After decades of paranoia and conspiracy theories that cast the Birds as victims of perceived favoritism shown to such rivals as the Cowboys, Patriots, and Chiefs, consider what happened for the Eagles on Sunday against the Giants. Honestly, no fan base feels persecuted more than the Eagles’, whose owner, Jeffrey Lurie, is still bitter about the obvious defensive holding call by James Bradberry that cost them a Super Bowl win three years ago.
James Bradberry gets called for a holding penalty late in Eagles-Chiefs.
The NFL continues to allow the Eagles to run the Tush Push, but that play earned another strike against it when the owners meet next spring.
Assuming a team introduces another proposal to ban the controversial short-yardage play — which has been assailed as an injury risk, which is ridiculous, and has been assailed as a penalty magnet, which is legitimate — Sunday’s debacle will add fuel to whatever fire remains from last spring’s 22-10 vote, which was two ballots shy of a ban.
Facing fourth-and-1 at the Giants’ 11 early in the second quarter, Jalen Hurts and his line surged forward and Hurts peeled off slightly to the left. Floating on a sea of humanity, Hurts clearly never stopped moving toward the line to gain, and as he reached the ball forward, Giants linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux stripped him of the ball and recovered it.
The play was not reviewable because forward progress is not a reviewable issue.
The larger issue here is that officials don’t seem to be able to consistently rule correctly on a number of areas, among them: whether the defense moves too early; whether the defense lines up in the neutral zone; whether the offensive line moves early; or whether the offense lines up in the neutral zone.
Sunday, they didn’t properly gauge forward progress, even with the runner in plain view.
The final was 38-20, but the call was enormous in the context of the game. Instead of losing the ball to a Giants team that had just completed a 52-yard touchdown drive, the Eagles retained possession and scored a touchdown two plays later to make it 14-7.
It was just the first seven-point swing the officials delivered to the home team.
Early in the fourth quarter, with New York facing fourth-and-11 and trailing by 18, Giants receiver Darius Slayton and Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell engaged in routine hand-fighting during Slayton’s route. Slayton disengaged in a normal fashion, caught the pass, and romped for a 68-yard touchdown.
But no.
Slayton was called for offensive pass interference. Brutal call. In fact, a penalty probably should have been called on Mitchell.
Instead of cutting the lead to 11, the Giants had to punt.
The Eagles are tied for 11th in total penalties called, and they’re seventh in total penalty yards, but most of the calls are inarguable, and, objectively, they seem to be getting away with lots of shenanigans. This was true Sunday.
Yes, the Eagles won by 18, and they dominated all day, but they were gifted that 14-point swing. These two were the kinds of crucial calls that the Eagles and other Chiefs opponents lately have claimed gave unfair advantage to Kansas City; the kinds of calls the Patriots under Bill Belichick seemed to get all the time; and the kinds of calls America’s Team has gotten for 50 years in Dallas.
The Eagles are getting those calls now … right?
The Giants agreed, at least for Sunday. Said Thibodeaux:
“They said they called the forward progress before he reached the ball out. Sounds like some [B.S.] to me.”
Me too.
Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert scoring a fourth-quarter touchdown against the Giants.
Seeing red with Goedert
Under Nick Sirianni, the Eagles have never finished outside the top 10 in red-zone efficiency. But with the combination of Sirianni and offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, who had served as Sirianni’s passing-game coordinator the last four years, the Birds have never been better.
The Eagles are 6-2 in large part because they’ve converted 17 of their 20 trips inside the opponents’ 20-yard line into touchdowns. That’s 85%, which is about 11 percentage points better than the Ravens’ rate last season, which is the best conversion rate by any team over an entire season since Sirianni arrived.
Why are they so efficient?
Because the Eagles have a spectacular offensive line; a strong, fast quarterback; a lethal play in the Tush Push; a superstar running back; two star receivers; and, for my money, the most important red-zone weapon: an elite tight end.
Also: superb play-calling. Example:
On second-and-8 from the Giants’ 17-yard line, Patullo called a run-pass option. Hurts kept it. At the same time, tight end Dallas Goedert swung from the left side of the line to the right, broke upfield, and was wide-open for a touchdown.
So many moving parts worked in perfect synchronization. It was the Eagles’ prettiest play of the season.
“Ultimately, Kevin has to call the plays that he feels give us the best chance to win there,” Sirianni said after the Eagles went 3-for-3 in the red zone on Sunday. “I think we’ve done a good job of being efficient down there, though. … We’ve kept the ball moving forward. Jalen’s played really good football down there, and Dallas has obviously been really good down there.”
Goedert had two touchdown catches in Sunday’s win over the Giants. His seven TD catches are first among tight ends and already are a career high.
“They’ve been letting me get the ball and use my big body,” Goedert said. “We can score in a lot of different ways.”
He certainly can. His 35 touchdowncatches (including playoffs) in about 7½ seasons as an Eagle rank second among franchise tight ends behind Zach Ertz, who caught 40 (including playoffs) in about 8½ seasons.
“He’s a hell of a player,“ Hurts said. ”He’s a big-time target and in a sense, he’s due. He’s due. He does a lot of dirty work in this offense.”
It might be tough to call Goedert’s number with Hurts, running back Saquon Barkley, and receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, but the Eagles are winning because Goedert is finding the end zone more than anyone else under Patullo.
“KP has a really good feel in the red zone,” said Hurts.
So does DG.
Mixed emotionals
After being embarrassed by owner Woody Johnson, who said, “If we can just complete a pass, it would look good” after seven weeks of bad quarterback play, Jets quarterback Justin Fields played well Sunday in a comeback win over the Bengals.
Fields had been benched at halftime the week before in favor of Tyrod Taylor, but Taylor’s bruised knee sidelined him Sunday and gave Fields another chance. Fields played well enough to win: 21-for-32, 244 yards, one touchdown. Afterward, during an emotional press availability, he admitted that the pressures of his turbulent career, culminating in Johnson’s criticisms, broke him down.
“This week, I found myself in my closet, crying on the ground, laying down,” Fields said.
As you might assume, Johnson, formerly Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, is not a pleasant bloke. In an annual survey conducted by the players’ association, his 2024 team gave his club the league’s only overall “F,” and his franchise has been a punch line for years.
However, if Johnson’s cruel, candid, but ultimately accurate assessment of the quarterback play worked, well …
Coach Shane Steichen’s Colts are 7-1.
Extra points
Shane Steichen, in his third year in Indianapolis, continued his romp to Coach of the Year honors when his Colts beat the Titans and moved to 7-1. Since becoming the Eagles’ OC in 2021, Steichen’s teams have been in the top 10 in rushing, with the Eagles finishing No. 1 in 2021. This year, behind league-leading running back Jonathan Taylor, the Colts rank sixth. … Right behind Steichen in the running for COY: Mike Vrabel, whose Patriots reached 6-2 with a win over the Browns. Second-year quarterback Drake Maye leads the NFL with a 118.7 passer rating. … In that game, Browns defensive lineman Myles Garrett recorded five sacks, bringing him to 10 for the season, tied for the league lead. … Aaron Rodgers failed to join Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Brett Favre, and Drew Brees as quarterbacks who have beaten all 32 teams when his Steelers lost to the Packers, the team that drafted him. … The Cowboys, with their No. 2-ranked offense and second-to-last defense, lost in Denver and fell to 3-4-1. That means the Eagles are the only team in the NFC East with a winning record — remarkable, since the division was considered one of the best before the season began.
Guess who’s going back, back again. Jett Luchanko is returning to juniors.
The Flyers announced Monday that the center has been returned to Guelph of the Ontario Hockey League after he skated in four of the Flyers’ first eight games. According to a team source, there has been no decision yet on who will be recalled from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to take Luchanko’s spot on the roster.
The team could have played Luchanko in as many as nine games before triggering his NHL contract.
“Very simple, we want him to play high minutes,” Flyers general manager Danny Brière said. “We liked what we’ve seen. He could have stayed here; he showed that he can play. But we want more than that for him in the long run.
“And we felt at this point it was time for him to start playing high minutes and more of an offensive role, get back to playing power play, killing penalties, facing the top opposition on the other team, on a nightly basis.”
