coach must contend with the weight of the knowledge that his fate is only partially within his control. There are a lot of positions on a football team, and only so many ways to distinguish oneself from his peers. At times, a promotion to play-calling duties can feel more like a function of internal politics and personal relationships than good old-fashioned gridiron merit.
Last February, after climbing the coaching ranks for two decades, Patullo finally got his chance to hold the laminated play sheet and talk into the magic microphone. Two of the last three men to hold the position with the Eagles had landed head coaching gigs within a year. His door had finally opened. All Patullo had to do now was repeat as Super Bowl champion and make sure a historically great running game didn’t take a step backward despite a short offseason and a tougher schedule and another year of age tacked on to a veteran core that had remained uniquely healthy in 2024.
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense have sputtered under coordinator Kevin Patullo.
I’ll pause here to acknowledge the counterargument from Eagles fans.
Boooooooooooooooo!
Point taken. I’m not trying to paint Patullo as Gavroche in a headset. But I do wonder sometimes if he feels a little bit like Wile E. Coyote trying to run through a tunnel.
The Eagles offense took a lot of well-deserved heat during the regular season. Patullo has overseen a unit that fell from seventh in the league in scoring under Kellen Moore in 2024 with 463 points to 19th with 379 points. The Eagles likewise saw a significant drop in total yards, from eighth in the NFL to 24th, and yards per play, from 11th to 22nd. But the numbers also say that the bulk of the decline in overall production is attributable to something other than the passing concepts that have become the rage bait of choice of every amateur internet film sleuth with an NFL+ subscription. The Eagles offensive line was unsustainably dominant last season. This year, that dominance has not been sustained.
You can see it with your eyes. The numbers will back them up. Last season, Eagles rushers averaged 3.2 yards before contact, as good of a common statistical measure as there is for judging run-blocking. This year, they have averaged 2.6 yards. The difference between those two numbers is basically the difference between their overall yards-per-carry average last season and this year. They averaged 1.7 yards after contact in 2024, and 1.6 yards after contact in 2025.
Once can certainly argue that the selection and sequencing of plays can have an impact on an offensive line’s ability to block. One can also argue that the best coordinators are counterpunchers. What worked for a team last year, against last year’s opponents, may require adaptation in order to fit the present reality. But one can’t argue that the best coordinators can turn Fred Johnson into Lane Johnson, or Tyler Steen into Mekhi Becton. Nor can they fix whatever physical ailments have limited players like Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens.
The absence of star tackle Lane Johnson with a foot injury has not helped the Eagles offense.
Patullo certainly has a role in overcoming these things. I’m just not convinced that this year’s offense would look any different if Moore had remained at coordinator.
The pertinent question for 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.
The 49ers are something of a fresh start for Patullo. A new opportunity. The offensive line is rested. Lane Johnson is expected to be back. The Eagles have essentially had two weeks to prepare for the playoffs after their conscious mailing-in of Week 18. The opponent is ripe for a statement. The 49ers defense is a legacy unit that right now looks a lot closer to Hewlett Packard than Apple.
The Niners are a lot worse than even those of us who know how bad they’ve been probably realize. They finished the regular season with one of the NFL’s 10 worst defenses in yards per play (5.6, 22nd), net yards per pass attempt (6.5, 23rd) and turnover percentage (8.4, 23rd). The overall numbers looked good in Week 18 against the Seahawks, but Seattle punted once and twice had the ball inside the 10-yard-line and walked away with no points. All told the Seahawks left at least nine points and more accurately closer to 13 on the field. This, in a game when they only really had seven possessions.
Over the last four weeks, the 49ers have allowed 138 yards on 17 carries to Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears, 92 on 17 to D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai, and 171 on 33 to Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet. Bryce Huff is starting for them. Enough said.
Patullo needs this one.
Potential replacements are no doubt keeping a keen eye. Mike McDaniel, the former 49ers offensive coordinator recently fired by the Dolphins, is one of the best run-game schemers in the league. Since he arrived in Miami in 2022, the Dolphins rank sixth in the NFL rushing average at 4.5 yards per attempt. Kliff Kingsbury, who recently parted ways with the Commanders, led an offense that ranked third in the NFL in yards per carry in his two seasons at the helm. That includes 5.4 yards per attempt this year, despite missing Jayden Daniels for much of it.
Coach Nick Sirianni with offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo before the Eagles played the Minnesota Vikings on Oct. 19.
The Eagles moved decisively at the coordinator position in 2023. With four losses in their last seven regular-season games and a wild-card loss, 2025 would look different only in the level of drama that accompanied a late-season swoon.
