With less than a minute remaining in Sunday’s game against the 49ers, with the Eagles down 23-19 and their back-to-back Super Bowl aspirations on the line, fans crowded together in McGillin’s Olde Ale House erupted into E-A-G-L-E-S chants as a way to keep hope alive.
Unfortunately, Jalen Hurts was sacked and threw three straight incompletions to end their playoff run early. The Birds’ journey had ended, and with it, the hopes of the region.
Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown is unable to make the catch as 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir defends during the second half Sunday.
Brandon LaSalata, 24, made the drive from Richmond, Va., to watch Sunday’s wild-card matchup surrounded by Eagles fans.
“I don’t know what happened,” LaSalata said. “We need to get rid of Kevin Patullo. I think that hopefully next year we’ll be a better playoff contender. We should have gotten through this round. I don’t know what happened. I’m very upset.”
On the other side of the pub, 27-year-old Lancaster native Dominic Polidoro sat with his head hanging low in defeat.
“I feel pretty deflated,” Polidoro said. “This team was probably the most talented team in the league. It’s really disappointing to see them fall short. We had higher hopes.”
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni speaks during a news conference after the loss.
Somber morning commute for Eagles fans
On Monday morning, the air in Center City was dry, stiff, and unforgiving. And so were the Eagles fans cussing out their favorite team after the season-ending loss.
“I don’t mind losing, but give me an effort. A.J. Brown has to get traded. [Nick] Sirianni has to get fired. Offensive coordinator, fired,” said 73-year-old North Philadelphian Rodney Yatt. “And then we’ll go from there.”
Sunday’s game was marred by incomplete passes, a sideline argument between Sirianni and star wide receiver Brown, and, according to fans, tough calls from referees.
Clay Marsh, 35, of Manayunk, doesn’t think a loss falls to one player.
“I don’t think it was A.J.’s fault,” Marsh said. He saw the offense as disjointed and questioned offensive coordinator Patullo’s strategy, which Marsh said was an overreliance on “running it up the middle” with Saquon Barkley.
“Even if we won, it felt like we were going to go into Chicago and probably get spanked anyway,” Marsh said. “Maybe we saved ourselves some real embarrassment.”
Patullo has been at the center of fans’ ire, not only after last night’s loss but throughout the season. That agita hit a new low when someone egged Patullo’s family home in November after a 24-15 loss to the Chicago Bears.
The latest Patullo roasting comes in the form of a Bucks County golf simulator that allows players to drive balls directly into a digital fairway featuring Patullo’s face. The Golf Place co-owners Justin Hepler and Killian Lennon shared a video of themselves relieving theirfrustrations and honing their swings.
West Philadelphian James Booker, 49, said the small mistakes in the game added up to the loss. He pointed to Brown’s dropped passes and a missed extra point by kicker Jake Elliottthat could have brought the Birds into tie-game territory later on.
Despite the hard loss, Booker doesn’t think Sirianni should be canned.
“You can’t just say you want to up and fire him, even though fans like to do that a lot — Sirianni got us to this point,” Booker said. “I only hope for a better season next year.”
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
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.
In the end, the Eagles offense couldn’t rise to the occasion, a shortcoming it had all season long.
With under a minute remaining in the wild-card round Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, Jalen Hurts was tasked with driving down the field and leading a touchdown drive to erase the Eagles’ 23-19 deficit. Upon reaching the 49ers’ 20-yard line, Hurts was sacked and threw three straight incompletions, ending the Eagles’ aspirations of repeating as Super Bowl champions.
There were three lead changes in the fourth quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. The 49ers managed to pull off the win without injured inside linebacker Fred Warner, defensive end Nick Bosa, and tight end George Kittle, who suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the second quarter.
Here’s our instant analysis from the Eagles’ loss to the 49ers:
Nick Sirianni’s first home playoff loss was a story of missed opportunities.
Tale of two halves, again
The Eagles offense followed an all-too-familiar script — it came out strong in the first half, only to disappear at times in the second.
