Immediately following the Eagles’ loss to the San Francisco 49ers, a somber feeling started to take over the Golf Place. Those gathered at the Bucks County golf simulator facility to watch the Eagles while working on their swings began to pack up and go home, and co-owners Justin Hepler and Killian Lennon began to close up shop.
But in a brief moment, an idea was developed to help Birds fans release their anger after a disappointing loss: letting them hit golf balls at offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo’s face — or at least an image of it.
Earlier in the season, some fans broke the law by egging Patullo’s Moorestown home after the Eagles’ Black Friday loss to the Bears. The Golf Place’s idea keeps the flying objects far from the real Patullo, and within legal bounds.
“It was a fun way to let off some steam, but also make it fun for everybody involved,” Hepler, 24, said. “And obviously Killian in the video is a diehard Eagles fan, so he was pretty upset. But, everybody in here has gotten a kick out it.”
The Golf Place, located in Langhorne, has been open for a brief two-and-a-half months but is now getting more attention after the video of Lennon, 29, went viral overnight, accumulating over 200,000 views on social media and over 10,000 likes.
“We knew it had some potential because this was eight minutes after the game ended,” Hepler said. “So we thought it was pretty hilarious.”
So why the face of the first-year coordinator? To them, the answer is simple.
“No one’s happy with the offense this year, obviously,” Hepler said. “I’m sure you can see all the Eagles fans that related to it. You can see all the comments saying, ‘This could have been recorded any month of the year.’ We could have had this for not just a today type of deal.”
The Eagles offense took a major step back under first-year coordinator Kevin Patullo.
As of Monday afternoon, one person had already entered the store asking to take them up on their offer of hitting golf balls at Patullo. They said all fans are welcomed to request the same thing.
And although Hepler isn’t an Eagles fan, he knows there’s a glaring change that needs to be made by the team this offseason.
“Fire Patullo,” Hepler said. “That’s the answer for them. I mean, that’s what everyone says. That’s what Killian’s first response was, and I think that’s the overall message.”
The Eagles’ road to repeating as Super Bowl champions ended abruptly Sunday with a 23-19 loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Lincoln Financial Field. Following their early exit in the playoffs, most of the national discussion centered around who’s to blame and potential offseason changes surrounding the Eagles coaching staff — and A.J. Brown, after his sideline spat with Nick Sirianni and several key drops.
Here’s what they’re saying about the Birds following their wild-card loss to the Niners …
‘That was a total embarrassment’
The Eagles offense came up short — again — continuing the theme of this year’s inconsistent unit. Despite a strong first-half performance, Kevin Patullo’s group was more conservative in the second half and mustered just a pair of Jake Elliott field goals.
The regression of the Birds offense has been a main topic of discussion throughout the season. So, for ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky, it wasn’t surprising to see the team’s downfall on Sunday night.
“That was a total embarrassment from Philly, offensively,” Orlovsky said Monday on Get Up. “And we all saw it coming. We talked about it all season long. The fact that they didn’t see it coming is concerning. Yes, there’s going to be changes. But, Howie Roseman, their general manager, has got to be sitting back going, ‘Wait, wait, wait, wait, this is a roster that I put together that should no question have contended for another Super Bowl.’ …
“We all saw this embarrassing performance coming and it still happened. And it was allowed to happen.”
On X, Orlovsky, a former NFL quarterback, also broke down the Eagles’ final drive Sunday night, posting the video with a one-word caption: “Ugly.”
To former NFL quarterback Cam Newton, Sunday’s performance revealed all the flaws the Birds “tried to mask” throughout the season.
“The Philadelphia Eagles were who we thought they were,” said Newton on First Take. “And yesterday’s performance was a microcosm of that. We’ve seen insufficient play. We’ve seen ups and downs and the downs and the ups. … What we’ve seen is nothing new. They tried to mask it. They tried to put lip balm. They tried to put eyeliner. They tried to put mascara on it and they tried to challenge the status quo of you’ve been doing this all year.”
Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown can’t pull in a deep pass from Jalen Hurts during the second quarter. He dropped several passes in the loss.
Will the Eagles trade A.J. Brown?
The most action Brown saw all night was when the broadcast caught Nick Sirianni yelling at him on the sideline. The receiver recorded three receptions for 25 yards; he missed a potentially big first-half reception and had a costly third-down drop later in the game. After the loss, Brown didn’t speak to media.
Former tight end Shannon Sharpe believes it’s time for the Eagles to move on.
“Me, personally, I think it’s the best if the Eagles just go their separate ways,” Sharpe told Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson on the Nightcap podcast. “He needs to go somewhere where he feels like he’s going to get — he’s looking at it, Ocho, like I need to be getting the Puka Nacua type targets.”
Former NFL safety Ryan Clark also believes Brown won’t be in Philly next season.
“A.J. Brown is getting traded,” Clark said on ESPN’s First Take. “He wants out and they need to want him out. That relationship is over. That relationship is done and part of it is the Philadelphia Eagles, but a lot of it is on A.J. Brown. … A.J. Brown this year was more problems than he was worth.”
If the Eagles do move on from Brown, however, it might not happen until later in the year. According to Spotrac, trading him before June 1 would cost the Birds a fortune.
“If the Eagles were to bite the bullet and trade Brown early this offseason,” Michael Ginnitti writes, “they’d be taking on the 4th largest single season dead cap hit in NFL history (and making a heck of a lot more financial trouble for themselves as well).”
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles scored a pair of touchdowns in the first half, but settled for just two field goals in the second.
‘Jalen Hurts is holding them back’
Although most of the finger pointing has been directed at Patullo, former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy said a lot of the Eagles offensive struggles could be because of the team’s starting quarterback, Jalen Hurts.
“Jalen Hurts, I need you to be special, make plays,” McCoy said on The Speakeasy show. “I did a lot of digging, man, and I won’t throw them under the bus here. But I know some people, right. And the problem is, we can’t do different exotic looks, different formations, different motions because I’m hearing that [Hurts] can’t really do it. So, we get to a game like this, we got to have it. We’re playing against the Niners. They’re with their second unit. …
“I look at the quarterback, like, if we have all these special players, Hall of Fame-type running back, Hall of Fame-type wide receiver, top three dual wide receivers with A.J. [Brown] and [DeVonta Smith] and a really solid tight end with Dallas [Goedert] and we can’t move the ball? … We got to make some big decisions next year.”
"Jalen Hurts, I need you to be special…If Brock Purdy had [the Eagles] weapons, we win this game by at least ten points…"
– @CutonDime25 CLEARLY upset about his Eagles losing to the 49ers
“They certainly could be more creative on the offensive side and we know that. But, Jalen Hurts is holding them back in that department,” Chris Simms, a longtime Hurts detractor, said on Pro Football Talk Live. “I know these things. He doesn’t want the offense expanded, to a degree. So, that kind of handcuffs them a little bit.
“And then, when you’re an offense, you can’t go to do advanced geometry when you brought up a minute ago that you can watch the film and go here’s a basic play and the guy’s open and he doesn’t throw it. That doesn’t give the coaches the confidence to go, ‘Let’s go deeper into the playbook.’”
Nick Sirianni lost a home playoff game for the first time Sunday.
‘There’s enough blame for everybody’
Former Eagles linebacker Seth Joyner believes Sunday’s loss was a team effort.
“There’s enough blame for everybody,” he said on The Seth Joyner Show. “Wide receivers dropping balls, not catching balls, not giving maximum effort. Players on the defensive side standing around not necessarily ready. … They got out-coached, out-played, and they got out-willed today.”
The Eagles got out-coached, out-played, and out-willed today…
However, another former Eagles linebacker, Emmanuel Acho, narrowed it down to three individuals he would like to blame for the loss — and perhaps there’s no surprise that it’s Brown, Patullo, and Hurts.
“A.J. Brown given how talented you are and how much dust you kicked up throughout the course of the season, you have to show up in the biggest moments,” Acho on The Speakeasy talk show. “So, A.J, first person I’m looking at is you because you’re capable. Second person I’m looking at is Kevin Patullo.