The Eagles are better than the 49ers. They need to be a team that scores plenty of points against this sort of opponent, in this sort of situation. This is a time of year when the scoreboard matters much more than individual coaching careers. Sunday will matter for both.
He told the judge that he was from Scranton and began to explain where the town is located in Pennsylvania.
“I know where Scranton is,” said Seamus McCaffery, the judge presiding in the courtroom tucked into the basement of Veterans Stadium.
The man was a rabid Eagles fan but had never been to a game. His work was running a trip — tickets to see the Birds and free food and drinks on the bus ride there — to South Philadelphia. He was in.
But the only thing he could remember, he told McCaffery in December 1997, was that he drank so much on the bus that he had to be carried to his seat. He was soon surrounded by Philadelphia police and handcuffed.
“They put me in a jail cell, three hours later I appeared in front of you, and I missed the entire game,” the man told McCaffery. “And my bus went back to Scranton without me.”
There was a courtroom for three games in 1997 in the bowels of Veterans Stadium, an attempt to curb what had become an unruly scene every week. McCaffery, a municipal court judge who operated a night nuisance court in the city, volunteered to be the judge.
He ruled on everything from fights in the stands to underage drinking to public urination to a guy from Scranton who missed his bus home. It was Eagles Court.
“The hardest part sometimes was keeping a straight face,” McCaffery said.
Seamus P. McCaffery, Philadelphia municipal court judge, at the Vet with his gavel in 1997.
A flare at the Vet
“How do you plead?” McCaffery asked a 19-year-old man after he was charged with trespassing at the Vet in 2003.
“I plead stupidity,” he said.
“Is that aggravated stupidity or simple stupidity?” the judge said.
“Whatever the lesser charge is. I was an idiot.”
The man was acquitted.
On Nov. 10, 1997, Jimmy DeLeon, a municipal court judge, was watching from home when a blowout loss to the 49ers on Monday Night Football became more about what was happening in the stands. There were over 20 fights, a gang of fans broke a man’s ankle, two folks ran onto the Vet turf, and a New Jersey man was arrested after firing a flare across the stadium.
The concrete and steel fortress at Broad and Pattison had long been a haven for rough and rowdy football fans. There was the time the fans stole the headdress from the Washington fan who dressed like a Native American. And the whistling Cowboys fan who was chased out of the 700 Level.
“It was a nightmare,” said Bill Brady, a retired traffic cop who spent game days patrolling the 700 Level. “Fights galore. People passed out in the bathroom. One of the security guys up there used to box in the Blue Horizon. It was nothing but aggravation. You’d have roll call in the police room and go up to the 700 Level. By the end of the day, you were beat up.”
But this Monday night game against the 49ers was too much. The flare gun — the man said he saw people firing them in the parking lot and then brought one into the Vet — became national news as Philadelphia’s unruly stadium was now portrayed as a war zone.
DeLeon called McCaffery as the two volunteered as judges in the city’s nuisance night courts, a program in which people who committed “quality of life crimes” such as loitering, underage drinking, and curfew violations would be brought immediately to a judge and receive a fine. DeLeon told McCaffery that they had to do something about the Vet.
Judge Seamus McCaffery going over the night’s paperwork in 1996 with his wife, Lisa Rapaport, who was standing in for the court clerk, who was ill that day.
“He was right on it,” DeLeon said. “He took it over.”
McCaffery was soon in a meeting with Jim Kenney — the future mayor who was then on City Council — along with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and president Joe Banner.
“I was a Flyers guy at the time, so I really wasn’t paying much attention to who Joe Banner and Jeff Lurie were,” McCaffery said. “But they said, ‘We need to do something for our image.’”
The night nuisance court was Kenney’s idea, and he thought it could work at the Vet. Arrested fans could be charged immediately, plead guilty, and be issued a fine by a judge.
Too often, an arrested fan would fail to show up to a court date and nothing more would happen. The city didn’t spend the resources to chase down fans from the 700 Level. McCaffery said it was a fine idea, but the stadium didn’t have a courtroom.
“Without missing a beat, Jeff Lurie said, ‘We’ll build you a courtroom here,’” McCaffery said.
Eagles court judge Seamus McCaffery patrolling the 700 level at Veterans Stadium with security staff behind him.
Made for Netflix
“To be honest, I just wanted to see the game,” a man told McCaffery after being ejected and then arrested for sneaking back in. He was fined $198.50.
A maintenance room used by the Phillies in the stadium’s basement became a legitimate courtroom with public defenders, district attorneys, and flags.
“This was not a kangaroo court,” said McCaffery, who was not paid to be in the courtroom.
