Sonny Jurgensen, the Hall of Fame quarterback whose strong arm, keen wit and affable personality made him one of the most beloved figures in Washington football history, has died. He was 91.
A Washington Commanders spokesperson confirmed Friday the team learned of Jurgensen’s death that morning from his family.
Jurgensen arrived in Washington in 1964 in a surprise quarterback swap that sent Norm Snead to the Philadelphia Eagles. Over the next 11 seasons, Jurgensen rewrote the team’s record books.
Eagles players (from left) Sonny Jurgensen, Pete Retzlaff, Timmy Brown and Tommy McDonald in 1963.
He topped 3,000 yards in a season five times, including twice with Philadelphia, in an era before rules changes opened up NFL offenses. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and remains the only Washington player to wear the No. 9 jersey in a game.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Mack Hollins stood barefoot on the drab gray carpet at the San Jose Convention Center, surrounded by reporters and cameras, and couldn’t have felt more grounded in the spotlight.
It might have made more sense if the New England Patriots wide receiver was on one of the risers for Super Bowl LX opening night, considering all the attention the eccentric Hollins received. He’s far from a celebrity on a team lacking in stars, but the journeyman can’t help but stand out wherever he goes.
Whether it’s the cartoonish outfits he wears on game days, his stylish hairdos, or his idiosyncratic practices and beliefs — like hardly ever wearing shoes off the field — Hollins makes an impression. On the gridiron, the ninth-year pro continues to make an impact despite never being a top receiver on any of the six teams for which he’s played.
Hollins, who spent his first three seasons with the Eagles, has embraced his singular odyssey in the NFL.
“I’m totally fine with that [journeyman] label, whatever it is, because I chose wherever I went — outside of getting released from Philly and picked up by Miami,” Hollins said two days after opening night from a riser (and barefoot) — at the Santa Clara Marriott. “Every choice after that I got to pick. And I always was able to pick where I saw value and they saw value in me. And I’ve learned over the years that people that value you, don’t go where the money’s the best or you think the opportunity is the best.
“Go where it feels the best. And you only learn what feels the best from trial and error. So, yeah, if I’m a journeyman, so be it. At least I got to do it my way.”
Hollins’ way could include bookending his career with Super Bowl victories. He’s one of three active players on the otherwise youthful Patriots who have previously won a title — cornerback Carlton Davis and former Eagles defensive tackle Milton Williams are the others. (Only former Los Angeles Rams receiver Cooper Kupp and linebacker Ernest Jones have rings for the opposing Seattle Seahawks.)
Mack Hollins was a contributor as the Eagles’ fourth receiver in their first Super Bowl title season of 2017.
Hollins won in his rookie season in 2017. He wasn’t targeted as the fourth receiver, but he played 17 snaps and had a few key blocks in the run game as the Eagles beat the Patriots, 41-33, in the Super Bowl LII shootout.
He said he didn’t appreciate how tough it would be to get back to the big game.
“Not at the time. I was like I don’t know why [Tom] Brady is like this big deal,” Hollins said of the seven-time champion quarterback. “It’s not that hard. You just go there. You win three playoff games and you’re like going to get a ring. Literally, did not know it would be eight years before I’d get back to one.”
In that rookie season, Hollins caught 16 passes for 226 yards, including a memorable 64-yard touchdown against Washington on Monday Night Football, and was viewed as a field-stretching prospect. But he suffered a groin injury and surgery sidelined him for all of 2018. He returned the following season, but struggled to return to form.
The Eagles released him in December and the Dolphins claimed him the next day.
“In an ideal world, do I wish I would have had 1,000 yards every year and still be in Philly nine years later?” Hollins said. “Yeah, because then I wouldn’t have had to move my family six times. I didn’t have to like get six new jerseys for my family six times. But it worked out just the way it was supposed to.”
It wasn’t easy. The Dolphins didn’t reach the postseason in any of Hollins’ three seasons in Miami. And he remained a deep reserve at receiver, although he shined on special teams. But signing with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2022 altered his career trajectory.
The connection Mack Hollins (10) made with coach Josh McDaniels when arriving to the Raiders would help the receiver down the line.
Hollins flourished in coach Josh McDaniels’ offense and finished behind only All-Pro Davante Adams in receiving with 57 catches for 690 yards and four touchdowns. But he didn’t make the playoffs with the Raiders either, and wasn’t utilized as much when he transitioned to the Atlanta Falcons the next season.
But he became one of Bills quarterback Josh Allen’s more reliable receivers in Buffalo in 2024, and this season — after being reunited with Patriots offensive coordinator McDaniels — he posted numbers (46 catches for 550 yards and two touchdowns) that approached his career highs.
And perhaps more importantly, he helped a young group of receivers adjust to McDaniels’ system.
“Some of the younger guys have gravitated toward him and asked him, ‘How do we do this? How do we do that?’ And he’s been great with that,” receivers coach Todd Downing said. “And just the relationship part — getting to know him on a personal level isn’t very hard. I love his authenticity.”