“And then lastly, Jalen Hurts. I just need you to be more special. … So, really if I’m going to look at three people: A.J. Brown, got to look at you in the eye. Kevin Patullo, got to look at you in the eye. Jalen Hurts, got to look at you in the eye. Those are the three people that start with the blame.”
"The Eagles offense was INCOMPETENT!"
– @EmmanuelAcho DESTROYS the Philadelphia Eagles following their loss to the San Francisco 49ers
The Phillies are preparing to turn over the keys to center field in 2026 to prospect Justin Crawford. After working with Crawford last season, triple-A Lehigh Valley hitting coach Adam Lind sits down with “Phillies Extra” to discuss the touted 22-year-old’s readiness for the majors, as well as other prominent players in the Phillies organization. Watch here.
Free agent Jaelen Phillips hopes to return to Eagles
Eagles linebacker Jaelan Phillips, left, was acquired by Howie Roseman at the trade deadline.
Like Nakobe Dean, Jaelan Phillips is hitting free agency for the first time.
Unlike with Dean, the Eagles don’t have a clear answer to slot in for Phillips if he were to depart for another team, making Phillips a much more likely candidate to return to the Eagles.
Phillips made an immediate impact after the Eagles acquired him before the trade deadline from Miami for a third-round pick. He tallied 44 pressures and two sacks in nine games, including Sunday’s playoff game, according to Pro Football Focus, while playing 78% of the defensive snaps. That’s a lot of production to try to replace.
Phillips is one of five free-agent edge rushers. The Eagles have just two edge rushers under contract for 2026: Jalyx Hunt and Nolan Smith. The draft will be a place the Eagles likely look to add talent to the room, but they could use a top-end talent like Phillips at the top of the depth chart.
Phillips, 26, said he felt like he fit in well with the defense. He had familiarity with Vic Fangio from their time in Miami together. Phillips is excited for his future, he said, and for his first experience with free agency.
“I would love to have that future be here,” he said. “It’s up to my agent and ultimately up to me, too. This is my first experience with it, so I’m not really sure how it plays out. We’ll see.”
Phillips said he has a child on the way and his family’s future will be a consideration in free agency, but the other things he wants he already has in Philadelphia.
“I want to be on a competitive team and in an environment where I love the guys I’m around and love the organization I’m playing for,” he said. “I feel that here. So we’ll see.”
A.J. Brown hasn’t spoken with reporters in more than a month.
Reporters spent more than an hour inside the Eagles’ locker room at the NovaCare Complex Monday afternoon before the Eagles closed the doors to media for the day.
During that span, A.J. Brown was not seen in the room. His locker hadn’t yet been cleaned out, but Brown was not going to be made available to talk to reporters. He declined to be interviewed after the game on Sunday and left the locker room shortly after it opened to media.
It was an interesting year for Brown with the Eagles. The receiver wasn’t shy about his feelings on the direction of the offense, especially early in the season. He expressed himself both in the forms of cryptic social media posts and post-game interviews, like when he pleaded for the Eagles to “let their killers do their thing” after a Week 3 win over the Rams.
Brown finished the season with 78 catches for 1,003 yards and seven touchdowns.
What happens next with Brown will certainly be the subject of much speculation in the coming days and weeks and even months. Brown remains under contract through the 2029 season and has $113 million remaining on his deal. Trading him would be costly for the Eagles, who would be on the hook for $43.5 million in dead cap if they traded him before June 1, according to Spotrac.
Waiting until after June 1 would free up $7 million in cap space. But any trade of Brown would have the Eagles taking on the fourth-largest single-season dead cap hit in NFL history, according to Spotrac.
Brown’s relationship with Jalen Hurts also has been the subject of speculation.
“A.J. and I will talk,” Hurts said Monday. “We’re in a good, great place. Maybe y’all can talk to him and ask.”
Jalen Hurts is ready if Eagles change offensive coordinators (again)
Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo is Jalen Hurts’ fourth offensive coordinator in the last four years.
Jalen Hurts is no stranger to change. He has had six different offensive play-callers in his NFL career, including Doug Pederson, Nick Sirianni, Shane Steichen, Brian Johnson, Kellen Moore, and now Kevin Patullo. In the aftermath of Johnson’s 2024 firing, Hurts said that he longed for continuity at the position.
But he acknowledged on Monday that he has embraced the revolving door of offensive coordinators and translated those changes into postseason appearances. After all, the Eagles won a Super Bowl in Moore’s lone year as the offensive coordinator.
“The changes have not prevented us from having an opportunity to go on championship runs, and so with all the changes and with all the things that have gone and have changed over time, we still found ourselves in the playoffs, and we still found ourselves in positions to be in the tournament and play in the tournament,” Hurts said. “I don’t like the trend of wild-card [loss], big-time [Super Bowl appearance], wild-card [loss], big-time [Super Bowl win], and wild-card [loss]. […] So competitively as a quarterback, as a leader, that’s a big focus of mine, trying to break that.”
Hurts will look to break that cycle next season, when he embarks upon his sixth year as the full-time starting quarterback. Given his track record and his importance to the team, he said he has a degree of influence in important matters concerning the offense.
“I think overall, my line is always open, and so however involved or whatever level inquiry I am, I’ll definitely be available,” Hurts said.
Jordan Mailata expects Lane Johnson to be back next season
Jordan Mailata said he is expecting Lane Johnson, who missed the last eight games with a foot injury, to be back next season. He added, “Whatever happens, happens.”
Mailata shed a little light on what Johnson was like behind the scenes the last couple months:
“Ultimate pro. I think what upsets him the most — I don’t want to put words in his mouth — but he does everything he can to be available. But it’s not even when he’s hurt. It’s just even when he’s starting, his routine is so meticulous. Every minute is planned out, from the moment he wakes up to the minute he goes to bed. And so I think, for him, it irks him a little more, you know?
“He’s just done a fantastic job of being there for us, even when he wasn’t playing, just being supportive of especially me and Fred [Johnson]. … He’s concerned about what Fred and I are doing, the timing of our hands, our set lines, what we’re thinking on first and second down. Are we more aggressive? Or he’ll watch something on film. He was still watching film for us. And he’ll come, like, ‘Hey, I saw that this guy, second step, he likes to do a little shake and bake inside. So that experience that we get from him being a total pro is very invaluable. And I’m gonna thank him for that.”
Eagles safeties Drew Mukuba and Sydney Brown chase down Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens.
Rookie safety Drew Mukuba was in the locker room Monday sporting a walking boot on his right foot. Mukuba fractured his fibula near the end of the Eagles’ Week 12 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Mukuba said he should be out of the boot soon but did not have a firm timeline on the next steps in his recovery. He’s hoping to be ready for spring workouts, but said “late summer” was also a possibility.
“I’m walking, so I can’t complain,” he said.
He had a lot to complain about early after the injury. He couldn’t walk and had trouble getting comfortable, which led to some sleepless nights.
Mukuba said “I wasn’t where I needed to be” when the season first started, but he was more comfortable as the season wore on.
“I feel like I kind of got over the hump after the first time we played the Giants,” Mukuba said. “Once I got over that, I feel like I was just stacking days.
“I hate that [the injury] happened, but that’s the game and I can’t control it.”
Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean came on strong after missing the first five games of the season.
Nakobe Dean feels like questions about his durability have been hanging over his head like a “black cloud” since the 2022 NFL draft.
The linebacker out of Georgia, drafted 83rd overall by the Eagles that year, played 39 of a possible 39 college games, but concerns about a pectoral injury he suffered while training helped cause his slide on draft weekend.
“The two injuries didn’t help me, but you got guys going through free agency who didn’t play this year who have had multiple injuries,” Dean said Monday as the Eagles cleaned out their lockers a day after their 23-19 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. “It’s just a looming thing over me.”
That is what Dean is carrying with him into free agency, a recent injury history that will likely impact his market. A Lisfranc injury that required surgery cut his 2023 season short after five games. Then, Dean suffered a torn left patellar tendon injury in the first round of the playoffs last year. The injury and rehabilitation caused him to miss the first five games of this season.
Dean, to his credit, looked like he didn’t miss a beat. He supplanted rookie Jihaad Campbell in the starting lineup by Week 8 and provided a big boost to the Eagles’ defense. He became one of the most productive blitzing linebackers this season and was solid in coverage. He had four sacks in 10 regular season games after having three sacks in 15 games last season.