Transaction: We have returned forward Jett Luchanko to his junior team, @Storm_City (OHL).
Luchanko averaged 8 minutes, 58 seconds of ice time with the Flyers, registering one shot on goal and a plus-minus of minus-3. Last season, also in four games, he tallied three shots on goal across an average of 14:03 with the same plus-minus.
The only difference is that last season, under former coach John Tortorella, Luchanko was playing higher up the lineup. Under new coach Rick Tocchet, Luchanko had been slotted in on the fourth line, often between Garnet Hathaway and Nikita Grebenkin.
“He’s going to play in the NHL, there’s no doubt about that. Now, how high does he get? That’s really up to him, but it’s in there,” Brière said. “The speed alone is going to scare a lot of teams eventually — when he gets more comfortable, when he gets more assertive out there. The speed alone is probably his biggest asset. … It took me a while to feel comfortable enough to make those plays, so I know exactly what he’s going through. It takes time.
“From our end, we need patience; we need to give him time to find that comfort, and on his end, his job is just to find a way to break through.”
Luchanko struggled to find his footing this season despite his high hockey IQ and passing ability. He missed development camp because of a groin injury and was held out of rookie camp for precautionary reasons.
He also continued to grapple with the Flyers’ push to see the 19-year-old shoot more; he also had only threeshots on goal in five preseason games. As an NHL scout told The Inquirer in early October, Luchanko, who is listed at 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, doesn’t look NHL strong yet and needs to play a harder, more confident game.
“I wouldn’t say shooting’s his thing,” Riley Armstrong, the Flyers’ director of player development, told The Inquirer in April. “I think that’s one thing that we’re working on with him. He’s always been kind of that pass-first guy. … And a lot of it is confidence, having confidence that you can beat a goalie.”
Added Brière: “It’s a comfort thing. He just needs to feel comfortable. I know how you feel as an 18- or 19-year-old. You’re coming in, you’re trying to please everybody around you. You’re on the ice with guys you’ve been watching on TV. You have a Travis Konecny beside you, obviously, you’re going to force a pass there. It’s human nature. That’s just how it is.
“It takes time, and hopefully he’s going to get out of that pretty soon. And we’ve seen him play in juniors. He can shoot the puck. He’s got a good shot. It’s just the confidence that he needs to do it here now.”
Drafted 13th overall in 2024, Luchanko tallied 21 goals and 56 points in 46 OHL games last season with Guelph. After his season ended with the Storm, he had a 16-game stint with the Phantoms in the American Hockey League, which included seven playoff games. He racked up nine assists in the AHL, including two in the first-round series clincher against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
While there was a thought to send him to the AHL on a conditioning stint, it meant he would have had to sit for some time to be eligible. But the Flyers were happy with his progression with the Phantoms and at training camp as well.
“We saw a big progression last season when he came in to play in Lehigh — he was pretty impressive. He played really well,” Brière said. “He was arguably our best player down the stretch and into the playoffs. So that was really encouraging to see.
“He was able to put up points as well, but that was the product of playing heavy minutes in junior to feeling comfortable on the ice … and that takes time.”
Because of the NHL-CHL agreement, which prevents CHL players under 20 years old from going to the AHL, he could only be returned to the Storm. That rule will change next season when each team will be granted one exemption.
“Well, it [stinks] because he’s in that mushy [middle]. … There’s certain things that, [to be fixed], he just has to go play a lot,” Tocchet said. “You can’t do it up here, whether you play 10, 11, minutes: more decisive with the puck, more shooting mentality, use his speed offensively, not just defensively. … Because of the rules of it is what it is, he has to go somewhere where we can just get settled and play.”
The expectation is that Luchanko will play for Canada at the World Junior Championship, which begins after Christmas. Luchanko suited up last year in a limited role, despite being one of the better players, for the squad that lost to Czechia in the quarterfinals. A native of London, Ontario, he had one goal in five games.
“We also want to prepare him for the World Junior Championship because it’s tough if he’s playing 7, 8 minutes a night for the first three months of the season, and you send him to the World Juniors, and they expect to play him 15 to 18, maybe 20 minutes,” Brière said.
“It’s a tough adjustment to change like that. So you’ve got to get used to those minutes, and it should give him plenty of time to get conditioned to play in high minutes.”
Entering Monday, Guelph is 6-5-2-0 in 13 games and has won three straight.
Let’s allow Jordan Mailata to explain the season Dallas Goedert is having in the way Mailata does best, with a touch of swearing and some humorous perspective.
“That … guy,” Mailata said Sunday after Goedert caught two touchdown passes in the Eagles’ 38-20 win over the New York Giants. “We almost didn’t bring him back. Can you believe that [stuff]? How funny is that? How funny is that?”
Yes, there was a time during the offseason when it appeared as if the Eagles would part ways with Goedert after seven seasons. Goedert himself even confronted that possibility before the Eagles reworked his contract to bring him back on a one-year deal worth more than $10 million but less than the $14.25 million that would have been owed to him on his previous deal.
Just how valuable has Goedert been to the Eagles? He is tied for the NFL lead in receiving touchdowns with seven. He reached a career high with his sixth touchdown of the season on a second-quarter score Sunday and then got to the end zone again early in the fourth quarter to extend the Eagles’ lead to 31-13 and put the game out of reach.
Goedert’s return to the Eagles benefited both parties. The Eagles didn’t have many better alternatives, and Goedert, 30, was coming off of a 2024 season when he played in a career-low 10 games thanks to multiple injuries. Imagine the dollar signs he’s seeing right now with seven touchdowns in seven games. He will be a free agent after the season.
“I’ve just been enjoying this season,” Goedert said Sunday. “Not too worried about the future, just trying to be where my feet are, enjoying it.
“It’s been a lot of fun, and we just got to keep getting better. There’s a lot of season left and we want to win a lot more games. Not worried about personal things. It’s a cool little stat, but I’m just trying to help the team win.”
Goedert runs through New York Giants safety Tyler Nubin in the second quarter en route to a touchdown against the Giants.
He has been doing that, especially in the red zone, where the Eagles have been the most prolific team in the NFL. Goedert said the red zone philosophy has changed a little bit this year under new offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.
After Sunday, the Eagles are at 17 touchdowns in 20 trips, good for an NFL-best 85% success rate. Six of Goedert’s seven scores have come in the red zone.
The Eagles didn’t have A.J. Brown on Sunday, so they went to their big-body tight end instead, on what happened to be national tight ends day. The Eagles lined Goedert up left on the outside of the formation for a second-and-2 from the 6-yard line near the end of the first half. Goedert ran a quick slant toward the middle of the field, then caught the ball at the first-down marker before barreling through two defenders for the touchdown.
His second touchdown was even prettier. The Eagles ran a run-pass option on a second-and-8 from the 17. It’s a play they like to run and often do it well. Goedert started on the left side of the formation and worked right after the snap. Jalen Hurts put the ball in Tank Bigsby’s stomach, but pulled it out. The linebacker charged with covering Goedert slipped, and Goedert changed his trajectory with the end zone in mind.
“Usually I catch it going to the flat,” Goedert said. “They kind of squeezed the linebacker and I felt like I could get vertical.”
Vertical he went. Goedert caught the ball at the 9, turned toward the end zone, and held the ball out ahead of him as he crossed the goal line.
Goedert’s fourth-quarter touchdown against the Giants helped extend the Eagles’ lead.
Asked about hitting his career high already, Goedert said, “keep it going. Let’s get some more.”
As for Mailata, the left tackle said he’s not surprised by Goedert’s fast start.
“That guy works his [butt] off during the week. He really does,” Mailata said. “I think we’re pretty lucky to have the people we have in this room because they’re hard workers, and I think it sets the culture for the young guys to see hard work is always rewarded.”
Two years isn’t a long time to wait between playoff games, in MLS or any other sport. But the Union’s return to the postseason brought an intensity to the air at Subaru Park that hadn’t been felt for a while, even with the many soccer spectacles that have come to town since then.
It also brought a very compelling game, if not always for the right reasons. At the end of the night, it felt like the series-opening win over Chicago had been four games in one: the scoreless first 70 minutes, the Union’s surge to a 2-0 lead, the Fire’s comeback, and the penalty-kick shootout.