Rookie Kyle Williams has been one of the receivers Hollins has taken under his wing. He said there’s more to the 32-year-old than meets the eye.
“He’s a little odd in his own way, not in a bad way, but in his own way, which everybody is,” Williams said. “But then you get to start knowing him, having conversations and I’m like, ‘Oh, he’s really cool. He’s chill.’ I can chop it up outside with him.
“He’s just been a great brother, a great vet. And if I have a question on any conspiracy theory that I have, I know it’s one person I can ask.”
Mack Hollins’ quirks have been evident throughout his career, but he’s been a beloved teammate and a productive pro.
Hollins can confabulate with the best of them, whether it’s about regenerative agriculture, or his quest to build the world’s largest aquarium — “Big enough so I can swim in it” — or his penchant for going sans footwear.
“I feel like I’m more connected to the ground. As corny as that sounds, and people are like, ‘Oh, you’re such a hippie,’” Hollins said. “I think the body is developed to connect to a lot of things. The same way you can feel energy when you walk in a room with people or the way you feel about something, you can’t put it into writing, but it’s just a feeling.
“And I feel like when I’m connected to the ground or when I walk outside or I get to be outside, I feel better, I feel more connected to the earth, and I feel like my body is less stressed out.”
Williams said Hollins would play barefoot if permitted. He and other Patriots have occasionally followed in his steps.
“I’ve dibbled and dabbled into it,” Williams said. “I think it’s better at home. I’m not comfortable letting my dogs out around 100-some eyes. But when I’m at home, I can walk around and do it faithfully.”
Some Eagles fans might have known about Hollins’ pet snakes or exotic fish, but their exposure to him was limited. He may be most remembered in Philly for his celebration after that long touchdown vs. Washington in 2017 when he did the then-famous “Floss” dance.
“I still have the dance,” Hollins said. “Every once in a while when somebody needs it, I can pull it out. The backpack Mack never died. He’s just over to the side.”
Mack Hollins (13) has been a key part of a historic turnaround in New England this season.
Hollins is perhaps the NFL’s best embodiment of Walt Whitman’s famous line from “Song of Myself”: I am large, I contain multitudes.
“I think people sometimes will look away from what life is supposed to be because they’re chasing something that isn’t realistic,” Hollins said. “They see the end result. A bodybuilder goes on stage, you see him, you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness. Look at that. Look how strong he is, how his body is sculpted.’ But they skip all the pain he went through to tear his muscles apart and rebuild them.
“Life is simple. It just takes heart to get what you want.”
Mike Cordisco is not the first person to compare football to religion, but he might be the first person to spend years photographing Eagles tailgates to make the comparison clearer.
Cordisco’s newest project, Sermon on the Lot, is a 98-page book that compiles photos the Cherry Hill native took at Eagles tailgates between 2018 and 2025.
The goal of the project, Cordisco said, was to push past the typical rowdy image of Eagles fans before a game and show their passion as a kind of religious fervor.
Beyond the project’s title, the book itself is designed to look like something one might find in a church pew, with silver embossing on the front and a midnight green ribbon bookmark.
It also features a sermon written by Philadelphia journalist Dan McQuade, who died last week at 43.
Select photos from Sermon on the Lot will be on display at Unique Photo in Center City. Cordisco, 34, is hosting a gallery opening on Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and says it will remain in place until mid-March.
Cordisco’s origin story in becoming a photographer is simple. He bought his first camera in 2016 to document his trips to baseball stadiums. It was around the same time he moved within Philadelphia’s city limits for the first time.
Baseball is Cordisco’s “true passion.” He played high school baseball at Cherry Hill West and spent one season on the club team at Rutgers-New Brunswick, where he attended college. He spent a few years working for minor league clubs, working game day operations for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and selling tickets for the Frisco RoughRiders.
After three years in Texas with the RoughRiders, Cordisco moved to the Bella Vista neighborhood of Philadelphia and got a job as a database administrator with Better Tomorrows, a Camden-based nonprofit.
Cordisco was still making frequent trips to MLB stadiums in an effort to see them all, but grew frustrated with trying to document them on his cell phone camera.
“I was straining, lying on the ground, straining on railings to get these perfect shots on my iPhone,” Cordisco said. “And I was like, ‘You know what, why don’t I just get a camera?’”
Cordisco’s love for photography grew, and eventually he became interested in not just documenting moments, but telling stories with his lens. He collected his baseball photography into a project titled If They Don’t Win It’s a Shame, which “exposes American culture and society within the confines of its national pastime,” according to Cordisco’s website.
“It’s a way to tell all these stories and use my experience in the field, [to] visually tell these stories that I’m interested in,” Cordisco said.
Once Cordisco started to take photography more seriously, he knew he wanted to put together a project that would capture Philadelphia, which he considers to be “the one identifiable U.S. city.”