But Dean’s future with the Eagles is unclear. Campbell was drafted in the first round last season and played well before Dean returned. The Eagles said they liked Campbell’s versatility to play both linebacker and line up at edge rusher when they drafted him, but he spent most of the season and played his best as an off-ball linebacker. In theory, there would be room to bring Dean back if Campbell was going to transition to the edge full time, but that doesn’t necessarily seem like the most likely path forward, and it remains to be seen what kind of value Dean may be able to find on the open market.
The Eagles, who have more than $20 million in cap space for 2026, have decisions to make.
An Eagles fan hits a golf ball at an image of Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo at The Golf Place in Langhorne.
Immediately following the Eagles’ loss to the San Francisco 49ers, a somber feeling started to take over The Golf Place. Those gathered at the Bucks County golf simulator facility to watch the Eagles while working on their swings began to pack up and go home, and co-owners Justin Hepler and Killian Lennon began to close up shop.
But in a brief moment, an idea was developed to help Birds fans release their anger after a disappointing loss: letting them hit golf balls at offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo’s face — or at least an image of it.
Earlier in the season, some fans broke the law by egging Patullo’s Moorestown home after the Eagles’ Black Friday loss to the Bears. The Golf Place’s idea keeps the flying objects far from the real Patullo, and within legal bounds.
“It was a fun way to let off some steam, but also make it fun for everybody involved,” Hepler, 24, said. “And obviously Killian in the video is a diehard Eagles fan, so he was pretty upset. But, everybody in here has gotten a kick out it.”
Andrew Mukuba hopes to be back in time for spring workouts
#Eagles S Andrew Mukuba said he should be out of the boot soon after fracturing his fibula. Said he wouldn’t have been ready if the team reached the Super Bowl.
Questions surround the future of wide receiver A.J. Brown.
The most action wide receiver A.J. Brown saw Sunday night was when the broadcast caught Nick Sirianni yelling at him on the sideline.
The receiver recorded just three receptions for 25 yards; he missed a potentially big first-half reception and had a costly third-down drop later in the game. After the loss, Brown didn’t speak to media.
A pair of former NFL pass catchers — tight end Shannon Sharpe and wide receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson — believe it’s time for the Eagles to move on.
“Me, personally, I think it’s the best if the Eagles just go their separate ways,” Sharpe said on the Nightcap podcast. “He needs to go somewhere where he feels like he’s going to get — he’s looking at it, Ocho, like I need to be getting the Puka Nacua type targets.”
Former NFL safety Ryan Clark also believes Brown won’t be in Philly next season.
“A.J. Brown is getting traded,” Clark said on First Take Monday. “He wants out and they need to want him out. That relationship is over. That relationship is done and part of it is the Philadelphia Eagles, but a lot of it is on A.J. Brown. … A.J. Brown this year was more problems than he was worth.”
Trading Brown away will be tough due to his contract. According to Sportrac, the Eagles would take a $20 million cap hit if they traded Brown ahead of April’s draft and before June 1.
“If the Eagles were to bite the bullet and trade Brown early this offseason, they’d be taking on the 4th largest single season dead cap hit in NFL history (and making a heck of a lot more financial trouble for themselves as well),” Sportrac’s Michael Ginnitti wrote.
Jordan Davis on pending free agent Nakobe Dean: "I know he's going to be a great player for somebody, whether that's here or not." pic.twitter.com/GvZZRDhSNr
Which personnel groups will the Eagles target for upgrades?
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has a lot of work to do this offseason.
Where to begin? The Eagles still have a pretty solid roster, but they do have some flaws and are set to have a few holes.
They have no tight ends. They have no obvious answer yet for a Lane Johnson replacement. How long is Landon Dickerson going to hold up? They went heavy at offensive line toward the end of the draft last season, but they could very soon need top-end talent.
They are in the market for wide receiver help regardless of where the A.J. Brown saga leads them. They need edge rushers. They need cornerbacks. They might need a kicker.
A high-impact edge rusher, like Jaelan Phillips, should be high on the list of most important personnel groups to upgrade the talent level, and it will be interesting to see how the Eagles go about addressing tight end. They will obviously sign a few in free agency and could draft one. Could Dallas Goedert return?
There are a lot of unanswered questions right now. It’s that time of year.
The Johnson replacement is a tricky one, too. He is still very good when he’s on the field, but the clock is ticking. Just like it is for Dickerson, who has had multiple surgeries and has played through plenty of pain.
The one word Eagles players kept repeating after Sunday’s loss
Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith walks off after losing to the 49ers Sunday.
The word that the Eagles kept repeating in the locker room after Sunday night’s loss was “execution.” The players should have executed better all season. “If there are multiple players saying that,” Jordan Mailata said, “why don’t you believe us?” Here’s why …
All elite athletes think this way: “It doesn’t matter what the coach calls. It doesn’t matter if my opponent knows what’s coming. If I do exactly what I’m supposed to do exactly when I’m supposed to do it, nothing can stop me, and nothing can stop us.”
Sounds great.
In reality, when everyone in the stadium knows you’re likely to call a particular play in a particular situation, you had better be perfect in every aspect of that sequence. But when you catch an opponent off guard, your execution can be less than ideal, and you’ll still succeed.
Look at the double-wing reverse pass that Kyle Shanahan called on the first play of the 4th quarter. He made the Eagles defense look like a bunch of suckers. Christian McCaffrey didn’t have a defender within 5 yards of him.
ESPN Adam Schefter: Eagles expected to replace Kevin Patullo
Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo ahead of Sunday’s wild-card game.
Speaking on ESPN’s Get Up Monday morning, NFL insider Adam Schefter said he expects the Eagles will replace offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo in at attempt to jump start the Birds’ lackluster offense.
“I think we start with the assistant coaches on the offensive side of the ball,” Schefter said. “So you’re looking at a new offense coordinator next year, that’s the expectation there across the league.”
“They’re going to go through some changes. I think it starts with the coaching staff on the offensive side,” Schefter added. “Question is how soon those changes will happen. Is it today or is it tomorrow?”
“Maybe Sirianni has built up enough clout to hold off Lurie/Roseman,” McLane wrote. “But precedent suggests the Eagles will move fast, and that they already have possible replacements lined up.”
Eagles have among the easiest strength of schedules in 2026
The long wait until next season begins for Eagles fans.
Despite facing the every team in the NFC West, the Eagles have one of the easiest schedules next season.
The collective winning percentage of the Eagles’ 17 2026 opponents in 2025 was 0.481, the tenth-weakest schedule in the NFL next season. The Chicago Bears have the toughest strength of schedule, facing teams with a 0.550 winning percentage.
That’s on paper, of course. As the New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars showed, a lot can change from one season to the next.
The Birds will face a total of eight playoff teams, six of which are still alive in this year’s playoffs: San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Houston Texans, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Chicago Bears.
Despite finishing in first place in the NFC East, the Eagles’ two first-place opponents next season are teams that barely made the playoffs – the Carolina Panthers (7-9) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (10-7).
The Birds are scheduled to play nine home games next season, which increases the likelihood we’ll see the Eagles in an international game. That could include a return to Brazil or hosting a game in Munich, Mexico City, or London.
Home games: Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders, New York Giants, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Carolina Panthers, Pittsburgh Steelers
Away games: Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders, New York Giants, San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Chicago Bears
Eagles cornerback Quinton Mitchell speaks to reporters at his locker Monday.
Eagles fans will get to see the players one final time before the skip town for the NFL offseason.
Birds players have begun to clear out their lockers and speak to reporters.
The Eagles are also required to hold a season-ending news conference at some point this week, which could include head coach Nick Sirianni, general manager Howie Roseman, or both. The Eagles have yet to announce when that will happen.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman at Sunday’s wild-card game.
The Eagles and their forward-looking fans will learn tonight where the Birds are picking in the draft order.
If the Steelers beat the Texans, the Eagles will pick 22nd. If the Texans beat the Steelers, the Eagles will pick 23rd (the Texans had a better regular season record than the Eagles).