Let’s take each in turn to go inside how the home team prevailed.
Three is a magic number
The first stanza was defined as much by referee Sergii Boyko as by the lack of goals. He seemed to have little interest in calling most of the first half’s contact as fouls, less interest in the crowd’s opinion of him, and the least in Chicago goalkeeper Chris Brady’s repeated time-wasting on the ball.
Those antics took much of the energy out of a crowd of 19,019 that for once was in the stands well before kickoff. Perhaps that was helped by the starting time being advertised in some places as 5:30 p.m., though it was long known and correctly printed elsewhere as 5:55. (Cue the joke that the time should be printed wrong more often.)
The fans were alive when Chicago’s starting lineup was introduced, launching a storm of boos at manager Gregg Berhalter for his previous tenure with the U.S. men’s national team. Then they shook the rafters when Quinn Sullivan was unveiled as the pregame drummer, a few weeks after surgery on a torn ACL that ended his season.
And they were touchingly silent during a pregame tribute to Brad Youtz, one of the Sons of Ben supporters’ club’s founding members, who died earlier this month. His loyalty began even before the Union existed, as he helped lead the fan movement that brought an expansion team here.
The view of what transpired next looked familiar to any watcher, from Youtz upstairs to the new generation in his old River End seats.
With the Supporters’ Shield mounted in the River End, an impeccably-observed moment of silence at the first Union home game since Brad Youtz’s passing.
My longtime friend has the best seat in the house today.
Berhalter’s 3-4-3 tactics had helped the Fire build a six-game winning streak heading into their first playoff berth in eight years. That setup turned the screws on the Union, the latest proof that for all that has improved in Bradley Carnell’s first year as manager, the team can still struggle to solve three-back defenses.
Uhre delivers again
The game changed when Carnell turned to his own toolbox, with the first substitutions in the 64th minute. One of them, Mikael Uhre, broke the game open.
It was a classic quick move down the field, with Milan Iloski sending Uhre down the right side. He was one-on-one with former Union teammate Jack Elliott and drew on some inside knowledge.
“He probably knows that normally I would go on my right,” Uhre said. “So I was thinking, let me cut it in and then see how it opens up. And then I could see Indy making the run on the back post.”
That was Indiana Vassilev, and Uhre found him with a dazzling, lofted pass across the 18-yard box. A quick trap, a quick shot, and Brady was flattened.
Five minutes later, the player who arguably changed this team’s whole season had another defining moment. Here came the Union again, this time with Iloski on the ball on the right flank. He had Vassilev and Uhre charging up the middle, and Chicago’s defense was expecting a pass.
Instead, Iloski kept the ball, cut left on Elliott, and slammed a shot into the top corner.
“As I was dribbling forward, I noticed there wasn’t a lot of options,” Iloski said. “I knew off the dribble I could beat anyone in this league. Once I let the guy kind of get close to me … I just got the ball out of my feet and then focused on hitting the ball on target.”
That same self-confidence would come in handy just over 20 minutes later. But there was still a long way to go.
Chicago’s comeback
Even after Jonathan Bamba’s goal out of a corner kick traffic jam in the 84th, there was little reason to believe the Union would blow the lead.
But between Chicago’s goals, Berhalter made a tweak that turned the game, subbing in attacking midfielder Brian Gutiérrez for centerback Sam Rogers. Removing a defender ended up helping Iloski, but the Fire benefited more, and for the second game in a row Gutiérrez showed why he’s a U.S. national team prospect.
“He was playing in these half spaces — that was really difficult for us, and they had some success to the end of the game,” Union goalkeeper Andre Blake said. “We couldn’t stop him from getting on the ball and he’s a great player, so he was able to create some dangerous plays for them.”
At the start of stoppage time, Jakob Glesnes tripped Mauricio Pineda just outside the Union’s 18-yard box. And just as happened a previous time when Glesnes tripped Lionel Messi against Miami in May, this was a game-changing moment.
Bamba shot the free kick into the wall, the ball came right back to him, and he laid it off for Elliott to fire from 30 yards — low, hard, and straight past his former teammates. That he did not celebrate made the moment even more resonant.
Andre Blake (right) looks back at his net after Jack Elliott’s game-tying free kick goal got by.
When Boyko finally blew the whistle to end regulation, the game headed straight to penalty kicks. It was a moment that both elevated the drama and exposed again the strangeness of the MLS playoff format: a best-of-three first round and single-game knockouts the rest of the way.
Plenty of other competitions around the world these days go straight to penalties after regulation, as a kindness to players’ health. But none so contort things by making a score barely matter over the course of a series.
MLS used to do what the rest of the sport has long done: single-game rounds all the way, or a two-game, home-and-away series in which the aggregate goal tally decides the winner. In this best-of-three setup, it doesn’t matter if you win 2-0, 2-1, or by any other score; or if the tie after 90 minutes is 2-2, 1-1, 0-0, or 5-5. All that counts is which team wins.
It helped the Union this time, and it’s certainly an American tradition. But that doesn’t make it a good soccer principle.
Andre Blake celebrates after Chicago’s Joel Waterman put his penalty kick off the crossbar.
Blake’s shootout heroics
Carnell offered the zinger of the night when he called the game “a contrasting of two styles — one team just trying to waste every second and try and get out of here. Probably, they got what they wanted, [which] was penalties.”
Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.
Blake had studied Chicago’s takers with the Union’s outstanding goalkeeper coach, Phil Wheddon. A veteran of the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams and American clubs going back to the early 2000s, Wheddon delivered again this time, working out a set of signals from the bench that Blake needed only a glance to see.
While Brady ran his mouth, the best goalkeeper in MLS for a decade running did his job. Blake stuffed Elliott, got a big piece of Hugo Cuypers’ shot even though it went in, and psyched Joel Waterman into hitting the crossbar.
Andre Blake (center) and Milan Iloski (right) had enough of the antics of Chicago goalkeeper Chris Brady during the shootout.
That easily overcame Uhre being saved on the Union’s first turn of the shootout. Iloski, Frankie Westfield, Tai Baribo, and Jesús Bueno were perfect afterward.
“In truth, I was a little bit nervous before my penalty kick,” Bueno said. “But when Blake gave me the ball, I just looked at him in the eye, and we laughed, and we knew that everything was going to be OK.”
The NFL announced it has partnered with Lululemon and Fanatics to release a new apparel collection featuring all 32 teams across the league. This is the NFL’s first collaboration with the retailer.
The collection, which will be available exclusively at NFL Shop, Fanatics, and team shops starting Oct. 28, will feature Lululemon pieces for both men and women — and some Eagles.
“Together with Fanatics, we are introducing an elevated collection that redefines modern fan apparel and is uniquely designed for everyday comfort,” said Renie Anderson, the NFL’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer. “Lululemon boasts a loyal fan base built on culture, meaningful connections, and innovation, qualities that thoroughly reflect the NFL.”
Former Eagles player Emmanuel Acho (right) poses with his brother and former Bears player, Sam Acho, to promote the NFL’s partnership with Lululemon and Fanatics.
The collection will include products from the retailer’s signature lines like Define, Scuba, and Align. Featured items will include crew neck sweaters, hoodies, quarter zips, crop tops, athletic wear, and belt bags.
To promote the collection, former players are part of the brand’s “Welcome to the Fam Club” campaign, including Nick Foles and Emmanuel Acho, both former Eagles. Joe Montana and Ryan Clark are also featured in the campaign.
“True NFL fans wear their pride. For them, fan gear is more than apparel, it’s a badge of loyalty and a way to instantly connect with a community that is like a family,” said Celeste Burgoyne, Lululemon’s president of Americas and global guest innovation. “We looked to honor that passionate devotion and are thrilled to be part of that ritual found throughout the NFL season.”
Although this is the first time Lululemon has partnered with the NFL, this is the second collaboration between Lululemon and Fanatics. The two partnered in 2024 to curate a collection of NHL Lululemon gear for 11 teams before expanding to all 32 teams the following year.
The collection featuring gear from all 32 NFL teams is set to release Oct. 28.