The city’s sports teams seemed like a natural place to begin framing Philly’s identity. Cordisco did not have personal allegiances to the Philadelphia teams, as his family had roots in New York, but he knew how much Philly cared about its teams from growing up in its suburbs. He began to shoot the places where he saw the city and its teams entwined.
“I was photographing diners that might have Eagles merch in the windows and people’s Phillies and Eagles bumper stickers,” Cordisco said.
He also began photographing the occasional Eagles tailgate. He became captivated by the community that surrounded Lincoln Financial Field on Sundays. By 2022, he had narrowed the project down to focus on tailgating.
A photo of Eagles fans tailgating from Mike Cordisco’s photo project, “Sermon on the Lot.”
“Through the middle of this season, I went to every single one,” Cordisco said. “It was just, for me, the best way to really show and visualize Philly culture.”
Those photos became Sermon on the Lot. Cordisco chose to drape the project in religious metaphors to frame football, and particularly Eagles fandom, as a religion — one with its own set of rituals, traditions, and ways of worship.
“On Sundays, you go to Mass,” Cordisco said. “But in Philly, you go to the parking lot and tailgate an Eagles game.”
Even though the scope of the project changed from its initial aim to portray Philadelphia, Cordisco still feels the city’s identity lies within Sermon on the Lot.
“There’s no way it can’t come through,” Cordisco said. “I think my photos and the work definitely still show that classic grit and character that Philly is known for in the images … It’s still there, even if it’s maybe a layer or two deeper in the work.”
Dan McQuade, seen here in a Daily News photo from 2014, died on Jan. 28, of neuroendocrine cancer, one day after his 43rd birthday.
McQuade’s missive
Cordisco was seeking a Philadelphia writer to pen a foreword for his book. He was a frequent reader of McQuade’s work, so Cordisco sent McQuade a cold email in September to see if he would be interested writing something for the project.
“There was nobody else who could have written that,” Cordisco said. “He had no idea who I was, I just e-mailed him one day and he got back to me and said that he would love to do it.”
To fit the project’s religious theming, McQuade’s foreword takes the form of a sermon. It is about the two men who showed up to former Eagles owner Leonard Tose’s house after news broke that Tose had agreed to sell a portion of the team and move it to Phoenix in 1984.
The two men, Barry Martin and Robert Vandetty, left Tose a note asking the owner to reconsider, as McQuade detailed in a 2023 story for Defector. Martin and Vandetty’s note closed with a simple phrase: “Go Birds — Philadelphia Birds.”
“‘Go Birds’ is your greeting, your mantra, your rallying cry,” an excerpt of McQuade’s sermon reads. “The Eagles trademarked it, but it does not belong to them. It is yours. Think of Barry and Rob. They risked arrest to say ‘Go Birds.’ When you go forth today, I beseech you to say it too.“
Cordisco said McQuade went “above and beyond” in his involvement with the project, offering ideas on how to display the work at the Unique Photo gallery showing. McQuade’s words will hang alongside Cordisco’s photos on the walls of the Center City photo store.
Cordisco started Sermon on the Mount more interested in how the Eagles reflected Philadelphia than the team itself. But now, thanks to the community he found in the parking lots, he considers himself a Birds convert.
“I went out to the tailgates and just saw how much it truly meant to people,” Cordisco said. “Not even just the wins and losses, but just being there. I talked to people that have been tailgating in the same RV for 40 years now, and they would tell me all these stories about how they raised their kids at the tailgates.
“Making that connection with so many people only strengthened my fandom of the Eagles.”
Long before Sam Howell became best friends with Drake Maye, he was aware of him. Maye’s parents were standout high school athletes, and his father, Mark, played quarterback at the University of North Carolina. His brothers, Luke and Beau, played basketball there (Luke hit a last-second shot that sent the Tar Heels to the Final Four in 2017, en route to an NCAA championship).
A third brother, Cole, also won a national title in 2017, but at a different school (Florida) and in a different sport (baseball). Former UNC offensive coordinator Phil Longo called the family “the Mannings of North Carolina.”
Drake was the youngest, and went down the football path. He and Howell, both quarterbacks, became acquainted through seven-on-seven leagues in the Charlotte area.
In 2019, when Howell was a freshman quarterback at UNC, he attended one of his future protégé’s high school playoff games. Howell was impressed. But it wasn’t until 2021, Maye’s first season with the Tar Heels, that Howell realized how much they had in common.
Howell was the entrenched starter, and Maye was the backup — a situation that doesn’t always lend itself to friendship. But these two were the exception. They became “attached at the hip,” in the words of former coach Mack Brown, and not just on the field.
The quarterbacks were fiercely competitive, and would battle each other on the golf course, at the ping-pong table, and more.
“Drake was so competitive, if I said, ‘Hey, I’m going to get to the doorknob before you do, he would jump over a table to get there,’” Longo said. “That’s just kind of how he was. [Sam was] that way, too.”