It remains to be seen what position groups make the most sense for the Eagles to target. Free agency happens before the draft, of course. But the Eagles will be in the market for offensive line help as well as at edge rusher and potentially wide receiver (among others).
As of now, here are the Eagles’ picks in the 2026 draft, which will take place in Pittsburgh beginning April 23.
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3 (from the New York Jets in the Haason Reddick trade)
According to the NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, Graham said his 37-year-old body “responded well and he felt he was just getting into a groove down the stretch.”
Despite being on the field for just seven defensive plays (12% of the snaps), Graham still made his presence felt Sunday, mostly by trash-talking the entire 49ers team, including former Birds defender Bryce Huff.
Brandon Graham talking trash to all the Niners as they head to the locker room. He REALLY gave Bryce Huff the business. BG and Trent Williams shared a big hug. pic.twitter.com/cf9dDx7Gvl
Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo is under fire following this season’s offensive struggles.
Kevin Patullo is as good as done. A.J. Brown’s future is murkier.
But whatever happens to the offensive coordinator and the team’s top receiver, some form of significant change is coming to the Eagles offense after a season of frustration ended fittingly with another bipolar performance on Sunday.
Patullo will be the easiest to cut off, not because he was solely responsible for the regression or even for the substandard play calling that doomed the Eagles in their 23-19 loss to the 49ers in the playoffs, just as it had throughout most of the 2025 regular season.
Most players, including tackle Jordan Mailata, publicly supported the first-year coordinator on Sunday. They pointed the finger at themselves and their execution, or lack thereof. But the powers-that-be, as Mailata noted, can’t just wipe out the bulk of the highest-paid offense in the NFL.
“It’s easier to blame somebody who gets paid less than your starting people, right?” Mailata said. “And everybody knows that. Everyone in this [bleeping] locker room — even you [reporters] know that. But the story makes better sense if we’re pointing to somebody else than not the players.”
Brown might seem the logical piece to move considering how his drops against San Francisco seemed indicative of an apathetic season by his standards. General manager Howie Roseman isn’t normally fond of trading Hall of Fame talent, and Brown’s contract may make it difficult to move the 28-year old.
But the Eagles will need to find ways to clear salary cap space with salaries for quarterback Jalen Hurts and others on offense increasing and young homegrown players on defense, including defensive tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, slated for extensions.
Mike McDaniel was fired by the Dolphins after four seasons.
Lots of Eagles fans are calling on the team to replace offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo with recently-fired Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel. But he may have a better job soon.
McDaniel is scheduled to interview with four teams about their head coaching vacancies, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero – the Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons, Tennessee Titans, and Baltimore Ravens.
He’ll also sit down for an interview with the Detroit Lions about their vacant offensive coordinator position,” Pelissero reported.
McDaniel spent the past four seasons as the Dolphins’ head coach, and prior to that he was Kyle Shanahan’s offensive coordinator and run game coordinator in San Francisco.
Drake Maye won Sunday night in his playoff debut with the Patriots.
With one wild-card game left to play – tonight’s matchup between the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers (8 p.m., ESPN/ABC) – the NFL announced part of next weekend’s divisional round playoff schedule.
While we know which teams will play which days, the NFL is waiting to announce the times and networks. Saturday’s games will take place at 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern, while Sunday’s game will happen at 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Here’s what we know about the divisional round’s schedule:
Saturday
No. 6 Bills at No. 1 Broncos
No. 6 49ers at No. 1 Seahawks
Sunday
No. 5 Rams at No. 2 Bears
No. 5 Texans or No. 4 Steelers at No. 2 Patriots
Full 2025 NFL playoff schedule
Wild-card round: Saturday, Jan. 10, to Monday, Jan. 12
Divisional round: Saturday, Jan. 17, to Sunday, Jan. 18
“I just don’t think you can expect everyone to be super balanced and chill,” Brady said. “You’re a warrior, you’re a gladiator down on the field. Emotions are running high every single play.”
Fox NFL analyst and Hall of Famer Michael Strahan had a different perspective on the exchange.
“I don’t understand why Sirianni is running down there yelling at one of his star players,” Strahan said at halftime. “I don’t think that brings out the best in your player… In my opinion as a player, I wouldn’t have taken very well from my coach on the sideline.”
‘Just too basic’: Eagles’ final play draws criticism
In a season where the Eagles’ offense left a lot to be desired, the offense’s final play of the season is drawing criticism.
Facing fourth down and needing 11 yards, Jalen Hurts failed to connect with a triple-covered A.J. Brown, allowing the 49ers to run out the clock. But a second look at the play – dubbed “4 Verticals” – shows it had little chance to succeed, with receivers simply running down the field and the 49ers covering everyone.
Head coach Nick Sirianni told reporters the Eagles called a timeout before the final play and took a picture of how the 49ers defense lined up “to give ourselves some information.” Hurts said the 49ers didn’t change what they were doing.
“They played ‘Cover 4 structure’ and I just didn’t make the play,” Hurts told reporters following the game. “I own it. I own it all.”
“On 4th-and-11, we need your best play. All they did was say to the four guys out there, ‘Just run straight down the field,’” said NBC analyst and former Patriots defender Devin McCourty. “The 49ers… banged up and a bunch of guys just thrown in there together, they’re all over that play. Just too basic, and now who knows what the city of Philadelphia is going to do.”
On 94.1 WIP, former Eagles fullback turned sports talker Jon Ritchie said the Eagles ran exactly what the 49ers were expecting, and against that defense Sirianni and offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo had options to convert.
“Against quarters coverage, the flats are open,” Ritchie said. “It’s fourth and eleven. What are you doing?”
Dallas Goedert among Eagles set to become free agents
Dallas Goedert’s contact expires at the end of the season.
Did we just watch Dallas Goedert’s final game with the Eagles?
The Birds’ tight end, who scored two touchdowns in Sunday night’s loss to the San Francisco, is among a handful of players who are set to become free agents.
Here is a list of notable players whose contracts expire following this season:
Offense: WR Jahan Dotson, TE Kylen Granson, RG Matt Pryor, RB A.J. Dillon, RG Fred Johnson, LT Brett Toth, QB Sam Howell, TE Grant Calcaterra, LT Luke Felix-Fualalo
Defense: LB Azeez Ojulari, LB Joshua Uche, CB Adoree Jackson, LB Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, S Marcus Epps, LB Ben VanSumeren
The two Atlantic Division foes will meet again on Monday in the second game of the back-to-back series in Toronto.
That means we’ll learn more about where the Sixers stand shortly. In the meantime, I’ll answer a few of your mailbag questions.
Missed out on the party? No worries. Submit questions for next time by tweeting @PompeyOnSixers on X with the hashtag #PompeysMailbagFlow.
Q: When Kelly Oubre Jr. gets healthy, should he be starting over Dom Barlow, or should we stick with Barlow, who we have found success with recently? — @Carter80113612
A: Thanks for starting the mailbag, Carter. We know both were in the starting lineup on Sunday because Paul George was a late scratch due to left knee soreness. But it will be different moving forward.
As a result, this is a great question that keeps coming up. I also keep going back and forth between Oubre and Barlow as the fifth starter. Both deserve to be in the lineup. I initially said Oubre, George, Joel Embiid, VJ Edgecombe, and Tyrese Maxey would make up my starting lineup once he returned.
In that scenario, Barlow would be my seventh man behind Quentin Grimes.
But then I changed my mind, because Barlow, being a true power forward, takes pressure off George to play that position. George has an easier time guarding small forwards on the perimeter than power forwards in the post. I also appreciate that Barlow doesn’t need the ball to make an impact.
Dominick Barlow can remain in the Sixers’ starting lineup and be this season’s version of Marc Iavaroni.
For me, he can be this season’s version of Marc Iavaroni, who started 77 games on the Sixers’ 1983 NBA championship team.
The power forward averaged 5.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 20.2 minutes at power forward while starting alongside Hall of Famers Julius Erving, Moses Malone, and Mo Cheeks, along with Andrew Toney. Meanwhile, Hall of Famer Bobby Jones averaged 9.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.1 steals, 1.2 blocks, and 23.6 minutes off the bench as the sixth man.