“We’re thrilled that Lululemon is bringing its premium apparel into the NFL for the first time,” said Andrew Low Ah Kee, Fanatics’ CEO of commerce. “This launch reflects our commitment to delivering elevated fan experiences and expanding our assortment with products that blend sport, fashion, and fandom. We’re proud to offer it across our online platform and team stores, giving fans new ways to show up with pride — on game day and every day.”
Saquon Barkley warms up before Sunday’s win against the Giants.
Running back Saquon Barkley left the game following the final play of the third quarter with a groin injury, but told reporters he could have gone back into the game if needed.
Wide receiver A.J. Brown sat out Sunday’s game with a hamstring injury. NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport reported Brown shouldn’t be sidelined for long and is expected to be able to play in the Birds’ Week 10 matchup against the Green Bay Packers after the bye.
Center Cam Jurgens didn’t play Sunday with a knee injury. It’s unclear when he’ll return.
Nick Sirianni weighs in on Kevin Patullo’s growth this season
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts talks to Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni and Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo during the second quarter at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia , PA.
Maybe the bye week is coming at a bad time. Who wouldn’t want to keep it rolling after the offense put together arguably its best four-quarter performance under new coordinator Kevin Patullo?
The Eagles posted a complete effort Sunday and finally found success running the football and passing it during the same game. They schemed up the pin-and-pull block game and showed their under-center versatility.
It has been a bumpy first eight games for Patullo after taking the reins from Kellen Moore. But Sunday — which followed a strong showing with the aerial attack last week — showed the Eagles might be on a better path.
“I think he’s done a good job of continuing to get better, just like our players,” Sirianni said of Patullo. “Every team is a new team so there’s a growth period whether there’s a first-time play caller or not. There’s a growth period within each year for the players, for the coaches, everything. That’s what the first weeks of the season are for, is to find ways to win, find ways to get better, and really be in that continual growth mindset all the way through so you’re playing your best football in November, December, January hopefully.”
Updated Eagles’ Super Bowl and Jalen Hurts MVP odds
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts runs off the field after beating the New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday.
The Eagles improved to 6-2 after a dominant 38-20 win over the New York Giants Sunday. Jalen Hurts had another efficient performance in which he threw for 179 passing yards and four touchdowns — and just five incompletions. Meanwhile, the Birds’ running game took a big step forward, recording 276 yards on the ground.
As the Birds head into the bye week, they are still the favorites to win the NFC East and remain one of the top five favorites to win the Super Bowl, according to FanDuel.
Chiefs (+500)
Lions (+700)
Packers (+750)
Bills (+800)
Eagles (+950)
But at DraftKings, the Birds remain outside of the top five, behind the Los Angeles Rams and the Indianapolis Colts.
Chiefs (+500)
Lions (+650)
Packers (+700)
Bills (+750)
Colts (+900)
Rams (+1000)
Eagles (+1100)
In terms of MVP odds, Hurts’ chances have slightly improved after his performance in the Eagles’ win on Sunday. Meanwhile, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes continue to battle for the top two spots at both sportsbooks.
Nick Sirianni’s message to coaches and players for the bye week
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni walks with Dom DiSandro before the team’s game against the Giants.
The Eagles hit the bye this week with a 6-2 record.
For players, it’s a time to relax and heal up and get some time away from the facility. For coaches, it’s a time to rest but also get ready for the rest of the season.
What’s Nick Sirianni’s message to both parties?
For the coaches: “I think it’s so important that we are completely locked in and focused on finding ways to get better, identifying issues, identifying strengths, and this is a really important week,” Sirianni said Monday. “We’ve benefited from this week in the past, whether that be going into the playoffs or whether it’s in the regular season. It’s that same motivation and that same hunger to do everything that we can do to help the football team.”
As for the players, Sirianni said the message was mostly about getting rest but staying mentally focused on what’s ahead.
“This bye week sets you up for some things for the rest of the season,” Sirianni said.
A.J. Brown is ‘not going to get traded,’ says ESPN’s Adam Schefter
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman hasn’t been shy about making moves at the trade deadline in the past.
A.J. Brown sat out of Sunday’s game due to a hamstring injury. Despite Brown’s absence, the Eagles offense dominated, finishing the game with a season-high 427 total yards. DeVonta Smith remained the centerpiece of the Birds’ passing game, recording six receptions (on nine targets) for 84 yards.
Everything came together for the Eagles, including the team’s previously spotty running game. The Birds recorded 276 yards on the ground, with Saquon Barkley eclipsing 100 rushing yards for the first time this season.
With all the drama surrounding Brown’s latest social media posts, and the team’s success without him on the field, there’s already even more discussion centered around whether the team should trade the receiver.
“The only thing that gets or punctures momentum and a loaded roster is drama,” said Colin Cowherd on The Colin Cowherd Podcast. “And I’m watching them today and I’m like oh [expletive]. They almost have 300 yards rushing. Some of this is tied to A.J. Brown’s absence. They’re just free to do what they want to do. … I just don’t think this team needs A.J. Brown.”
“They’re not going to trade A.J. Brown,” Schefter said on ESPN’s Get Up. “Here’s the deal. They’re trying to repeat as a Super Bowl champion. They’re in the business of acquiring talent, not giving it away. And whatever they can get back for A.J. Brown, they can get back in February or March before the draft. They’re going to want him here to help the stretch run after the big win here, he’s not going to get traded.”
Big Dom brought pizza and cheesesteaks to Cam Skattebo after Philly ankle surgery
Cam Skattebo had a surprise visitor at Penn Presbyterian on Monday:#Eagles Do-it-all Chief of Security Dom DiSandro, who dropped off pizza and cheesesteaks for the Giants rookie while he was still at the Philly hospital after dislocating his ankle on Sunday.
Saquon Barkley signals first down after Jalen Hurts’ fumble was negated by an early whistle.
The NFL continues to allow the Eagles to run the Tush Push, but that play earned another strike against it when the owners meet next spring.
Assuming a team introduces another proposal to ban the controversial short-yardage play — which has been assailed as an injury risk, which is ridiculous, and has been assailed as a penalty magnet, which is legitimate — Sunday’s debacle will add fuel to whatever fire remains from last spring’s 22-10 vote, which was two ballots shy of a ban.
Facing fourth-and-1 at the Giants’ 11 early in the second quarter, Jalen Hurts and his line surged forward and Hurts peeled off slightly to the left. Floating on a sea of humanity, Hurts clearly never stopped moving toward the line to gain, and as he reached the ball forward, Giants linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux stripped him of the ball and recovered it.
The play was not reviewable because forward progress is not a reviewable issue.
The larger issue here is, officials don’t seem to be able to consistently rule correctly on a number of areas, among them: whether the defense moves too early; whether the defense lines up in the neutral zone; whether the offensive line moves early; or whether the offense lines up in the neutral zone.
Sunday, they didn’t properly gauge forward progress, even with the runner in plain view.
The final was 38-20, but the call was enormous in the context of the game. Instead of losing the ball to a Giants team that had just completed a 52-yard touchdown drive, the Eagles retained possession and scored a touchdown two plays later to make it 14-7.
It was just the first seven-point swing the officials delivered to the home team.
Quinyon Mitchell breaks up a pass intended for Darius Slayton during Sunday’s win.
Teams don’t often test Quinyon Mitchell, but the Giants on Sunday took to staying away from the second-year corner in a way no other team has.
Jaxson Dart threw to Mitchell’s primary responsibility just once on Sunday. According to Next Gen Stats, Mitchell had never allowed fewer than two targets in a game and no receptions in his career prior to Sunday, and he became one of 10 cornerbacks to allow one or fewer targets for no receptions in a game this season.
Mitchell played 27 coverage snaps Sunday, and 13 of those were in man coverage. His lone target came in man coverage. Mitchell broke up a third-and-16 throw from Dart to Darius Slayton with the Giants near midfield and trailing just 14-7 near the midway point of the second quarter.
Mitchell is allowing a passer rating of just 73.9 so far in 2025, down from 88.7 during his rookie season. Mitchell’s catch allowed percentage is at 47.9%, down from 56.6%. That percentage is third among all NFL defensive backs who have been targeted 25 or more times this season, according to Next Gen.