The two quarterbacks have stayed close, FaceTiming on a near-daily basis since Howell was drafted by Washington in 2022 and Maye was drafted by New England in 2024.
Their careers have taken different trajectories. Howell, 25, has bounced around the league, from the Commanders to the Seattle Seahawks to the Minnesota Vikings to the Eagles, where he served as a third-string quarterback this past season.
Maye, 23, will start in Super Bowl LX for the New England Patriots on Sunday, in just his second season in the NFL.
Howell feels no ill will. He has attended every New England playoff game since the Eagles were eliminated, and will be in the Bay Area this weekend to support his friend.
“[I’m] extremely proud of him,” Howell said. “He’s worked his whole life to be where he is and he’s getting what he deserves. He was made for the big moments and I have no doubt he’ll be ready to go.”
Sam Howell (as a member of the Vikings in 2024) and Drake Maye have remained tight even as their football journeys have diverged.
Football junkies
Longo described Howell as a “football junkie.” He’d pore over film and challenge his coaches with tough questions. Before he’d even signed with North Carolina, in late 2018, the quarterback started asking Longo for offensive information.
The coordinator didn’t hand it over until everything was official. But once he did, Howell began studying. Longo would send him formations, and Howell would teach them back to his coach a few hours later.
This went on throughout Christmas break, until the start of classes.
“By the time he showed up in mid-January, from a mental standpoint, he actually already knew the entire offense,” Longo said. “Which is rare and pretty impressive.”
Howell would constantly bring up new routes and concepts to the coaching staff. Instead of waiting to be told what they’d run on Monday, he’d be a part of designing plays on Sunday night.
To Longo, quizzing Howell in the quarterbacks room became an exercise in futility. The quarterback always seemed to have the right answer, not because he was winging it, but because he’d reviewed virtually everything.
It set an example for the future Patriots QB.
“Drake may not admit this, or remember it, but it got to a point where any time I asked an open question and didn’t direct it at one individual quarterback, Sam would always answer first,” Longo recalled. “And obviously he was correct. But Drake was competitive, and [he would] try to answer the question first, and beat Sam out.
“My analyst and I both noticed that, and we loved it. Because it was Drake just wanting to get better.”
Howell had been the starting quarterback since his freshman year, and Maye knew that wasn’t going to change. But neither player was threatened by the other. They started throwing after practice, bringing along wide receivers to work on routes, drop backs, and trigger times.
They’d often give each other feedback, both good and bad. Brown said that Maye would be waiting for Howell to come off the field after every game.
“To talk to him about what he saw,” Brown said. “So, you had two great minds that were talking about every play. And one of them, out of the action, standing over there watching, could say, ‘Here’s what I saw. Look for this.’”
He added: “It’s very unusual to have two people competing for the same [role] that care about each other so much, respect each other so much. And that’s the reason it worked. For me, as a head coach, it was like a marriage made in heaven.”
They had their stylistic differences. Maye’s biggest strength was his ability to make accurate throws while off-platform and off-balance, a feat Longo credited to his footwork, honed by years of youth and high school basketball.
Howell’s was physical strength that allowed him to break tackles by running downhill.
Their communication styles were different, too. Maye was more of a vocal leader, and Howell tended to pull guys off to the side. But the two quarterbacks complemented each other.
“When he was backing me up at Carolina, he was really good at making me feel very confident going into games,” Howell said. “And just trying to give me that last sense of peace.
“Before every game in college he’d tell me I was the best player on the field. Little things like that. He’s a great leader, great motivator.”
It didn’t take long for the quarterbacks — and their coaches — to realize they shared a relentless competitive spark. Longo remembered a recruiting event when Howell and Maye played ping-pong until the lights shut off.
In training camp, they’d have ping-pong “battles,” tacking on rounds until each side was ready to acquiesce. In 2021, Maye introduced Howell to golf, shifting their off-field rivalry to a new sport.
It was not a relaxing endeavor.
“I would see them afterward,” Brown said. “They’d say, ‘Oh man, he got me by four strokes.’ It was like the U.S. Open or something. It wasn’t like two quarterbacks going out to play.
“And the other one would say, ‘Yeah, but I just missed a putt or I would have beaten him.’ It was like two little kids going at each other’s throats.”
Added Howell: “Sometimes people invite us out to play, and they’re surprised with how the round is going. There’ll be times in the round where we’re not talking to each other and stuff like that. It’s a lot of fun.”
After Howell graduated, he stayed in touch with his mentee. In September 2022, months after the Commanders drafted him in the fifth round, Howell attended a UNC road game against Appalachian State.
It ended up being the highest-scoring game (including combined points) in school history. Maye had five touchdowns (four passing, one rushing) and 428 total yards in a 63-61 UNC win.
In the third quarter, Maye scored on a 12-yard run for his fourth touchdown of the day. Howell, by coincidence, was standing just past the end zone, as if he was waiting for his best friend.
He gave the quarterback a high five and a hug.