In the first half, Kevin Patullo and Nick Sirianni opted to run early and often to great success. On the second play of the Eagles’ opening drive, Saquon Barkley took a handoff from Hurts in the shotgun, bounced to his right, and scampered upfield for a gain of 29 yards. His run helped set up the Eagles’ first touchdown of the day, a 1-yard run by Dallas Goedert to make it 7-6, 49ers, after a missed Jake Elliott point-after.
Barkley finished the first quarter with nine carries for 48 yards (5.3 yards per carry).
Barkley had an up-and-down showing in the passing game. First, the good. In the second quarter, Hurts had an unblocked defender in his face on second-and-6 from midfield, and dumped the ball off to Barkley, who turned a routine checkdown into a 20-yard gain.
His play eventually led to Goedert’s second touchdown of the game, a 9-yard catch that made it 13-7, Eagles.
Then, the not-so-good. On third-and-3 from the Eagles’ 37-yard line early in the third quarter, Barkley dropped a pass in the open field, causing the Eagles to go three-and-out for a second straight possession.
His woes continued in the second half. After averaging 4.7 yards per carry (71 yards on 15 carries) in the first, Barkley went for 0.8 yards per carry (six carries for 5 yards) in the third quarter.
Patullo and Sirianni seemed to lean conservative in their play calls in the third quarter as they clung to their 13-10 lead. Three plays after Quinyon Mitchell’s first interception of the night in the third quarter, Barkley was stuffed for a loss of a yard by 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir on a second-and-18 zone run.
The Eagles lost nine yards on the four-play drive and punted. On the following possession, still up by three, the Eagles settled for a 41-yard field goal. They had seemingly waved the white flag on third-and-13 with a Hurts 4-yard keeper, appearing content to take the points. However, Sirianni pushed back on the notion that he had grown conservative in the second half.
“I think that’s always the go-to [perception] if it [doesn’t] go the way you want,” Sirianni said. “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, 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.”
Barkley was slightly more effective in the fourth quarter, and was able to return after being hobbled by a leg injury after a hard hit that caused him to miss snaps. But at that point, the Eagles were often in catch-up mode due to the 49ers scoring a pair of touchdowns.
Rare drops plagued A.J. Brown. The 28-year-old receiver had three receptions on seven targets for 25 yards. On the Eagles’ final possession, he dropped a third-down pass over the middle of the field, only to be bailed out by Goedert’s conversion on the ensuing fourth down. With the season on the line, Goedert was targeted later in the drive on fourth-and-11 from the 49ers’ 21, but linebacker Eric Kendricks broke up Hurts’ pass.
As a passer, Hurts went 20-for-35 (57.1%) for 168 yards and one touchdown. While the Eagles won the turnover battle, they didn’t win the explosive play battle. Hurts’ longest pass went for 20 yards and Barkley’s longest run was 29, marking the Eagles’ only plays of 20-plus yards.
“I take ownership for not being able to put points on the board,” Hurts said postgame. “It all starts with me and ends with me. And so there’s a sense of a lot there that you can learn from. I think as a team, as a collective group and personally for me as a quarterback, how you see the game, how you feel the game, and ultimately just, ‘OK, how can I find a way to win?’ We weren’t able to do that today.”
Quinyon Mitchell logged two interceptions in a losing effort for the Eagles.
Mitchell’s two picks for naught
Quinyon Mitchell, named to his first All-Pro team on Saturday, stepped up in the second half in an attempt to reinvigorate the Eagles offense.
The 24-year-old cornerback contributed a pair of interceptions, keeping the surging 49ers offense off the field and giving Hurts & Co. an opportunity to put points on the board.
However, the Eagles only mustered a field goal off his picks. On his first interception in the third quarter, Mitchell undercut an erratic play-action pass intended for Skyy Moore, giving the Eagles offense prime field position at their own 48.
They punted after four plays, one of which was a Cam Jurgens holding call on second-and-10.
One series after the 49ers took a 17-16 lead on a fourth-quarter trick play — a 29-yard touchdown pass from wide receiver Jauan Jennings to Christian McCaffrey — Mitchell struck again. Again, he undercut Brock Purdy’s pass, this time intended for 49ers tight end Jake Tonges.