I think Oubre, who had been the Sixers’ X factor before his injury, can thrive in Jones’ role. He would thrive as the sixth man while playing a starter’s minutes.
While his shots didn’t fall, Oubre made a significant impact in a reserve role during his first two games back from injury. With all things considered, I would keep him in that role.
Q: Will Jared McCain be on the team after the trade deadline? And what is his current trade value? — @MediumBall02
A: He needs to be on the team. I know some people have soured on McCain due to his shooting slump and defensive shortcomings. The second-year guard was averaging 2.8 points on 25% shooting in the six games heading into Sunday’s contest against the Raptors.
For the season, the 6-foot-3, 195-pounder averaged 6.6 points on 34.8% shooting — including making 31.9% of his three-pointers. He definitely needs to improve.
But we shouldn’t forget that McCain had his rookie season cut short because of a torn meniscus in his left knee. In addition to the December 2024 injury, he had the start of this season delayed after suffering a torn ligament in his right thumb in September.
Sixers guard Jared McCain averaged just 2.8 points on 25% shooting in the six games heading into Sunday’s contest against the Raptors
Yes, he’s back on the court, but it usually takes 15 months postsurgery to fully get back to yourself following major knee injuries. In addition to that, McCain was the NBA rookie of the year front-runner last season before his injury. He’s not expected to fully regain his true form until late this season or next season.
Sure, he has trade value due to being on a rookie deal that’s paying him $4.1 million this season, $4.4 million next season, and a potential club option for $6.7 million in 2027-28. But the Sixers have time to thoroughly evaluate what they have in him before deciding on his future.
Plus, keeping him could be insurance just in case they lose Quentin Grimes in free agency this summer.
Q: Do you think Nick Nurse is being extra cautious with Trendon Watford? — @botman02_
A: What’s up, Botman? It’s not a matter of being extra cautious. The coach said on Dec. 30 that the jury is still out on Watford regarding playing time. That’s because the coaching staff hasn’t seen much of him, due to injuries limiting the free-agent acquisition to just 15 games heading into Sunday’s contest. The power forward missed the preseason and the first three games of the season with a left hamstring issue. Watford returned on Wednesday after missing 17 consecutive games with a strained left thigh muscle suffered against the Orlando Magic on Nov. 25.
During that time, Barlow has excelled in his role as the starting power forward. Meanwhile, Jabari Walker has also been a solid backup for the Sixers.
“Where he would slot back in, he’s going to probably have to earn that back in there, not unlike the other guys coming back off injury,” Nurse said of Watford. “I think it’s a bit of a process, usually.”
Could New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32)and Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren (0), a former Roman Catholic standout, both get the nod over Joel Embiid in All-Star voting by Eastern Conference coaches?
Q: Can Joel Embiid make the All-Star Game? Will the coaches vote him in? — @_long_live_jai
A: Great question, Jai. Anything is possible. The 2023 league MVP and seven-time All-Star has actually shown glimpses of his former dominant self. He scored a season-high 39 points against the Indiana Pacers on Dec. 12. He scored at least 30 points in three other games. And he’s averaging 27.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.2 steals in his last six games.
The problem is Embiid has missed 18 games. He’s also had a tough time moving and struggled mightily on defense early in the season. In the second round of fan voting, Embiid was 17th among conference All-Star votes. Unless he dominates the media and player voting, he won’t make the All-Star Game as a starter.
So the coaches will have to decide whether he deserves the nod over players who have been more deserving in terms of availability and consistency.
Embiid’s statistics don’t count regarding season rankings due to not playing in at least 70% of the Sixers’ games. However, his scoring average of 23.5 points would rank first among Eastern Conference centers if he played enough games.
Right now, New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren, Cleveland Cavs center/power forward Evan Mobley, and Miami Heat power forward/center Bam Adebayo might be the leading candidates to receive the coaches’ nod if not selected as starters.
I know one thing. Embiid definitely has an opinion.
“Am I going to make it? I think I should,” he said to the media following Friday’s road victory over the Orlando Magic. “I don’t think we’re pushing it enough. I think I got pretty good stats. So, maybe you guys should put the word out that Joel Embiid is back.”
Nick Sirianni caught some heat for resting his players in the regular-season finale. Some of them on the offensive side of the ball still seemed to be on pause at the worst possible time Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense had a chance to earn the winning touchdown in the two-minute drill against the 49ers. They got down to the 20-yard line. Then Hurts got sacked. Then he threw three straight incompletions and it was over. Banged-up San Francisco beat the odds and posted a 23-19 wild-card playoff victory that snuffed out any hopes of a second straight title for the Birds.
Face it, though: The offense had been wildly inconsistent for most of the season and Vic Fangio’s defense could only save the Eagles so many times. Kevin Patullo, the first-year offensive coordinator, will bear the blame for the lost season and probably will be fired soon, Marcus Hayes writes. The columnist also wonders whether this was malcontent receiver A.J. Brown’s last game with the Eagles as well.
Looking for a bright side here? Phillies pitchers and catchers will report to Clearwater, Fla., on Feb. 10.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni pauses as he answers a question during the postgame news conference Sunday night.
Of course, it was more than just Patullo’s play-calling that cost the Eagles the game. The defense gave up explosive plays to San Francisco’s Demarcus Robinson, Jauan Jennings, and Christian McCaffrey — and yielded a touchdown on a trick play. Jake Elliott doinked an extra point. Center Cam Jurgens had another rough outing. In Jeff McLane’s grades for the game, though, the lowest is reserved for the coaching staff.
Hurts took his share of responsibility for the season-ending defeat. “I take ownership for not being able to put points on the board,” the quarterback said. “It all starts with me and ends with me. And so there’s a sense of a lot there that you can learn from.”
Elliott missed an extra point in the first quarter and it cost the Eagles, who would have needed only a field goal to tie it if he had not missed. The kicker was asked if he was thinking about his missed PAT while the Eagles had to try for a touchdown in the final minute.
“It’s a tough night to kick,” he said. “That’s not really what I’m thinking about during that moment in time. I’m thinking about that next kick.”
Fox’s coverage of the game caught an interesting sideline “discussion” between Sirianni and Brown as things got a little heated. “Emotions run high, especially in the playoffs,” the coach told sideline reporter Erin Andrews at halftime. ”Of course, after this game, we’ll go back to loving each other.”
Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey looks to shoot as Toronto’s Collin Murray-Boyles guards him in the second half.
The Sixers have had problems closing out games and it burned them again Sunday night in a 116-115 overtime loss to the Raptors in Toronto. Tyrese Maxey scored a game-high 38 points, but the Sixers gave up a 7-0 run by Toronto in overtime that cost them the game.
Free agent Bo Bichette figures to be in play for several teams including the Phillies, who are set to meet with him on Monday.
Free-agent infielder Alex Bregman reached a five-year, $175 million agreement with the Cubs late Saturday night, which could make the competition to sign Bo Bichette even more intense. The former Toronto Blue Jays star has a Zoom call with the Phillies scheduled for Monday, a league source confirmed.
The Phillies are interested, but so are several other clubs. Of course, Alec Bohm would be traded if the Phils pulled off this signing — let alone what might happen with catcher J.T. Realmuto, who is still on the free-agent market. Our Scott Lauber looks at the teams that could threaten the Phillies’ chances of landing Bichette.
Flyers goalie Sam Ersson gives up a goal to Tampa Bay’s Gage Goncalves in the third period Saturday.
Flyers goalie Sam Ersson had a rough night against the Tampa Bay Lightning, giving up seven goals on 23 shots in a 7-2 loss Saturday at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Not all of the goals were his fault, of course, but the Swedish goalie knows he has plenty of things to clean up.
“Obviously, especially last night, it’s very tough, embarrassing to let in seven goals on your home ice,” Ersson said. “You feel like you kind of let down the team and the fans. Obviously, that’s not acceptable. Just got to be better.”
Sports snapshot
Penn’s Ethan Roberts reacts after hitting a three-pointer against Brown on Saturday. It marked his second game since returning from a serious concussion earlier this season.
Coming back strong: Penn’s Ethan Roberts is back in action after missing more than a month because of a concussion.