Jalyx Hunt’s big day comes with the NFL trade deadline looming
Jalyx Hunt, seen here pressuring Jaxson Dart, had one of the best games of his NFL career.
Jalyx Hunt finally got home and sacked the quarterback, and it was a fitting day for the second-year edge defender to at long last get into the sack column.
Hunt had arguably his best day as an NFL player. According to Next Gen Stats, Hunt totaled a career-high nine pressures on 22 pass rushes, four more than his previous best of five. His 40.9% pressure rate was also the best of his young NFL career. Hunt, according to Next Gen, created pressures against four different Giants offensive linemen, including six pressures against right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor on 17 matchups.
#Eagles EDGE Jalyx Hunt finished with a career high nine pressures against the #Giants, had one sack on Jaxson Dart, per @NextGenStats. Hunt also was a strong run defender, as New York averaged just 3.8 yards per carry when they ran to his side. Hunt had 3 run tackles on 14 run… pic.twitter.com/mGsI3vIbe2
The sentiment in the locker room last week in Minnesota, after the Eagles’ rush finally got to Carson Wentz in key moments, was that more sacks were coming. The Eagles got to Dart for five sacks Sunday, with five different players getting on the board.
The Eagles dressed just three edge rushers for Sunday’s game. Hunt played 71% of the snaps while Josh Uche played 60% and Patrick Johnson played 50% of the time. The edge rushing corps has been decimated by injury and then the retirement of Za’Darius Smith. But more help is on the way. The Eagles signed Brandon Graham out of retirement this week and are due to get Nolan Smith back from injured reserve soon.
Hunt’s big day came at an interesting time for the Eagles. The trade deadline is just a week away, on Nov. 4, and edge rush was still an area the Eagles were thought to need some help — even after they brought Graham back.
It remains to be seen if Howie Roseman will be comfortable with a rotation of Smith, Hunt, Uche, Johnson, Graham, and Azeez Ojulari (when healthy), or if he’ll add more talent, but Hunt has made a strong case that the Eagles have enough right now. He had five pressures last week and has six games this season of at least three.
He also made an impact against the run. Hunt, according to Next Gen, had three run tackles on 14 run snaps, and the Giants tallied just 3.8 yards per carry when running in Hunt’s direction.
‘We almost didn’t bring him back’: Dallas Goedert a key part of Eagles’ 6-2 start
Dallas Goedert has seven receiving touchdowns this season, tied for the most in the NFL.
Let’s allow Jordan Mailata to explain the season Dallas Goedert is having in the way Mailata does best, with a touch of swearing and some humorous perspective.
“That [expletive] guy,” Mailata said Sunday after Goedert caught two touchdowns in the Eagles’ 38-20 win over the New York Giants. “We almost didn’t bring him back. Can you believe that [stuff]? How funny is that? How funny is that?”
Yes, there was a time during the offseason when it appeared as if the Eagles would part ways with Goedert after seven seasons. Goedert himself even confronted that possibility before the Eagles reworked his contract to bring him back on a one-year deal worth more than $10 million but less than the original $14.25 million that would’ve been owed to him on his previous deal.
Just how valuable has Goedert been to the Eagles? He is tied for the NFL lead in receiving touchdowns with seven. He reached a new career-high with his sixth touchdown of the season on a second-quarter score Sunday then got to the end zone again early in the fourth quarter to extend the Eagles’ lead to 31-13 and put the game out of reach.
Here are some notable numbers (courtesy of the Eagles) after the Eagles’ 38-20 victory over the Giants:
According to Elias, Nick Sirianni is the eighth head coach in league history to start 6-2 or better in four of their first five career seasons. The others are Paul Brown, Guy Chamberlin, Jon Gruden, George Halas, Chuck Knox, Don Shula and Mike Tomlin.
Sunday’s win was Sirianni’s 60th including the postseason, tied with Dick Vermeil for third all-time in franchise history.
The Eagles are 13-0 against the Giants at Lincoln Financial Field since 2014 (including playoffs). The Eagles are 16-4 overall vs. New York over the last 20 matchups.
The Eagles’ 276 rushing yards Sunday are the most by an NFL team this season.
Including the playoffs, Saquon Barkley has eight rushing touchdowns of 60-plus yards since he joined the Eagles. That’s the same amount as the next three closest Eagles combined since 2000: Miles Sanders (3), Brian Westbrook (3) and Bryce Brown (2).
Barkley and Tank Bigsby became the first Eagles duo to each rush for 100-plus yards in a game since Bryce Brown (115) and LeSean McCoy (133) on Dec. 22, 2013 vs. Chicago.
Jalen Hurts is the third Eagles quarterback since the 1970 NFL merger to produce a 140-plus passer rating in consecutive games, joining Nick Foles (2013) and Randall Cunningham (1992).
Dallas Goedert is tied with Amon-Ra St. Brown for the NFL lead in receiving touchdowns (7).
Lane Johnson made his 166th career regular season appearance, tying Tra Thomas for the ninth-most games played in franchise history. Johnson and Thomas are also tied for the second-most games by an Eagles offensive lineman in the Super Bowl Era, trailing only Jason Kelce (193).
Eagles snap counts: Nakobe Dean overtaking Jihaad Campbell?
Nakobe Dean defends a pass to Giants running back Devin Singletary during Sunday’s game.
The Eagles were able to pull their defensive starters with six minutes to go after building a 25-point lead, so Sunday’s snap counts are a little busier than normal. Let’s get to some of the takeaways from the playing time.
Jihaad Campbell’s workload decreased. Nakobe Dean’s, meanwhile, increased. Campbell played just 21 of the 52 (40%) defensive snaps while Dean played 33. A changing of the guard? We won’t know Vic Fangio’s thoughts until after the bye.
The early pulling of the defense meant two rookies saw their first work of the season with the defense: Linebacker Smael Mondon Jr., and cornerback Mac McWilliams, both of whom played seven snaps.
The Eagles rolled with three active edge rushers: Jalyx Hunt (71%), Josh Uche (60%), and Patrick Johnson (50%). Campbell also took eight of his 21 snaps along the defensive front, according to Pro Football Focus. The Eagles finally rushed well for nearly a complete game, and they’re adding Brandon Graham to the mix and will soon get Nolan Smith back, likely after the bye.
Kelee Ringo (81%) started the game and played until it was time to pull the starters. Is the revolving door at CB2 over with? We’ll see.
Over on offense, the Eagles were able to start and finish a game with an offensive line unit intact. That’s been a rarity. Of course, Cam Jurgens missed the game with an injury, but the Eagles didn’t have to move pieces around on the fly. They did get to put rookie Drew Kendall in the game in the fourth quarter for his first four snaps of the season.
The Eagles dressed four running backs, but AJ Dillon didn’t see the field. That’s two straight weeks the veteran wasn’t used after he was inactive last week vs. Minnesota. Saquon Barkley (59%) probably would have played a little more if he didn’t tweak his groin. Behind Barkley was Tank Bigsby (27%), who went over 100 yards on just nine carries, and Will Shipley (14%). That seems to be the pecking order right now.
With A.J. Brown out, it was a heavy workload for Jahan Dotson, who played 42 of the 59 snaps (71%). Darius Cooper, activated off injured reserve, saw more snaps (26) than he had in his first three games (20). John Metchie (9) and Xavier Gipson (5) even saw extended run.
Tanner McKee (4 snaps) also got on the field for the first time this season.
Unlike 2023, Eagles righted the ship before bye week
Seventeen days ago, Jalen Hurts and the Eagles lost to Jaxson Dart and the New York Giants. They more than righted the ship in the rematch.
It was just 17 days ago that the Eagles lost for the second straight time, lost to the New York Giants by 17 points at MetLife Stadium, lost in so humiliating a fashion that their All-Pro right tackle called out the play-calling as predictable and their star wide receiver admitted that with more than 11 minutes left in the game he had already resigned himself to defeat. It was bad.