On Nov. 23, 1997, during a game against the Steelers, the first defendant at Eagles court was a 38-year-old from Delaware wearing a Starter jacket. Later that afternoon, a 34-year-old from Pennsauken pleaded not guilty to punching another fan. It was an elbow to the chin, he told the judge.
There were 20 fans arrested that game, and McCaffery doled out 18 fines ranging from $158.50 to $300.
“This would be something that would be great for Netflix,” said Anthony “Butch” Buchanico, who was a sergeant in South Philly’s Fourth District and oversaw the courtroom. “People would come in their 20s and 30s crying and begging for mercy.”
The fans were warned before the game on Phanavision that “on-site court proceedings will be presided over by the Honorable Judge Seamus McCaffery.” Everyone booed, McCaffery said.
The police had undercover officers enter the seating bowl dressed as opposing fans. If anyone confronted the “opposing fan,” a crew of police would intervene and McCaffery would have another case to hear. It was an operation.
The stadium was infamous for its concrete-like playing surface, but the upper deck of the “Nest of Death” was even more foreboding.
“I would be on the field and there would be fights in the 700 Level where players from both teams would look up and watch the fights,” Buchanico said. “It was insane. If you were faint of heart, you didn’t go up to the 700 Level. The people up there, that was their territory. They loved it.”
The fan who shot the flare was from New Jersey, and McCaffery likes to say that the majority of the people he saw in Eagles Court lived outside Philadelphia. He thought Eagles Court would be a way to prove that it wasn’t Philadelphians who made the Vet a madhouse.
A 700 Level sign at the Vet.
“Here’s our city, here’s Philadelphia on national news getting beat up and berated, and the vast majority aren’t from here,” said McCaffery, now 75, who grew up in Germantown after his family moved from Northern Ireland when he was 5. “People are thinking that we’re nothing but a rowhouse, trash city and it galled me.”
McCaffery said he got hammered in the press but didn’t care. A sportswriter called him “Shameless McCaffery” but was then “kissing my [butt]” a few years later when he saw what the judge was doing.
The arrested fans would be brought down to the basement where McCaffery did more than just issue a verdict.
“They’d march them up to the court and Judge McCaffery would berate them,” Buchanico said. “The majority of people weren’t from Philadelphia, and that really bugged the judge.
“He would say, ‘Why don’t you do this where you live? Are you proud of yourself? Get out of here.’ Then he would say, ‘Guilty. $300 fine. Pay now’ ‘I don’t have any money.’ ‘Well, there’s a MAC machine in the hallway.’”
Don Wilson of North Philadelphia bares his chest as he cheers for the Eagles on Jan. 19, 2003, during the last football game at Veterans Stadium.
Something to gloat about
“I was washing my hands,” a man told McCaffery after he was arrested for urinating in a Vet sink.
A judge cannot accept a plea from someone who is intoxicated, and McCaffery said no one was ever drunk in his courtroom.
“I mean, who knows?” said DeLeon, who joined McCaffery and Rayford Means as the original judges of Eagles Court. “They were just bringing them in.”
The arrested fans appeared in Eagles Court just hours after their arrest — or longer if they needed to sober up — which meant they were still wearing whatever they wore to the Vet.
“Some of them would be bare-chested, and half their body was coated in green and the other half was coated in white,” DeLeon said. “Some people would have green faces. Back then, the people came ready for the game as if they were participants in the action. So they’d dress accordingly. We had some guys in helmets and shoulder pads. It was the ’90s.”
Municipal court Judge Seamus McCaffery talks with the media before the start of an Eagles game in 1997.
The court moved after the 1997 season to the Third District police precinct, and arrested fans would be driven from the stadium to 11th and Wharton Streets. And the arrests eventually slowed down so much that McCaffery saw just one case during one of the Vet’s final games in the 2002 season. Perhaps this was proof that Eagles Court made the stadium a safer place.
“Did it deter them? No,” Brady said. “They took it like a joke. Something to gloat about.”
The Eagles gave McCaffery a tour of Lincoln Financial Field before it opened in 2003, proudly showing him their enhanced security features and the cameras that could zoom in on every fan in the stadium. The judge could tell that Eagles Court would soon be phased out.
“The Linc is a church compared to what the Vet was,” said Buchanico, whose father patrolled the sidelines with Andy Reid as the team’s head of security.
McCaffery resigned from the state Supreme Court in 2014 after he acknowledged sending pornographic emails to state officials. He heard his last Eagles Court case in 2003 but is still known more than 20 years later as the judge from the Vet. He stopped that trial with the fan from Scranton and asked to talk to the police captain at the sidebar.
The judge quietly told the captain to drive the man to the bus station and gave him the money to buy his fare home.