Restocking at QB: Temple is adding Jaxon Smolik (Penn State) and Ajani Sheppard (Washington State) in the transfer portal.
Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb scoring a touchdown against the Buccaneers in October 2002.
Jan. 12, 2002: Donovan McNabb passed for 194 yards and two touchdowns as the Eagles thumped the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 31-9, in a wild-card playoff game at Veterans Stadium.
We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Jeff McLane, Marcus Hayes, Olivia Reiner, Jeff Neiburg, Matt Breen, Gabriela Carroll, Ariel Simpson, Keith Pompey, Jackie Spiegel, Jonathan Tannenwald, Colin Schofield, Ellen Dunkel, and Sean McKeown.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
Thanks for reading. It will be interesting to hear what comes out of the Eagles postmortem today. I’ll see you in Tuesday’s newsletter. — Jim
TORONTO — Trendon Watford’s eyes widened as he walked into Scotiabank Arena’s visitors’ locker room and noticed the media scrum surrounding Kyle Lowry’s locker. Teammates Justin Edwards and Jared McCain joined the back of the crowd, with McCain pulling out his cell phone to pretend to ask a question.
“This is why I’m here,” Lowry quipped to those gathered.
The scene was warranted. This could be Lowry’s final visit as a player to Toronto, where the North Philly native and former Cardinal Dougherty and Villanova star became a Raptors franchise legend and NBA champion. And the 76ers’ back-to-back against the Raptors — they lost a 116-115 overtime heartbreaker Sunday night — represents another bridge between the city that Lowry now calls his second home and his hometown Sixers, the team with which he is likely to wrap up his NBA career primarily as a mentor on the bench and behind the scenes.
“You’ve got to find ways to challenge yourself,” Lowry said when asked about his role before Sunday’s game. “And the challenge for me is to try to help these guys every single day. … It’s just finding that niche and helping people get better — and me being in a place where I’m happy.”
The 39-year-old Lowry went into last offseason with a public declaration that he wanted to play one more season to reach the “massive accomplishment” of 20 in the NBA. Only 12 players have achieved that benchmark in league history, including two who stood 6-foot or shorter (Lowry and Chris Paul). His sons, Karter and Kameron, who are still based in Miami following Lowry’s post-Raptors tenure with the Heat, signed off on him pursuing that milestone.
Yet when asked before the Sixers departed for Toronto late Friday if he expected this to be a farewell trip of sorts, Lowry’s tone shifted to “I don’t know, honestly.” It is possible that the Sixers (21-16) could return to Canada after these consecutive regular-season matchups because, if the playoffs began Monday, the 24-16 Raptors would be their first-round opponents. Lowry also believes his leadership is “immensely important to what this organization is trying to do.”
“You’ve got to be able to kind of take yourself out of it sometimes,” Lowry said, “and be able to say, ‘OK, how can I pay it forward a little bit?’ … It’s that balance of I know I’m not on the court, so I can’t yell at them and curse at them. But I can say, ‘Hey, these are the things that I see. Let’s try to do that.’”
Kyle Lowry played nine seasons in Toronto (2012-21), winning a title in 2019 and being named to six All-Star teams.
It is a transition that those who knew Lowry in Toronto — where he was a six-time All-Star and a notoriously tenacious point guard — might be surprised he has so wholeheartedly welcomed. Though he became a starter after joining the Sixers off the 2024 buyout market, Lowry’s minutes dramatically diminished while hampered by a lingering hip issue for the bulk of last season. He has played in 42 total minutes across five games this season, receiving a rousing reaction from teammates when he buried a three-pointer in his debut at the Brooklyn Nets in November.
Survey those same teammates about Lowry’s daily influence, and faces typically light up.
Rookie VJ Edgecombe can count on Lowry to “keep it real,” including during a pressure-releasing pep talk before Edgecombe scored 34 points in his NBA debut at the Boston Celtics. Quentin Grimes said Lowry’s diligent workout routine — he is still the first Sixer on the floor for his pregame shooting nearly three hours before every game, and puts in extra individual work before and after practices — provides a blueprint on how to prepare as his own career progresses.
And though star Tyrese Maxey jokingly calls Lowry “old as hell,” he also views the veteran as “like, my leader. He comes to me and leads me, and I try to lead the team.” Lowry fosters this relationship while regularly rebounding and screening for Maxey during workouts, and when he calls the 25-year-old “at least three or four times a day,” Maxey said.
“I couldn’t do this without him, honestly, right now,” said Maxey, who finished Sunday ranked third in the NBA in scoring at 30.9 points per game and has entered the MVP conversation.
Even Sixers coach Nick Nurse, who also led Lowry’s Raptors teams, said the point guard has “talked me off the ledge a couple times” during games this season. Nurse views Lowry as a valuable conduit between the players and the coaching staff, providing insight on when the Sixers might need a day off from practice or should be pushed.
“There’s times when I’ll be leaning on him,” Nurse said. “He’ll get behind me and say [to teammates] … ‘This is what it takes.’”
The relationship between Nick Nurse and Kyle Lowry is extensive and built on trust.
Before Sunday’s game, Nurse said that he would speak to Lowry about his desire to hit the floor inside Scotiabank Arena again. Lowry acknowledged he would “love to get in there for the fans, and help my team,” but stressed that winning was the top priority. There was no appropriate opportunity for Lowry to enter during Sunday’s down-to-the-wire overtime defeat.
Still, Lowry remained active from the bench. He jetted onto the court to greet Maxey after he drilled a three-pointer with 20.1 seconds remaining in regulation. He stood between Nurse and assistant Bryan Gates during an overtime discussion. And after Kelly Oubre Jr. attempted what he described as a “terrible” inbounds pass to Edgecombe that became a critical crunch-time turnover, Lowry pointed out that Grimes also had leaked open.
“He’s been there, done that,” Oubre said of Lowry. “Been at the highest level. For him to be so engaged and allow him to use his IQ to help us grow ours, it’s amazing. He’s definitely a huge leader on this team, and his voice is always heard.”
Doug Smith, the longtime Raptors beat writer for the Toronto Star, suggested in an article that Nurse should put Lowry in Monday’s starting lineup so he can bask in a pregame introduction here one last time. When asked how it will feel to see his No. 7 raised into the rafters someday, Lowry’s response was, “Y’all ever seen me cry?”
He walked into the arena Sunday wearing a signed jersey from Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews, a tribute to the player and the city. He confirmed that, whenever the time comes, he would sign a one-day contract to retire as a Raptor.
Veterans like Joel Embiid (21) know the impact Kyle Lowry has made during his 20 seasons in the NBA.
And his forever connection to Toronto was clear when Joel Embiid tried to land a playful jab inside Friday’s postgame locker room in Orlando. Hours before the Sixers’ flight across the border, Embiid interrupted an interview with Lowry by asking, “Why are they talking to you?” in an exacerbated tone.
“Where you lost Game 7 at,” said Lowry, referencing the Sixers’ crushing playoff defeat to the eventual-champion Raptors in 2019.
“Talking about how great of a cheerleader you are?” Embiid countered.
“Yes, basically,” Lowry responded.
“He’s a great cheerleader,” Embiid conceded.
Because right now, Lowry is a Sixer. And when asked about how enthusiastically those teammates describe Lowry’s impact in his 20th — and, potentially, final — NBA season, his emotions again bubbled to the surface.
Kyle Lowry could be finishing a storied career with a mentor role on a possible playoff team.
“It means a lot, to be honest,” Lowry said. “Because I really give to them the purity of how I feel about them. Like I said, sacrifice. I don’t care about myself as a basketball player. I know in my career what I’ve done. And what I’ve done is I’ve given everything to this game. Everything I could possibly give to this game, physically and mentally.
“You see me every day with these guys. I cheer for them. I clap for them. I help coach them from a player’s perspective. I try to give them things in life. I try to help them out, just overall, in general.
“I guess it’s a testament to how they feel about me. I’m the ancient man in this locker room. I embrace it, and they embrace me.”
Kevin Patullo is as good as done. A.J. Brown’s future is murkier.
But whatever happens to the offensive coordinator and the team’s top receiver, some form of significant change is coming to the Eagles offense after a season of frustration ended fittingly with another bipolar performance on Sunday.