“I told him, after I ran it in, I should have gotten on a knee and held the ball up to him,” Maye told local reporters. “Because what he did here [at UNC] is pretty incredible.”
Then a member of the Commanders, Sam Howell returned to UNC to watch a vintage Drake Maye performance against Appalachian State on Sept. 3, 2022.
An NFL friendship
Just before Maye’s final season at UNC, he and Howell became roommates for a few months. It was Howell’s NFL offseason — January to April in 2023 — and they lived together in an apartment in Chapel Hill.
When they weren’t working out, or at the golf course, they were playing the board game Catan and EA Sports’ PGA Tour at home.
Maye was drafted with the third overall pick a year later. Howell, a 17-game starter with the Commanders in 2023, was traded to Seattle a month before the 2024 draft, and was subsequently dealt to the Vikings and then the Eagles in 2025.
As Maye and Howell navigated the ups and downs of the NFL, they continued to talk every day. Howell said they’d go over defenses they were seeing that week.
Sometimes, Maye would hype his friend up, the same way he did before Carolina games.
“Even when I was playing in the NFL and we weren’t winning a lot, he would always still call me to instill confidence in me,” Howell said. “He’s great about that.”
Since the Eagles lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the wild-card round on Jan. 11, Howell has attended every one of Maye’s games. He’ll be at the Super Bowl on Sunday, brimming with pride for his golf buddy.
But before it starts, there’s one thing he’ll make sure to do.
“I’ll definitely talk to him before the game,” Howell said. “Let him know that he was born for these moments, and he’s going to light it up.”
SAN FRANCISCO — Matthew Stafford walked away with the AP NFL Most Valuable Player award and a declaration that he’s returning to the Los Angeles Rams for another season.
Stafford edged Drake Maye for the MVP award on Thursday night in the closest race since Peyton Manning and Steve McNair were co-winners in 2003.
Stafford received 24 of 50 first-place votes while Maye got 23. But Maye has a chance to go home this week with a Vince Lombardi Trophy. He leads the New England Patriots against the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Stafford, who turns 38 on Saturday, wants another opportunity to try to win his second Super Bowl ring with the Rams.
“Oh yeah, I’ll be back. It was such an amazing season and I play with such a great group of guys and great group of coaches that I was lucky enough to finish this season healthy, and I want to make sure that I go out there and see what happens next year,” Stafford told the AP.
Stafford brought his four daughters — all dressed in identical black-and-white dresses — to the stage to accept the award.
He thanked his team and saved his wife and daughters for last: “You’re unbelievable cheerleaders for me. I appreciate it. I am so happy to have you at the games on the sideline with me, and I can’t wait for you to cheer me on next year when we’re out there kicking (butt).”
It was Stafford’s way of announcing he will be back next season after contemplating retirement.
Myles Garrett was a unanimous choice for the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year award after setting a season record for sacks with 23.
All-Pro wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba beat out Christian McCaffrey for the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year award.
New England’s Mike Vrabel beat out Jacksonville’s Liam Coen for the AP NFL Coach of the Year award, becoming the seventh coach to win it with two different teams.
McCaffrey became the first running back to win the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year award in 24 years.
Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger was a runaway winner for the AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award.
Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan ran away with the AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award.
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels won the AP NFL Assistant Coach of the Year award in the first season of his third stint with the team.
A nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league completed voting before the playoffs began. Votes were tabulated by the accounting firm Lutz and Carr.
Voters selected a top 5 for the eight AP NFL awards. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Second- through fifth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.
Josh Allen, the 2024 NFL MVP, received two first-place MVP votes, and Justin Herbert got the other one.
Stafford, who earned first-team All-Pro honors for the first time in his 17-year career, finished with 366 points to Maye’s 361. Allen placed third with 91 points, Christian McCaffrey (71) was fourth and Trevor Lawrence (49) came in fifth.
It’s McCaffrey’s second top-five finish in three years, more than any other non-quarterback since the weighted point system was implemented in 2022.
Stafford led the NFL with 4,707 yards passing and 46 TDs. He threw eight picks and finished second to Maye with a 109.2 passer rating. Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams lost to Seattle in the NFC championship game.
Maye had 4,394 yards passing, 31 TDs and eight picks. The second-year pro led the league in passer rating (113.5) and completion percentage (72).
Coach of the Year
Vrabel can get his first Super Bowl title as a head coach Sunday if the Patriots beat the Seahawks. He received 19 first-place votes to Coen’s 16 and finished with 302 points.
Vrabel, the 2021 Coach of the Year winner with the Titans, led the Patriots from worst to first in the AFC East, a 10-win turnaround in his first season in New England.
Coen had 239 points after leading the Jacksonville Jaguars to 13 wins and an AFC South title in his first season.
Seattle’s Mike Macdonald got eight first-place votes and finished third (191). Chicago’s Ben Johnson received one first-place vote and came in fourth (145). San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan had six first-place votes to place fifth (140).