Two seasons before, it had been worse. The Eagles had lost back-to-back games to the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, and those pathetic performances triggered the kind of midseason change that reveals a franchise’s leadership has started to panic. The defensive coordinator was demoted. A Bill Belichick acolyte was promoted. And what began as a pebble rolling down a hill turned into an avalanche: six losses in seven games, a head coach whose job was in jeopardy, a collapse whose psychological residue remained on this team for a long time.
Maybe, after their 38-20 victory Sunday in their rematch against the Giants, the Eagles can assure everyone that they’ve scraped away the last of that sticky stuff from 2023. Their Super Bowl win in February took care of most of it, but burping up that late lead against the Denver Broncos on Oct. 5 and getting manhandled by Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo four days later brought up all those bad memories again. The Eagles were 4-2 but reeling, still formidable but vulnerable, and it was fair to wonder whether they could straighten themselves out over their two games before their bye week.
They did. They won a challenging road game against the Minnesota Vikings, then handled an inferior opponent Sunday. Now they enter their 15-day break with a 6-2 record, with a stranglehold on the NFC East, and — despite several injuries to key players, despite the ever-present mist of controversy around A.J. Brown — without the worry that their season was spiraling out of control.
Tom Brady talks with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie before Sunday’s win against the Giants.
During Sunday’s Eagles-Giants broadcast, Tom Brady made a mistake we all make in the living room with our family watching the game — the only problem was that he was live on air for Fox.
After an early scramble by Jalen Hurts to escape a Brian Burns tackle in the first quarter, Brady took a moment to compliment the Eagles starter.
While describing Hurts’ ability to escape the pocket, Brady dropped an obscenity before quickly finishing his sentence in hopes no one noticed … but we noticed.
“Whenever I watch him play it’s like the D-line is almost there to get him,” Brady said. “And then nope, he just squirts away, and they can’t f— …”
A.J. Brown didn’t play Sunday with a hamstring injury.
Eagles receiver A.J. Brown sat out Sunday’s game with a hamstring injury, but that didn’t prevent him from being the center of attention leading up to the game.
ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter reported Brown wasn’t expected to be traded by the Birds ahead of the Nov. 4 trade deadline. The news comes after Brown posted a photo of himself on Instagram last week captioned, “Using me but not using me.”
“We do what’s best for the team,” Lurie said. “We don’t even consider it seriously unless it’s best for the Eagles. We will always do what gives us the best chance of winning big. Everything else is secondary.”
So how do you keep a star receiver happy?
That’s what former New York Jets coach Rex Ryan asked Hall of Famer Peyton Manning yesterday on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown. Manning is more than just an observer — he has said he speaks regularly with Jalen Hurts about the offense and certain plays, and had some advice on the Brown situation.
“People always ask, ‘Hey, why did Marvin Harrison never complain about not getting the ball?’ Because I always threw him the ball!” Manning said.
“I would tell A.J. the grass isn’t always greener on the other side,” Manning added, pointing out he’ll play in some big games over the next few months if he remains in Philly.
“There’s only one ball,” Manning said. “He’s not going to have 10 catches for 160 every single week, but if he just stays in there, I can promise you good things are coming.”
NFC standings: Eagles pad their lead heading into bye week
Jordan Mailata jogs to the vintage Eagles logo at the Linc ahead of Sunday’s game.
The Eagles (6-2) padded their lead in the NFC East Sunday, defeating the Giants (2-6) at the Linc and watching the Dallas Cowboys (3-4-1) get blown out by the Denver Broncos.
The Birds head into their bye week two and a half games up on the Cowboys. The Washington Commanders (3-4) play Monday night against the Kansas City Chiefs (4-3).
NFC East standings
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It remains crowded at the top of the NFC, with seven teams with five or more wins.
The Green Bay Packers (5-1-1) remained in first place, thanks to their win against the Pittsburgh Steelers (4-3) on Sunday Night Football. The Eagles (6-2) head into their bye in second place, and will play the Packers in Week 10 on Monday Night Football on Nov. 10.
The Birds are one of two NFC teams with a 6-2 record, but hold the tiebreaker against the Buccaneers (6-2) thanks to the Eagles’ Week 4 win.
NFC standings
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Jordan Davis stands during the national anthem before Sunday’s game.
Next week is the Eagles’ bye, and when the Birds come back they’ll play five straight national games — three in prime time, one in the late afternoon window on Fox, and one on Black Friday.
They won’t have another 1 p.m. kickoff until Week 15, when they host the Las Vegas Raiders at the Linc on Dec. 14. That could also be their last, with two games against the Washington Commanders yet to be scheduled.
In Week 16, the Birds will play the Commanders on Saturday, Dec. 20, which will be either a 4:30 p.m. or an 8 p.m. kickoff. They’ll also face the Commanders in Week 18, a game that could be elevated to late afternoon or even prime time, depending on what’s at stake.
So why did the NFL lump the Eagles’ two Commanders games into a three-week span at the end of the season? Onnie Bose, the NFL’s vice president of broadcasting (and a Lower Merion High School grad), said the league tries to schedule as many divisional games late in the season as possible, and it just rolled out this way for the Eagles.
“Division games late in the season matter,” Bose told The Inquirer in May. “Playing a team in the division twice in three weeks might feel like a lot, but it does happen.”
The remaining schedule also means it’s not likely you’ll see the Eagles flexed into Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football this season, unless the Raiders somehow become a compelling story over the next eight weeks.
Gilbert Rolle Jr. and his youth basketball team gathered in Freeport, the Bahamas, on Wednesday, the night before traveling to the nearby Abaco Islands for a tournament.
They were all locked in on a front-room television showing the 76ers’ season opener at the Boston Celtics, where one of their own was making his much-anticipated NBA debut.
It felt like a full-circle moment for Rolle, because the last time he traveled to this tournament, a seventh-grade VJ Edgecombe was with him. Now, there were outbursts of cheers whenever Edgecombe scored for the Sixers, making it feel like “every shot was a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 … moment,” Rolle said.
Edgecombe’s historic NBA debut — his 34 points were the most in a Sixers rookie’s first game in franchise history, and the most scored in any NBA debut since Wilt Chamberlain’s 43 with the Philadelphia Warriors in 1959 — dazzled those who follow the sport.
But for those with roots on the tiny island of Bimini, who watched Edgecombe grow into this player and man, the pride cannot be overstated.
“It was like, ‘Wow, it was just so inspiring,’” said Rolle, a coach and principal at Gateway Christian Academy. “Because this isn’t somebody we just know. This is somebody who sat in our schools, that we watched him play in the park, walked through the community. We know, know, know, know him. …
“It was so personal, and it was amazing.”
When asked how Edgecombe was ready to make such an instant impact at basketball’s highest level, Rolle and others reached by The Inquirer by phone pointed to the 20-year-old’s maturity and confidence. Those qualities were shaped by Edgecombe’s childhood circumstances, when his family spent time living with a generator for power in their home. And on the basketball court, he played against older kids.
In every way, Rolle said, Edgecombe was “always a notch above his age.”
Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe passes against the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Leano Rolle saw this in Edgecombe from the beginning. They are such close friends that they consider themselves cousins or brothers. As kids, they started playing basketball together barefoot on a neighborhood dirt lot, with a makeshift hoop made of a crate and two-by-fours.
When Edgecombe went through his pre-draft process earlier this year, Leano Rolle was still by his side. The night before Edgecombe was selected third overall by the Sixers, tears of disbelief and joy fell from the corners of Leano Rolle’s eyes as he stared at the ceiling while lying in a New York City bed.
“I texted [Edgecombe] and told him how proud of him I was,” Leano Rolle said. “It was so amazing because, where we’re from, you wouldn’t expect nothing to happen like that.”
But the younger Rolle is chasing his own basketball dreams at Southwest Mississippi Community College, and Wednesday’s practice overlapped with the start of the Sixers-Celtics game.
When a team manager alerted Rolle that Edgecombe had 14 first-quarter points, he was in shock. He kept checking his phone for box scores and Instagram dunk highlights as he moved from practice to a mandatory pep rally, convinced that Edgecombe was about to get 50 points.
When Rolle finally returned to his room, Edgecombe called him and their other best friend for a postgame chat.
“Just talking and laughing and telling him how he did,” Rolle said. “Letting him know he went out there and did well, and did what he was supposed to do.”