“I turned around and said, ‘This officer here is going to give you a ride to the Greyhound bus terminal. There’s a bus that will take you to Scranton and you’re going to get on it,’” McCaffery said. “‘The next time you come down to an Eagles game, show up sober. This matter is discharged. Not guilty.’”
The man left the stadium’s courtroom and was thrilled even though he missed the entire game.
“Years later, I’m campaigning for Supreme Court justice and where do you think I am? Scranton, Pennsylvania,” McCaffery said. “Who do you think comes up to me at a big rally? The same guy.”
Is anyone on or around the Eagles having any fun? It doesn’t seem that way. It hasn’t seemed that way all season. Sure, Jordan Davis has a personality as big and buoyant as he is, and Brandon Graham’s return from retirement has brought some effervescence back to the locker room. But on the whole, things have been pretty dour, or at least kind of grave and serious and humorless, for a team that’s coming off a championship.
The examples are everywhere. Jalen Hurts has won a Super Bowl, was named the most valuable player in that Super Bowl, plays his best in the Eagles’ most important games, and has a smile that would stop a beauty shop. Yet in public, he often has a demeanor that suggests that, if he so much as grinned, his face would split open down the middle. Before he left the lineup because of his foot injury, Lane Johnson had not spoken after a game since the Eagles’ loss to the New York Giants on Oct. 9, when he called out the team’s offense for being “too predictable.” Not exactly Once more into the breach, dear friends stuff.
Hurts’ relationship with A.J. Brown has been a source of speculation and tension for months. Brown has made his feelings about getting the ball — or, more accurately, not getting the ball — plain on social media, and his complaints sparked a ridiculous discussion about whether the Eagles might/should trade him in the middle of this season. Adoree’ Jackson and Kelee Ringo have, at various times, been considered the single worst cornerback in team history, as if Izel Jenkins, Nnamdi Asomugha, or Bradley Fletcher had never lined up against a decent receiver and immediately been burnt like toast. And if you want to be the ultimate Debbie Downer at a friendly get-together, just say the words Kevin Patullo, and you’re bound to start one of the partygoers ranting like a wing nut online influencer. Hell, your house might even wind up covered in egg yolk.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, the Super Bowl LIX MVP, has come under criticism this season.
The point here is not to suggest that the Eagles have been beyond criticism. Of course they haven’t. The point is that their entire season has felt like one of their offensive possessions. It has been a generally joyless slog that, even when it leads to a good outcome — a touchdown, a victory, a second straight NFC East title — hasn’t inspired much optimism or hope that the team will repeat or sustain that success.
You don’t need to be a gridiron genius or a Philly sports sociologist to understand why. There are plenty of cities and markets where, if a team won a Super Bowl in the manner that the Eagles did last season — winning 16 of its final 17 games, dominating the conference championship game and the Super Bowl itself — the celebratory buzz would last for years. Championship? Who needs another championship? We just won one! That backup long-snapper never has to buy a drink in this town again.
Philadelphia is not one of those cities or markets. Here, winning is the most addictive of drugs, and when it doesn’t happen, or when it doesn’t happen in the most satisfying manner, the entire region goes into a collective withdrawal, and a more powerful hit — a higher high — is required for everyone to level off.
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.
Jeffrey Lurie and his Eagles are chasing that Super Bowl glow again.
The one person who appears to acknowledge this dynamic, and appears to be fighting against it, is Nick Sirianni. He has spoken since the middle of last season about his attempts to “bring joy” to every practice, every game, every day of work, as if to lighten the burden that his staff and players were bearing.
“In professional football,” he said recently, “there are all these pressures, these ups and downs and everything like this, but we got into this game because we loved it. I think that’s a really important thing. In the world, you can let things beat you down a lot and not really give knowledge to all the things you have going on that are really good.”
Hanging on a wall in Sirianni’s office is a photograph of him and his three children. The photo was taken after the Eagles’ 20-16 victory over the Cleveland Browns last season — the game after which Sirianni brought the kids into his postgame news conference and was criticized bitterly for it. I did some of the criticizing, and I stand by it. The gesture was silly and tone-deaf at the time, mostly because the Eagles were 3-2 and playing terribly and Sirianni’s career-dissipation light was flickering. No one was about to give him or them the benefit of the doubt then.
But now that they have won a championship, it’s easier to see that moment as part of a continuing effort by a head coach to keep the pressure of meeting that standard from crushing his team. In that way, the Eagles’ toughest opponent in this postseason won’t be the San Francisco 49ers or the Los Angeles Rams or the Seattle Seahawks or whatever team they meet in Super Bowl LX if they happen to make it that far. Their toughest opponent will be, and has been all along, themselves.