Defensive Player of the Year
Garrett received all 50 first-place votes to become the ninth player to win DPOY multiple times and second unanimous choice following J.J. Watt, who did it in 2014. Cleveland’s edge rusher also was a unanimous All-Pro selection. Garrett previously won the award in 2023.
“It doesn’t just start with me,” he said. “It starts with great teammates, a great organization, great coaches being able to put us in position. I’m thankful for every single one of teammates to help get me up here. It’s not possible without them.”
Texans edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. finished second with 77 points, Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons came in third (63) followed by Broncos edge rusher Nik Bonitto (52) and Lions edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson (42).
Garrett surpassed both Michael Strahan (22.5) and T.J. Watt (22.5) when he sacked Joe Burrow in the final game of the regular season.
Offensive Player of the Year
Smith-Njigba got 14 first-place votes to McCaffrey’s 12 and finished with 272 points. McCaffrey, who won the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year award, had 223 points.
Smith-Njigba caught 119 passes and led the league with 1,793 yards receiving. He had 10 TDs.
Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua, a unanimous All-Pro like Smith-Njigba, finished third with eight first-place votes and 170 points. Falcons All-Pro running back Bijan Robinson was right behind him with six first-place votes and 168 points.
Comeback Player of the Year
McCaffrey, San Francisco’s All-Pro do-it-all back, received 31 first-place votes and 395 points, outgaining Aidan Hutchinson. Garrison Hearst was the last running back to win it in 2001.
Hutchinson got nine first-place votes and 221 points. Dak Prescott came in third with six first-place votes and 167 points. Lawrence got two first-place votes and finished fourth (130). Stefon Diggs came in fifth (40).
Philip Rivers and Chris Olave each received one first-place vote.
McCaffrey played in just four games in 2024 due to bilateral Achilles tendinitis followed by a season-ending PCL knee injury. He returned to play every game for the 49ers and had 2,126 yards from scrimmage and 17 TDs.
Defensive Rookie of the Year
Schwesinger received 40 first-place votes and had 441 points to become the sixth player in the last 45 seasons to win the award after not being picked in the first round. Shaq Leonard (2018) and DeMeco Ryans (2006) were the only others in the last 20 seasons. Cleveland selected Schwesinger in the second round at No. 33 overall.
Versatile Seahawks defensive back Nick Emmanwori got seven first-place votes and finished second (199).
Offensive Rookie of the Year
McMillan earned 41 first-place votes after catching 70 passes for 1,014 yards and seven TDs.
Saints quarterback Tyler Shough got five first-place votes and finished second with 168 points, way behind McMillan’s 445.
Assistant Coach of the Year
McDaniels received 17 of 50 first-place votes and finished with 249 points. Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph placed second with 10 first-place votes and 176 points.
You’re watching a big game, it’s getting into crunch time, and there’s a crucial play about to happen. The only issue is, that play already happened and the people who saw it first are sharing it on social media.
The notifications begin to flood your feed from X or ESPN informing you what just happened, all before it plays out on your television screen. Now though, with Super Bowl LX just days away and the Winter Olympics officially getting underway, Xfinity has created a way for people to stay current with everything that happens.
The Philly-based company’s new RealTime4K feature, which will be introduced Sunday during the Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, will allow Xfinity viewers to keep pace with the game as if they were in attendance, while still watching in high-quality 4K.
“The benefit here is our customers will be among the first in the country, other than those at the game, to see what happens at the Super Bowl,” said Vito Forlenza, Comcast’s vice president for sports entertainment. “So we’re doing this for a whole day of 4K. It’s going to be Olympics programming in the morning, 7 a.m. to noon, Super Bowl programming all the rest of the day.”
RealTime4K will debut during the Super Bowl and will allow fans to watch the game in 4K up to 30 seconds faster than other 4K broadcasts.
Xfinity rolled out its enhanced 4K before creating RealTime4K. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, enhanced 4K resulted in a nearly 30-second difference between Xfinity viewers and other viewers watching Noah Lyles win the men’s 100-meter gold medal in a photo finish. In other words, Xfinity viewers could have watched Lyles finish the race three times before others would have seen him cross the line once.
Being able to keep up with sporting events in real time is not the only new feature Xfinity is adding for the Winter Olympics. It’s also adding Fan View, tailoring the Games to each viewer and making sure the events and sports they want to see are on their screens.
“There’s so much Olympics [content] on here you can get overwhelmed,” said Comcast’s director of product management, Scott Manning. “But what we’re bringing for 2026 is Fan View. What that does is it takes all these experiences and puts it into one.”
That means viewers will be able to personalize their Olympic experience. They can pick certain events that they find interesting in Fan View. Then, viewers will be able to access a sidebar that will serve them highlights of the events they like, as well as interviews from athletes competing in the sports they picked.