Also watching that night was LJ Rose, the general manager of the Bahamian national team. He did not realize that Edgecombe took 25 shots against the Celtics, because “he was just flowing.”
Rose, who is also the general manager of the University of Miami’s men’s basketball team, remembers first learning about Edgecombe from a local media member named John Nutt. Nutt persuaded Buddy Hield, the fellow NBA Bahamian and former Sixer, to invite a young Edgecombe to his basketball camp.
“He held his own,” Rose said of Edgecombe. “And ever since then, he’s kind of been on the radar.”
Sixers center Joel Embiid fires a pass to VJ Edgecombe on Saturday.
That buzz only grew when Edgecombe joined the senior national team for an Olympic qualifying tournament last summer. He played alongside NBA players Hield, current Sixer Eric Gordon, and Deandre Ayton, the first time Edgecombe had been surrounded by teammates with more credentials and experience.
Still, Edgecombe “showed up Day 1 and he asserted himself,” Rose said, a testament to Edgecombe’s “everyday” work ethic and temperament. Rose went back to the Houston Rockets, where he was an international scout at the time, and told general manager Rafael Stone, “Hey, we have one.”
“He did not get rattled when he got overseas,” Rose said. “And it was a new environment. Some adversity was coming, but he just kind of kept on plugging away. And I think that just goes back to, it’s the everyday. His consistent grind and just coming from where he’s come from.”
Even during this dramatic life transition to the NBA, Edgecombe has remained connected to those Bimini roots.
Leano Rolle is planning to visit Edgecombe in Philly for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Gilbert Rolle texts Edgecombe at least once per week and said any impromptu phone call would be answered with a, “Hey, what’s up?”
When asked late Saturday — after totaling 15 points, eight assists, and six rebounds in the Sixers’ comeback win over the Charlotte Hornets — about the support he has felt from back home in recent days, a grinning Edgecombe said, “Yeah … I’ve heard from a lot of people.”
Because Edgecombe is still the “humble spirit” that Gilbert Rolle watched cry “as if somebody died” after losing in that Abaco Islands tournament as a seventh grader. To Rolle, that visceral reaction cemented how seriously Edgecombe took the sport.
“He’s not only talented, but he worked for this and he wanted this,” Rolle said. “This was something that he put his mind to do. And every opportunity he had, he went and got up extra shots. Any opportunity he had to get better in his game.
“To see him crying from losing a game, to on TV playing and breaking records, I’m like, ‘He deserves this.’”
And now, Gilbert Rolle has direct evidence of Edgecombe’s hard work to pass along to his current crop of young players. That is one component of the Edgecombe chatter that spread throughout the Bahamas into the weekend, as those close to the rookie revel in his instant success.
And if Edgecombe continues this torrid start to his NBA career?
“The people back home are ready to name the island after him one day,” Leano Rolle said. “That’s VJ Island.”
Joel Embiid has played alongside All-Stars and future Hall of Famers as a 76er.
So the 2023 MVP and seven-time All-Star has become a good talent evaluator during his decade-plus with the franchise. And he knows that rookie guard VJ Edgecombe has a chance to be a special player.
“Whether shots are going in or not, [he] always plays the right way, makes the right plays,” Embiid added. “I think tonight he had eight assists, so letting the game come to him. In Boston, he made shots; he attacked. I thought tonight, he was a little shy — not shy, but he wasn’t attacking enough. He’s just got to keep going.
“He’s got space. Attack. He’s way too athletic for someone to be in front of him. Then, once he jumps, you’ve got no chance.”
Sixers guard VJ Edgecombe finished with 15 points on 6-for-15 shooting against the Hornets. He also had six rebounds and a team-high three steals to go with his eight assists.
Edgecombe finished with 15 points on 6-for-15 shooting. He also had six rebounds and a team-high three steals to go with his eight assists.
While impressive, his scoring was a drop-off from the 34 points scored Wednesday in a season-opening 117-116 victory over the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. The performance placed him in the same rarified air as Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain and future Hall of Famer LeBron James.
It was the third-highest scoring debut in NBA history behind Chamberlain’s 43 points on Oct. 24, 1959, and Frank Selvy’s 35 on Nov. 30, 1954. Edgecombe’s 14 first-quarter points set a record for the most in the opening period of an NBA debut, surpassing James’ 12 points on Oct. 29, 2003.
But to Edgecombe’s credit, Saturday’s decreased scoring output had a lot to do with not forcing anything while Embiid had the hot hand. The 7-foot-2, 280-pounder scored five of the Sixers’ first seven points and nine of the first 18. He finished with 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting in 20 minutes, 7 seconds. Embiid played only the first 4:58 of the second half because he was on a minutes restriction.
Sixers guard VJ Edgecombe lays up the basketball for two of his 15 points against the Hornets.
“You’ve got to keep being aggressive, but also letting the game come to you,” Embiid said. “And that’s what he did tonight. Every night, I said it after the first game, every night — it might be Tyrese [Maxey]. It might be me. It might be him. It might be someone else, but you’ve still got to play the right way.
“Some nights, you’re not going to score. How else are you going to contribute? He’s doing it defensively and sharing the ball.”
Milestone for Nurse
Friday’s victory marked Nick Nurse’s 300th win as an NBA coach. In 556 regular-season games, the 58-year-old has a 300-256 record in eight seasons with the Sixers and Toronto Raptors.
Nurse went 227-163 with one NBA title during five seasons with the Raptors. He’s 73-93 since being hired by the Sixers on June 1, 2023.
Up next
The Sixers (2-0) will entertain the Orlando Magic (1-2) at 7 p.m. Monday at Xfinity Mobile Arena. After facing Orlando, the Sixers will play Tuesday night at the Washington Wizards.
It was just 17 days ago that the Eagles lost for the second straight time, lost to the New York Giants by 17 points at MetLife Stadium, lost in so humiliating a fashion that their All-Pro right tackle called out the play-calling as predictable and their star wide receiver admitted that with more than 11 minutes left in the game he had already resigned himself to defeat. It was bad.
Two seasons before, it had been worse. Two seasons before, the Eagles had lost back-to-back games to the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, and those pathetic performances triggered the kind of midseason change that reveals a franchise’s leadership has started to panic. The defensive coordinator was demoted. A Bill Belichick acolyte was promoted. And what began as a pebble rolling down a hill turned into an avalanche: six losses in seven games, a head coach whose job was in jeopardy, a collapse whose psychological residue remained on this team for a long time.
Maybe, after their 38-20 victory Sunday in their rematch against the Giants, the Eagles can assure everyone that they’ve scraped away the last of that sticky stuff from 2023. Their Super Bowl win in February took care of most of it, but burping up that late lead against the Denver Broncos on Oct. 5 and getting manhandled by Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo four days later brought up all those bad memories again. The Eagles were 4-2 but reeling, still formidable but vulnerable, and it was fair to wonder whether they could straighten themselves out over their two games before their bye week.
They did. They won a challenging road game against the Minnesota Vikings, then handled an inferior opponent Sunday. Now they enter their 15-day break with a 6-2 record, with a stranglehold on the NFC East, and — despite several injuries to key players, despite the ever-present mist of controversy around A.J. Brown — without the worry that their season was spiraling out of control.
“I don’t think from an inside perspective there was ever any like, ‘Oh man, this is like ’23,’” coach Nick Sirianni said. “You know what I mean? But were there lessons learned in ’23? Absolutely. We continue to try to learn lessons from ’24 and ’25.
“I always like our process off of a bye week and during a bye week. That’s my job as a coach. We’ve still got a lot of things to fix and clean up, but that’s what this week will be about: the players resting, looking at stuff themselves, and then us really grinding it out this week to put ourselves in a position to move on through the rest of the season.”
It would be easy to argue that the Eagles are mentally tougher now than they were then; that they have a more talented, more cohesive collection of players; that Sirianni is a better head coach with a better coaching staff; that Jalen Hurts is a better quarterback. All those assertions are true, but they can feel intangible and opaque. The explanations for why a team regresses (as the Eagles did late in the 2023 season), improves (as they did in 2024), or stabilizes itself (as they’ve done over their last two games) often come down to the schematic and tactical adjustments that the team tries to make. They come down to concrete changes in the way the team does things.