The Eagles began the series at their own 38 and managed to move the ball 32 yards on eight plays. But the wind proved problematic in the passing game. Late in the drive, a deep pass intended for Jahan Dotson in the end zone died in the wind, eventually leading the Eagles to settle for a field goal. Elliott made the 33-yard attempt, putting the Eagles up, 19-17, with eight minutes remaining.
Ultimately, Mitchell’s interceptions proved to be missed opportunities for the Eagles offense.
The Eagles defense made some big plays but also had key miscues and allowed Christian McCaffery to get into the end zone twice.
Mistakes haunt Eagles
A litany of mistakes crippled the Eagles on both sides of the ball. The Eagles lacked detail, one of Sirianni’s core values, reflected by their seven penalties for 48 yards. The 49ers, conversely, were flagged once for 15 yards.
The Eagles’ mistakes led to 49ers points. Late in the fourth quarter, the Eagles up 19-17, Reed Blankenship was flagged for holding Tonges on second-and-6 just outside the red zone. His transgression wiped away a Jalen Carter sack and gave the 49ers a fresh set of downs at the 20.
The 49ers took advantage of his mistake, as Purdy connected with McCaffrey on a 4-yard touchdown pass to regain the lead, 23-19.
“I should have never held him,” Blankenship said. “I thought I was pretty late. But at the end of the day, I’ve just got to be better doing that and be better doing my job.”
The defense also had breakdowns in coverage. Wide receiver Demarcus Robinson’s 61-yard reception against Mitchell on the second play of the game brought the 49ers into the red zone. Robinson caught a 2-yard play-action pass for a touchdown, also against Mitchell, putting the 49ers up, 7-0.
In the second quarter, Jennings had a 45-yard reception while aligned in the slot, slipping past Cooper DeJean to make the grab. His big play eventually led to points, too, in the form of a 36-yard field goal.
Elliott’s missed extra point was also costly. Had he made it, the Eagles could have played to tie the game with a field goal on their final possession.
The playoffs are finally here. The Eagles officially kick off their quest to repeat as Super Bowl champions on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field against the San Francisco 49ers.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of their wild-card matchup.
How to watch Eagles vs. Niners
Eagles vs. Niners will kick off on Fox at 4:30 p.m. ET. Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady will call the game from the booth, and Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi will be on the sidelines.
If you’d rather listen to Merrill Reese and Mike Quick call the game, the radio broadcast can be found on 94.1 WIP, and if you’re not heading to the Linc, but want to watch the game with your fellow Birds fans, here are a few spots to check out.
There will be six games played over the next three days. Here’s the full playoff schedule for the wild-card round …
NFC
(4) Rams vs. (5) Panthers | Saturday, 4:30 p.m., Fox
(7) Packers vs. (2) Bears | Saturday, 8 p.m., Prime Video
(6) Niners vs. (3) Eagles | Sunday, 4:30 p.m., Fox
Bye: (1) Seahawks
AFC
(6) Bills vs. (3) Jaguars | Sunday, 1 p.m., CBS
(7) Chargers vs. (2) Patriots | Sunday, 8:15 p.m., NBC
(5) Texans vs. (4) Steelers | Monday, 8:15 p.m., ESPN
Bye: (1) Broncos
Who could the Eagles face in the divisional round?
First, the Birds need to take care of business on Sunday, but if they do, they could face one of three potential remaining NFC teams: the Los Angeles Rams, the Carolina Panthers, or the Chicago Bears. They could not, however, face the Seattle Seahawks or Green Bay Packers.
The lowest advancing seed will play the top-seeded Seahawks in Seattle. And because the Panthers and Rams — the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, respectively — play one another, a team with a lower seed than the Eagles is guaranteed to advance. The Packers (or Niners, if they beat the Eagles) could also be in that spot.
If the Packers beat the Bears, Green Bay would be the lowest remaining seed and would face Seattle. The Eagles would then play the winner of the Panthers-Ram game, and would get to host that team in the divisional round. However, if the Bears win, the Eagles would travel to Chicago for the divisional round, with the Panthers-Rams winner heading to Seattle.