Patullo will be the easiest to cut off, not because he was solely responsible for the regression or even for the substandard play calling that doomed the Eagles in their 23-19 loss to the 49ers in the playoffs, just as it had throughout most of the 2025 regular season.
Most players, including tackle Jordan Mailata, publicly supported the first-year coordinator on Sunday. They pointed the finger at themselves and their execution, or lack thereof. But the powers that be, as Mailata noted, can’t just wipe out the bulk of the highest-paid offense in the NFL.
“It’s easier to blame somebody who gets paid less than your starting people, right?” Mailata said. “And everybody knows that. Everyone in this [expletive] locker room — even you [reporters] know that. But the story makes better sense if we’re pointing to somebody else than not the players.”
Brown might seem the logical piece to move considering how his drops against San Francisco seemed indicative of an apathetic season by his standards. General manager Howie Roseman isn’t normally fond of trading Hall of Fame talent, and Brown’s contract may make it difficult to move the 28-year old.
But the Eagles will need to find ways to clear salary-cap space with salaries for quarterback Jalen Hurts and others on offense increasing and young homegrown players on defense, including defensive tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, slated for extensions.
Getting rid of Brown may send a message. But for as great as fellow receiver DeVonta Smith can be, most defenses still spent each week in 2025 devising coverages to cloud Brown. He didn’t have his best season by any stretch, and sometimes ran poor routes and couldn’t pull in grabs he normally makes.
He let two of Hurts’ downfield throws slip off his hands on Sunday.
“He’s got the best hands I’ve ever seen,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “The way he catches the ball, the amount of different types of catches that he’s made. When you get as many targets as he does, you’re going to have some drops. Not ever using an excuse, but the ball moves differently in the wind.”
Brown declined interview requests after the game, much like he has for the last month. He got into a brief altercation with Sirianni on the sideline in the second quarter when the coach yelled for him to get off the field after a three-and-out.
“I love A.J. I think he knows how I feel about him,” Sirianni said. “I have a special relationship with him. We’ve probably [gone] through every emotion you can possibly have together. We’ve laughed together, we’ve cried together, we’ve yelled at each other. We’re both emotional.”
Brown’s emotions have sometimes gotten the best of him. He’s admitted to mistakes he’s made when using social media to voice frustrations with the offense. He’s among the most-liked players in the locker room. But a change of scenery may be best as he enters the latter stage of his career.
A.J. Brown logged another 1,000-yard season, but it was a tumultuous year for the star wide receiver.
Sirianni and Hurts aren’t going anywhere, nor should they. But they face another crossroads just two years after the Eagles offense underwent its first facelift. Sirianni fired coordinator Brian Johnson, certainly with input from owner Jeffrey Lurie and Roseman, and Kellen Moore was brought in to spiff up the system.
Johnson was more of a Hurts guy, not that Sirianni took pleasure in ending his tenure in Philly. But Patullo has been with the coach since their days with the Colts. They’re kindred spirits in football and friends away from it. But even Sirianni can’t deny that Patullo was in over his head.
“There will be time to evaluate everybody’s performance,” Sirianni said when asked about his coordinator’s future.
If the Eagles weren’t coming off a Super Bowl, maybe Patullo could have been given more time to learn on the job. Maybe Sirianni has built up enough clout to hold off Lurie/Roseman. But precedent suggests that the Eagles will move fast, and that they already have possible replacements lined up.
Who could be next? Mike McDaniel? Kliff Kingsbury? Brian Daboll? Nate Scheelhaase? Todd Monken? Frank Reich? Whoever it is, it should be someone with a pedigree of improving quarterbacks, and preferably one who actually played the position.
Hurts didn’t evolve this season. He ran less and it not only made him less dynamic, but it gave defenses one less option to worry about in the running game. And it made his deficiencies in the drop-back passing game more glaring.
“I think I’m always growing,” Hurts said when asked about working with Patullo. “I’m always taking in my experiences and learning from everything that we go through. I think it’s tough to single out one individual, especially in a moment like this.
“We’ve all got to improve and that’s how I look at everything that we go through.”
Hurts didn’t play poorly in windy conditions at Lincoln Financial Field. In fact, it was a very Hurtsian performance. He made some good throws. He didn’t turn the ball over while his counterpart, Brock Purdy, tossed two interceptions.
But Hurts’ arm lacked the velocity to cut through the breeze at times. He left clean pockets far too early. And he failed again to deliver a game-winning drive. He may play by far the most important position on the field, but the Eagles’ struggles Sunday and all season weren’t all on his shoulders.
And the same applies to Patullo. How much was he handcuffed by Sirianni’s emphasis on not giving the ball away? The Eagles led, 13-7, midway through the second quarter. But the offense failed to generate a first down on four of its next five possessions against a 49ers defense that was down to its fourth and fifth linebackers.
There were dropped passes, penalties, missed blocking assignments, and Hurts throwaways over that span. There were also conservative calls like running on second-and-18, or Hurts keeping on third-and-13. Sirianni was aggressive on two fourth downs in the first half. He seemed to settle for field goals after the break.
“If it goes the way you want it to go in the first half and then not the second half, I think that’s the go-to of people [thinking] you take your foot off the gas,” Sirianni said. “But we were playing more balanced, got the run game going a little bit, trying to mix our play-actions in, trying to get our passes in to create explosives.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t create enough explosives.”
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, meanwhile, dialed up four pass plays that gained 27 yards or more, including a double-reverse trick play that had receiver Jauan Jennings hitting running back Christian McCaffrey for a 29-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Gadget plays aren’t going to solve core offensive problems. But the Eagles offense, overall, wasn’t diverse enough. There weren’t enough passing concepts that utilized the middle of the field. There weren’t enough layups for Hurts schemed off under center play-action plays.
The offense moved too slowly in its pre-snap operation and it crippled an already battered offensive line in the running game. Left guard Landon Dickerson admitted after the game what was obvious: He was playing through multiple injuries. Center Cam Jurgens never looked fully recovered from offseason back surgery.
Right tackle Lane Johnson missed the final eight games with a Lisfranc foot injury. He practiced last week, but his replacement, Fred Johnson, said he found out Saturday that he would be starting instead.
“That’s not normal,” Fred Johnson said. “Lane came out this week and prepared like he was a starter. He tested it this week with his reps. Saturday he just felt like he wasn’t ready.”
But the Eagles, for the most part, were healthy. They returned 10 of 11 starters from a Super Bowl-winning offense. The only new cog was Patullo, so he bore the brunt of blame. But Mailata said that was “very unfair.” Dickerson said he did a “tremendous job.”
The offensive linemen also acknowledged Patullo’s inexperience.
“I think he improved over the year,” Fred Johnson said when asked about Patullo. “That’s about it.”
There was some individual grumbling about the play calling from various corners of the locker room over the course of the year. But it never rose to the level it did when Sirianni demoted former defensive coordinator Sean Desai midseason in 2023.
Despite Sirianni’s claim last week that the Eagles had found an identity, it never really materialized. They wanted to ride Saquon Barkley and the running game much as they did en route to the Super Bowl a year ago. But it just ended up being a rinse-and-repeat offense for most of the season and again on Sunday: some glimmers of hope in the first half, darkness thereafter.
“It’s been a common theme for us this year,” Barkley said. “We haven’t done a good enough job of playing complete football, putting two halves together. Sometimes you get into this moment and [believe] we’ll just figure this out. And it just caught up to it.
There’s a word for doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same results. It could be used to describe the furor in Philly whenever an offensive coordinator fails to succeed. Patullo will likely suffer a fate because Eagles leaders won’t want to be labeled as such for sticking with him.
There’s a strong argument for making a move. But there’s change every season.
“There’s a lot of great guys in this locker room on this team, lot of great coaches, a lot of great people upstairs,” Dickerson said. “Every team’s got a one-year expiration on it, so this team will never be put together again.”
Multiple things can be true at the same time. They usually are when a team’s season ends the way the Eagles’ did on Sunday.
It takes a special kind of bad to lose this limply. It is a collective bad, an existential bad, a bad that raises all kinds of hard questions that a team must confront head-on and wrestle with in the darkness. That is true even of a team that is less than a year removed from winning a Super Bowl. In fact, it is especially true for such a team.