Take one example that went awry. When the Eagles decided in December ‘23 that they needed a new defensive coordinator, when they replaced Sean Desai with Matt Patricia, they failed to take a vital factor into consideration. Patricia’s defensive scheme was a lot of things, but simple wasn’t one of them, and there was little chance that the players would learn it well enough in time to thrive within it.
“I still remember we used to come in here before games, and he’d have an entire greaseboard — it looked like a 15-foot-long greaseboard — and the entire thing was written up with all the calls,” Eagles center Brett Toth said after Sunday’s game. “And to see that, it’s like, ‘Wow.’ That’s tough on anyone to try to switch to midseason.
“It’s a very hybrid defense. Anything with the Patriots is going to be very complex, high-IQ stuff. To have to learn and install that in the middle of the season, it’s a huge ask. This is chess. Football is 11-man chess.”
Now take another, more recent, more successful example: the Eagles’ use, at long last, of under-center snaps and play-action passes. There’s no getting around the fact that their offense has been more dynamic overall — and their running game back to its old dominant self against the Giants — partially because putting Hurts under center allows Kevin Patullo to call a wider variety of plays. They didn’t have to rewrite the playbook. A new wrinkle was all they needed.
“It’s not necessarily that you stick a guy under the center or you’re playing from the shotgun or you’re in a pistol,” said Hurts, who over his last two games has completed 34 of his 43 passes for 505 yards and seven touchdowns. “It’s about what you’re doing when you’re under center, how we’re leveraging what we do, how we’re leveraging the guys, what spots are we putting guys in when we’re in these different positions. We just want to continue to build off it.”
Seventeen days ago, the idea that the Eagles would be building off anything heading into their bye seemed tenuous at best. The defending champs had staggered. The Giants had embarrassed them. And the memory of that awful ending to 2023 was fresh again. Now? It seems deeper in the distance, and they have a chance to make sure it stays there.
A.J. Brown stood on the sideline with a kelly green hoodie pulled over his head, which was also wrapped in a towel. The Eagles led the New York Giants, 31-13, late in the fourth quarter, despite the absence of their No. 1 wide receiver.
But it wasn’t the passing game, nor Brown’s replacements, that had the offense looking its most efficient this season. It was the resurrection of running back Saquon Barkley and the ground attack that carried the torch.
Eagles receivers other than DeVonta Smith had just one catch for 3 yards by the time quarterback Jalen Hurts dropped back on third-and-6 with just over six minutes remaining. But Hurts went to Jahan Dotson even though he had no separation against man coverage, on the type of jump ball that Brown has mastered the art of catching.
And he’d probably like to see Hurts throw to him more often.
But Dotson was the target on this 50-50 opportunity, and he made the best of it, hauling in the 40-yard heave for a touchdown. Brown, out with a hamstring injury, raised his right arm and pumped his fist. He hung back near the bench reserved for receivers and greeted Dotson with a smile and a handshake after his score.
“It’s tough when you’re missing not only the best receiver on your team, but one of the best receivers in the league,” Dotson said of Brown, who missed his first game of the season. “We have this motto in our room: There’s no drop-off, no matter who goes out there.”
Make no mistake, the Eagles need Brown if they are to make a deep postseason run and repeat as Super Bowl champions. Sunday’s lopsided 38-20 win might suggest otherwise, because a balanced offense scored its most points and gained its most yards.
But the Giants offered the perfect remedy. They had embarrassed the Eagles just 17 days earlier, but a perfect storm of a short turnaround following a choke job to the Denver Broncos, untimely injuries, and an offense still wandering in the identity wasteland contributed to an uncharacteristic loss.
The Eagles should have taken advantage of the Giants’ run defense deficiencies in the first meeting. They got behind, and Hurts and the drop-back passing game couldn’t compensate. But Eagles coaches wanted to establish the run two weeks later, and Barkley’s 65-yard touchdown dash on the second play from scrimmage meant they could stick with it and open the playbook.
A diversity of run calls and directions — and even personnel — helped spring Barkley for 150 rushing yards on 14 carries and reserve Tank Bigsby for 104 yards on just nine carries.
“That’s my all-time favorite way to win,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said during his postgame speech in the home locker room at Lincoln Financial Field.
It was a vintage performance in a Sirianni era full of rushing records. The Eagles’ 276 yards on the ground ranked second in the last five years (behind 363 yards vs. the Green Bay Packers in 2022) and their 8.4 yards per carry were first over that span (ahead of an 8.2 average against the Giants, also in 2022).
Sirianni’s Eagles with Hurts at quarterback are normally at their best when the run offense is humming. He was never going to abandon the cause with Barkley as his bell cow and the offensive line, despite injuries, superior to most.
But Brown’s absence, at least for one week, allowed the Eagles to focus more on getting Barkley back on track. It meant having one less potent mouth to feed in the pass offense, but also one that can be vocal about his hunger.
“Obviously, any time you lose a player like A.J. for a game, it changes some things as far as how you go about putting guys in different positions,” Sirianni said. “But if you have faith in the guys that you have that are backing him up, whether that’s receiver or O-line, you’ve still [got to] go about doing what they can do the best, but also putting them in a position to make plays.”
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts completed 15 of 20 passes for 179 yards and four touchdowns on Sunday against the Giants.
Hurts still dropped back to throw. But Smith was far and away his primary target, catching six of nine passes for 84 yards. Barkley was next with four grabs, with one coming on the oft-neglected screen pass. Tight end Dallas Goedert had three receptions with two resulting in red zone touchdowns.
Overall, Hurts completed 15 of 20 passes for 179 yards and four touchdowns. There were still struggles against pressure and four sacks that appeared to fall on him more than anyone else. But it was a methodical day after an explosive aerial showing against the Minnesota Vikings last week.
“It’s definitely a different rhythm, because you get a flow of playing with A.J. and Smitty and Dallas and you have your crew,” Hurts said, before adding: “But when we are able to run the ball like we did, it creates more of a balance and free will of how we attack people.”
Aside from three victory-formation kneels, and one Tush Push, the run-pass ratio was an equal 50-50. Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo had maybe his best play-calling day, and mixed in variety with Hurts under center, run-pass options, and outside runs on gap schemes.
Offensive linemen Landon Dickerson and Jordan Mailata said the game plan called for more diversity in the running game. Sirianni countered that claim. “That doesn’t mean we haven’t had them in,” he said.
Whatever the case, not getting to them before required patience from Barkley and the O-line after weeks of frustration.
“I think it’s just being professional,” Barkley said of finally breaking loose. “Knowing that every week’s not going to be how you learn to be sometimes, but you can’t lose faith.”
It could be a lesson for Brown, who has expressed his disappointment with the passing offense, both publicly in interviews and cryptically on social media. Few have objected when he has stood in front of microphones and, in so many words, said he wants the ball. He should. He’s one of the best receivers in the NFL.
Even his post on X after the Tampa Bay Bucs game last month — when he quoted Scripture about not being listened to — was understood by many because he and Hurts had mainly failed to hook up in Tampa.
But Brown’s most recent post — “using me but not using me” — after he caught four passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns in Minnesota probably took whatever discontent he may have to uncharted territory within the Eagles organization.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, shown before his team’s win on Sunday, is unlikely to move A.J. Brown ahead of next week’s trade deadline.
He is well-liked in the locker room, by the coaching staff, and the front office. But every player is expendable. The Eagles are unlikely to trade Brown ahead of next Tuesday’s deadline. There’s an astronomical dead-money hit, and Howie Roseman would need blockbuster compensation to even consider it.
The Eagles general manager also isn’t known for trading players in their prime who are crucial to winning titles. Brown may not be pleased with whomever — most likely, Hurts — but it makes little sense for him to want to be moved. At least now.
Hurts, to his credit, went out of his way to praise the receiver several times during his Wednesday news conference last week. But it would behoove the quarterback to make Brown happy on the field and off. His success raises all ships.
“I think the best is yet to come,” Hurts said when asked about Sunday’s run offense explosion.
He sounds like he knows something. Getting Brown more involved would help.