Because the Eagles-Niners game is the final NFC wild-card matchup, the winner won’t have to wait to find out its opponent.
The Eagles could get offensive tackle Lane Johnson, left, back for Sunday’s wild-card game.
Final injury report
It sounds like the Eagles won’t know until Sunday whether or not right tackle Lane Johnson, who has been out since Week 11 with a Lisfranc (foot) injury, will make his return to the offensive line. Johnson, interior lineman Brett Toth (concussion), and outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari (hamstring) are all listed as questionable for the Birds’ wild-card game. Ojulari was the only of the three who practiced fully on Friday. Johnson and Toth were limited all week.
On the flip side, the Eagles will be getting several banged-up players back in time for the playoffs. Defensive tackle Jalen Carter (hip), linebacker Nakobe Dean (hamstring), edge rusher Jaelan Phillips (ankle), tight end Dallas Goedert (knee), and safety Marcus Epps (concussion) were all full participants in Friday’s practice and are expected to play.
Meanwhile the 49ers have quite a few injuries, including to several starters. Veteran tackle Trent Williams, linebackers Dee Winters and Luke Gifford — after the team put LB Tatum Bethune on IR earlier this week — and cornerback Renardo Green are among those listed on the injury report for Sunday’s game. The following players are all questionable:
WR Jacob Cowing (hamstring)
LB Luke Gifford (quadricep)
CB Renardo Green (ankle)
WR Ricky Pearsall (knee, ankle)
DL Keion White (groin, hamstring)
T Trent Williams (hamstring)
LB Dee Winters (ankle)
Eagles-Niners odds
The Birds are a 5.5-point favorite at DraftKings and a 4.5-point favorite at FanDuel as of Friday afternoon. The over/under on both sites is set at 44.5.
As for the Super Bowl, the Seahawks are the betting favorite to win it all. At FanDuel, the Eagles have the fourth-best odds, at +800, behind Seattle, the Rams, and the Broncos. At DraftKings, the Eagles have the fifth-best odds, at +950, also behind the Patriots.
Kevin Patullo is in his first year as the Eagles offensive coordinator.
Storylines to watch
What is the state of the Eagles’ offense? With Johnson potentially set to make his first start since Nov. 16 against the Detroit Lions, the banged-up offensive line could get a big boost.
In the starting offense’s final game of the year in Buffalo, they played one of their best first halves and worst second halves of the year. Which version will show up at the Linc on Sunday? And what will that mean for the future of offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo?
More storylines to watch:
Saquon Barkley is extra excited for this weekend’s showdown with Niners running back Christian McCaffrey, whom he calls “one of the best to ever do it.”
Jeff McLane: “There’s a push when it comes to the Eagles’ underperforming offense vs. the 49ers’ subpar defense; but I give the edge to a great Eagles defense over a very good, but not great 49ers offense.” | Eagles 23, Niners 17.
Jeff Neiburg: “It hasn’t been an encouraging season from the Eagles’ offense, to put it mildly, but the 49ers are down multiple linebackers and don’t have an abundance of talent in the secondary. If the Eagles don’t beat themselves, which you can’t rule out, they should be able to establish a running game that gets the offense back on track.” | Eagles 24, Niners 20.
Olivia Reiner: “Maybe the Eagles can finish what the Seahawks started last week and continue to punish the 49ers on the ground. Maybe Jalen Hurts and the passing attack can exploit the 49ers’ thin inside linebacker corps with passes over the middle of the field. Neither have been characteristic of the offense this season, though. Or, maybe, the defense will stifle Shanahan’s offense while Nick Sirianni, Kevin Patullo, and the Eagles offense do just enough to get by. It wouldn’t be the first time.” | Eagles 24, Niners 20.
Matt Breen: “The Niners had a great finish to the season before their dud against the Seahawks, but they just seem too banged up to hang with the Eagles.” | Eagles 24, Niners 13.
The national media is divided over this one, but there’s a definitely lean toward the home team. Here’s a look at how they are predicting Sunday’s game …
Nick Sirianni opted to rest his starters in Week 18 despite a chance to get the No. 2 seed in the NFC.