The bad that the Eagles were in a 23-19 loss to the 49ers is a disconcerting bad. It is a bad that shakes you to your core, a bad so bad that you spend an entire season desperate to disbelieve it.
More than anything, it is a bad that is nearly impossible to achieve if your quarterback is doing the things he needs to do.
Jalen Hurts did not do those things for the Eagles on Sunday. His counterpart did them for the 49ers. That is why the Eagles are headed home. It is why the 49ers are headed to Seattle. The difference in this particular playoff game was the same as it is in most of them. One team had a quarterback who rose above his circumstances. The other did not.
“It starts with me and ends with me,” Hurts said afterward.
Whether or not he truly believed those words, he was correct.
A team that cannot, or will not, put pressure on a defense in the intermediate-to-deep part of the field is a team whose luck will eventually run out. Whether Hurts can’t or won’t doesn’t matter at this point. He didn’t, and that’s that. He completed just three passes that traveled more than 10 yards in the air, on 11 attempts. Those three completions gained a total of 38 yards. He was 17-for-20 on his short throws.
Compare that to Brock Purdy, who was dealing with an offense that lost its last blue-chip pass-catching weapon when tight end George Kittle tore his Achilles tendon with six minutes left in the second quarter. The game should have been over then, one of several moments when that was the case. That it wasn’t is largely a testament to Purdy, whose poise and patience and intentionality were on display against an Eagles defense several calibers above that of the practice-squad Niners.
San Francisco’s game-winning 66-yard touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter featured a 16-yard completion to Demarcus Robinson and a 5-yard scramble, both for first downs, to help set up his 4-yard touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey with just under three minutes remaining. A couple of possessions earlier, he found fullback Kyle Juszczyk of all people for a 27-yard gain that set up a trick play touchdown on an end-around pass from wide receiver Jauan Jennings to McCaffrey.
There was a 14-yard pass to backup tight end Jake Tonges on third-and-14 late in the second quarter, a 45-yarder to Jennings earlier in the period, and a 61-yarder to Robinson that set up a touchdown on the 49ers’ opening drive.
Purdy’s numbers on throws longer than 10 yards: 8-of-13, for 178 yards. His two interceptions were the cost of doing business.
“You’ve got to be able to be explosive,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “It’s really hard to dink and dunk down the field. It’s really hard to get behind sticks with negative plays. You’ve got to be able to create explosives. Again, at the end of the day, there were a lot of elements [where] you end up with a loss, and we haven’t had this feeling of ending our season since 2023 with the loss. That’s why it hurts because it’s been a while. But yeah, at the end of the day, we need to find ways to be more explosive. Again, that starts with me.”
Sirianni is right. Everything starts with him. But it ends wherever the quarterback takes it. The ball is in his hands. The clock is in his head. He is the one who decides how long to continue looking down the field. Whatever the game plan, whoever the play-caller, a quarterback almost always has the ability to force the issue. That’s especially true for a quarterback with Hurts’ ability to buy time and gain yards with his legs. He gained 14 yards on five carries against the 49ers. Purdy gained 24 on nine.
“Well, I think finding a rhythm and whatever you define aggression as, maintaining the fluidity and the flow throughout four quarters of the game, so I think there’s opportunity for us to improve in that,” Hurts said. “Just finding a rhythm. Ultimately it is just all something that you either learn from it or you don’t.”
One thing people lose sight of while focusing on the play-calling is that the quarterback sets the rhythm. He is the orchestra conductor. The great offenses are almost always a reflection of their quarterback. It wasn’t Tom Moore’s offense or Todd Haley’s offense or Charlie Weis’ offense: it was Peyton Manning’s and Ben Roethlisberger’s and Tom Brady’s. It’s no coincidence that the energy of this Eagles offense as a collective often resembles Hurts’ individual demeanor.
Nobody should have to apologize for pointing out these things. High standards are not unfair. The only way to fix an offense as bad and boring and listless as the Eagles’ is to be unflinchingly honest about its component parts. The quarterback is inseparable from the play-caller. The right guy for the second job is a guy who can make it work with the guy in the first one. The next Eagles play-caller will be getting a quarterback who does not have elite size, or arm strength, or pocket presence, and who no longer makes up much of that difference with his ability to create on the run.
Hurts didn’t get much help from his pass-catchers on Sunday. He didn’t get as much help from his play-caller as Purdy got from his. The Eagles will need to fix both of those things this offseason. Hurts isn’t, and shouldn’t be, going anywhere.
That said, Hurts is who he is. Who he was on Sunday is the guy he has been all season, and most of the last 2½ seasons, if we’re being honest. It worked when the Eagles had an overwhelming talent advantage at all of the other positions. If that is no longer the case, they need to figure out a new formula.
The Sixers (21-16) were trending in the right direction after winning two straight and five of their last six games heading into this matchup. And with Tyrese Maxey scoring a game-high 38 points, they appeared capable of overcoming the huge absences of Joel Embiid (left knee injury management/left groin soreness) and Paul George (left knee soreness).
But an inability to close out the game reared its ugly head.
Maxey hit a what appeared to be a 29-foot dagger three-pointer to give the Sixers a 107-103 cushion with 20.1 seconds left.
However, they failed to inbound the ball. The Raptors (24-16) won two challenges and made two baskets to force overtime.
The Sixers built a 112-108 lead with 2 minutes, 23 seconds remaining in overtime. But the Raptors responded with a 7-0 run to take a 115-112 lead after the Sixers missed two shots and committed a costly turnover.
Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes (left) led the team in points with 31 against the Sixers.
VJ Edgecombe made a 30-foot three-pointer to knot the score at 115. However, Scottie Barnes got away with initiating contact with Oubre, who was called for a foul, on a drive with 0.8 seconds left.
Barnes, who finished with 31 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds, made the first foul shot and intentionally missed the second to win the game.
The Sixers committed 22 turnovers and made just 8 of 31 three-pointers. But they were ultimately doomed by poor late-game execution. Something they need to correct.
“We just got to be better, be more disciplined and stay together in those moments where we’re facing a little bit of adversity, because we both made runs,” Oubre said to reporters. “But you know, theirs was the final shot.”
Barnes will get the credit for winning Sunday’s game. However, the Raptors backcourt of Immanuel Quickley and Jamal Shead had their way with the Sixers guards. Quickley finished with 20 points and seven assists, while Shead had 22 and six assists.
The duo had several downhill drives in the lane. If they couldn’t score, they kicked the ball out to teammates. Late in the game, Shead and Quickley drove the lane. Once the Sixers provided help defense, the guard would dump the ball off to a big man for a dunk.
“We just got out of position on some of that,” coach Nick Nurse said to reporters. “I felt we went to help a little too early, and obviously left too big a passing lane for those dumboffs late.”
But it started with the Sixers guards needing to do a better job of keeping opposing perimeter players in front of them.
Before missing 22 games with a sprained left knee ligament, Oubre was the quiet assassin for the Sixers. The 6-foot-8 small forward averaged 16.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in his first 12 games. In addition to excelling when the ball was moving, Oubre did a solid job of guarding the opposing team’s best perimeter player.
He returned on Wednesday and provided solid defense that night against the Washington Wizards and again on Friday vs. the Orlando Magic. However, he averaged one point on a combined 1-for-9 shooting in those two games.
Toronto Raptors guard Alijah Martin, left, strips the ball from Sixers’ Kelly Oubre Jr. during overtime.
He had the complete package against the Raptors.
Oubre finished with 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting to go with five rebounds and season highs of four steals and three blocks in his third game back. Nine of his points came in the third quarter.
“He hasn’t really scored much since being back, so that’s obviously nice to see,” Nurse said. “He even hit a three, but had some really nice drives. He had a couple of good blocks and steals as well, which is why we ended up playing him as much as we did down the stretch.”
He’ll go back to being an X-factor if he can keep this up.
“It definitely felt good,” Oubre said. “It’s just, I think I could be better. I got blocked because I’m not trusting myself and the work that I put in.
“So you know, just watching film, continue to just show up every day and get better. That’s all I can do. But it definitely felt good to get some run.”