“I’m able to pick actual broadcasts and then specific sports as I’m going through, and it’s going to remember these selections, and then it will start tailoring some of the experience based on that too,” Manning said. “I don’t have to pick things. If I just want to try to get everything, that’s fine.”
Viewers can access Xfinity’s new Fan View even while watching four Olympic events at the same time.
Viewers will be able to also see medal counts, a feature that was there for previous Olympics, but this time it will be integrated into Fan View, which will debut on Friday.
Fan View can also help customers keep track of several sports at once — even while they’re watching something different, as it won’t interfere with the sport currently on the screen. So, if curling is on the TV, viewers can continue to have their Fan View on the side, and their watching experience will not be impacted.
After all, there’s a lot to keep track of.
“Our customers said, ‘Well, that sounds good, but I want to make sure I can find the one sport that I’m looking for,’” Forlenza said. “One of our customers said it doesn’t matter if we have 3,000 hours [of content] if they can’t find the one hour they really want to watch. So that’s the problem we’re trying to solve to make sure customers can get to the Olympics coverage they want to watch quickly and easily.”
With a big 2026 on tap for Xfinity, both in Philly and nationally, this won’t be the last time fans get this kind of experience.
“We’re already thinking about the World Cup,” Forlenza said. “We’re building these types of features. We’re already thinking, ‘How’s this?’”
SAN FRANCISCO — Eagles star tackle Jordan Mailata spent the past eight seasons developing a relationship with Jeff Stoutland that went beyond football.
So, while Mailata expressed professional disappointment in Stoutland’s decision to depart the Eagles, announced Wednesday, he said he also understood the 63-year-old coach’s choice.
“As selfish as it is for me to want him there, I think it’s about time for him,” Mailata told The Inquirer on Thursday from Super Bowl LX Radio Row. “I knew it was probably closer to the end maybe. I thought I had a couple more years with him. I think age, I think the time he spends away from his family is a factor. And now he’s going to become a grandparent. … I think he’ll want to be around for that.”
Stoutland is the only offensive line coach Mailata has played under since entering the NFL in 2018. Mailata, a native of New South Wales, Australia, entered the NFL via the International Player Pathway Program, and with very little previous exposure to football. Stoutland scouted him from the program before the Eagles made him a seventh-round pick in 2018, then developed Mailata into one of the league’s top offensive tackles.
Mailata was named a second-team All-Pro in 2024, the same season a run-first Eagles offense bulldozed its way to a Super Bowl title.
“I’ve been crying about it to be honest. Guy’s like my father,” Mailata said. “It hit me hard. And now I’m just kind of glad the Super Bowl week is keeping me busy so I can deal with that when I get home when I have the time to myself. Yeah, it’s hard. It got me.”
Mailata will have to adjust to a new position coach amid changes to the Eagles offensive staff. Offensive coordinator Sean Mannion, pass game coordinator Josh Grizzard, and run game coordinator Ryan Mahaffey are among the new faces that have been named to Nick Sirianni’s staff.
Asked about the expected changes to the Eagles offense, Mailata said, “I don’t know, I’ll be honest. I’m excited for the challenge. I just don’t know what we’re walking into because it’s uncharted territory for me, man. I’ve had the same coach for the last eight years, but I welcome it. It’s a challenge that we have to learn a new playbook, but this is the NFL, man, this is what we do.”
On Wednesday, in a social media post addressed to Philadelphia, longtime Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland announced his decision to leave the organization after 13 seasons.
“I’ve decided my time coaching with the Eagles has come to an end,” he wrote. “When I arrived here in 2013, I did not know what I was signing up for. I quickly learned what this city demands. But more importantly, what it gives back. The past 13 years have been the great privilege of my coaching career. I didn’t just work here, I became one of you. Stout Out.”
At least one Eagles offensive lineman was named to the Pro Bowl in every year of Stoutland’s tenure with the franchise. Two Eagles running backs led the league in rushing during the same span: LeSean McCoy in 2013 and Saquon Barkley in 2024.
The news comes a week after The Inquirer first reported that Stoutland’s role as the team’s run game coordinator waned during the season as the Eagles shifted their game-planning responsibilities. Stoutland, as reported by ESPN, did not desire to keep the role after the in-season change.
With the news of the two-time Super Bowl champion assistant relinquishing his coaching role, many fans have taken to social media to thank Stoutland. Others have looked to display their dismay …
I seriously wish stoutland got one more ring or NFC championship. The amount of talent he coached up will be remembered. Thank you for giving us some of the best OL play 🫶🏼 #stoutland
Leaving no time wasted, some fans have begun to blame Stoutland’s departure on coach Nick Sirianni’s reported takeover of run coordinator duties. Stoutland’s agent, Alan Herman, told ESPN that Stoutland was frustrated with the change and felt his input was being ignored.
The news of Stoutland’s decision was coupled with uncertainty around defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s retirement. The Inquirer has since reported that Fangio will be staying with the Eagles through 2026, but that did not stop onlookers from connecting the two coaching developments to what they perceived as a larger cultural problem.
Eagles might as well fire Sirianni now. Stoutland suddenly leaving and Fangio seriously considering retirement. That's two elite coaches that don't want to work with you
Vic Fangio and Jeff Stoutland. 2 of the most respected coaches in the NFL. Both wanted to leave like the NovaCare complex was on fire. That should tell you all you need to know. pic.twitter.com/OKgXkVgodW
Others have called on fans to stop the blame game and cease the “conspiracy theories.” Meanwhile, some have seen the departure as a positive for the franchise, as it indicated that new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion would be taking more control over the offense.
Stoutland leaving is a big loss, but the overreaction and conspiracy theories about why he's leaving is nauseating.
Idk this seems healthy and doesn’t create panic for me. If we want real change on offense then Mannion needs space to implement his scheme (pass game + run game). If adapting to McVay/Shanahan scheme gave Stoutland pause, as article suggests, it was time to part. Great run. https://t.co/gSjso9fs2f
Stoutland was not the only Philadelphia favorite to depart from the city on Wednesday. A few hours before the assistant coach’s announcement, the Sixers traded away second-year guard Jared McCain to Oklahoma City for the Houston Rockets’ 2026 first-round pick and three second-round picks.
Report: Sixers had no idea Stoutland was going to “retire” and would not have traded Philadelphia hero Jared McCain to “add salt to the wounds”. https://t.co/bjS7BgcfH8
Changes to the Eagles’ staff under new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion are well underway.
The team is hiring Ryan Mahaffey as the run game coordinator and tight ends coach, a league source confirmed to The Inquirer on Thursday.
Mahaffey, 38, worked with Mannion while they were with the Green Bay Packers, most recently serving as the wide receivers coach for the last two seasons.
The news of Mahaffey’s hiring comes in the wake of Jeff Stoutland’s departure from the Eagles after 13 seasons on Wednesday night. Stoutland, who turns 64 next week, was hired by Chip Kelly in 2013 to serve as the Eagles’ offensive line coach. In 2018, he added the title of run game coordinator to his role with the team.
However, The Inquirer reported last week that Stoutland’s input in the running game decreased last season as the Eagles attempted to address their early struggles on the ground by shifting their game planning and play calling.
While a source said that the Eagles wanted Stoutland back in 2026, he chose to step away from coaching, giving way to the hiring of Mahaffey to assume running game responsibilities.
Mahaffey, a former NFL fullback and tight end, earned his NFL coaching start with the Packers in 2021 as an offensive quality control coach. He held the title of assistant offensive line coach (2022-23) before becoming the team’s wide receivers coach in 2024.
Mahaffey coached tight ends at the college level, first at Northern Iowa, his alma mater, in 2013 and then at Western Kentucky in 2017-18. This is the first time in Mahaffey’s coaching career that he has held the title of run game coordinator.
The addition of Mahaffey likely signals the end of Jason Michael’s tenure with the Eagles. Michael, 47, was brought to the Eagles by Nick Sirianni in 2021 as tight ends coach after serving in the same role with the Indianapolis Colts in 2019-20.
The moment sounds like something that could only come straight out of a movie — until now. On Wednesday, Jordan Mailata, George Kittle, and Bijan Robinson went Pitch Perfect at San Francisco’s Ferry Building ahead of Super Bowl LX weekend.
George Kittle, Bijan Robinson, and Jordan Mailata out here singing a cappella during #SuperBowl week with Adam Devine and The Treblemakers 😂😂😂
Mailata, Kittle, and Robinson joined Pitch Perfect star — and Treblemaker — Adam Devine and the University of Wisconsin’s competitive a cappella group, Fundamentally Sound, who went viral on social media after surprising people in the street with birthday songs.
The group wore matching jackets and performed a riff off-inspired rendition that included Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” before announcing the winner of the Marriott Bonvoy Super Bowl Sleepover Suite, in which one fan gets to wake up Sunday in a suite in Levi’s Stadium.
“I’m closing out the football season as Marriott Bonvoy’s Fanbassador and announcing the Super Bowl Sleepover Suite winner the only way I know how … by singing,” Devine said in a release. “I couldn’t have done it without my NFL buddies. They were great, but thankfully, these men are athletic specimens and don’t make their living singing.”
From left, Adam Devine, , Bijan Robinson, George Kittle, and Jordan Mailata perform as the Treblemakers in San Francisco.
While Kittle and Robinson, the Falcons’ star running back, may have some work to do on their voices, Mailata appeared to be in his element.
Kittle, meanwhile, didn’t just have to learn a new song and dance. The 49ers tight end suffered a torn Achilles tendon during the Niners’ wild-card win over the Eagles and performed the choreography in a boot while driving around on a scooter.
Was there today at Ferry Building George Kittle was hilarious 😂 he was singing along Falcons star RB. Bijan Robinson & Eagles Jordan Mailata #FTTBpic.twitter.com/bHNaPU9iHV