What we’re saying about the Eagles
Our columnists had plenty to say about the Eagles this week, including Mike Sielski, who believes their toughest opponent is not any team in the bracket, but themselves.
“From Eagles fans to the players themselves, there has seemed to be an ever-present blanket of expectations weighing on them. It’s as if the only thing that would make anyone happy and relieved at any moment this season would be another Super Bowl victory — a benchmark so lofty that it virtually guarantees people will be worried at best and miserable at worst unless the Eagles win every game 49-0.”
Here’s more from our columnists …
David Murphy: “The pertinent question for Kevin Patullo and the Eagles now is what the offense will look like moving forward. This is a weird time of year. Sunday’s wild-card game against the 49ers could be the start of a month of football that leaves us memory-holing our four months of angst. Or, it could be the start of the offseason, and a litany of questions that sound way closer to January 2024 than January 2025.”
Marcus Hayes: “It was Zack Baun. The best linebacker in football over the last two seasons. The man tasked Sunday with covering and tackling Christian McCaffrey, the best offensive player in football, and George Kittle, the league’s best tight end. In a city that still worships linebackers like Chuck Bednarik, Seth Joyner, and Bill Bergey, Baun somehow remains largely anonymous.”
Mike Sielski: “There’s more than one way to be an excellent head coach, even if one of those ways gets a little more attention, a little more scrutiny, a little more credit these days. The film can tell you how good a coach Kyle Shanahan is. What Nick Sirianni does well sometimes isn’t so easy to see. Come Sunday, may the best savant win.”
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is a big Vic Fangio fan.
What the Niners are saying
Kyle Shanahan is one of Vic Fangio’s biggest fans. Shanahan is such a big fan, that he’s tried to hire Fangio in San Francisco “all the times that there’s been an opportunity.”
“I mean, Vic schematically, he has always been the best to me,” Shanahan said. “As good as anyone there is. Has a very sound scheme that he doesn’t need to change up very much. It just naturally changes with how he does his coverages, how he does his fronts, the personnel groupings he does. He’s very good at getting a bead on what you’re trying to do and making you adjust.”
Sunday should be an extremely hostile environment for the Niners. Tight end George Kittle recalled a few of his craziest stories on Thursday.
“I just thoroughly enjoy it because it’s so unique every single time,” Kittle said. “I’ll never forget my rookie season, the year they won the Super Bowl, it was my first time playing in the Linc. There were like four 10-year-old kids holding a seven-foot tall papier-mâché middle finger that had a rotating thing on it that made the middle finger come up. That was the coolest thing, I’ll never forget it. That was my rookie year and I was like this is excellent.”
Kittle isn’t the only member of the 49ers offense looking forward to playing in the Linc. Kyle Juszczyk is also ready to take on Eagles fans.
“It’s more difficult [going into a hostile environment] but the payoff is better,” Juszczyk told reporters. “There’s nothing like that feeling of going into a hostile territory and getting a win. Yeah, it’s a little bit more difficult, but it’ll be worth it in the end.”
Heading into the Eagles’ wild-card matchup with the San Francisco 49ers, fans have plenty of questions surrounding the team’s offense, adjustments they could make in the playoffs, and players who may step up in the postseason.
Before Sunday’s game at Lincoln Financial Field, The Inquirer’s Olivia Reiner took to Reddit for an AMA — or “Ask Me Anything” — to answer reader questions about the team … and the future of its offensive coordinator.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Despite the 11-win season, the offense has felt ‘enigmatic’ (and at times dysfunctional) compared to the defense this year. In your opinion, is the disconnect primarily viewed as a play-calling issue with Kevin Patullo, or are there deeper issues with the offensive players this year?
Reiner: It would be very easy to chalk all of the offense’s dysfunction up to one thing, but I don’t think that’s fair. The blame deserves to be spread around. But just anecdotally speaking, I feel like there have been too many instances this year where Hurts doesn’t have anywhere to go with the ball. He’s been forced to make plays out of structure, whether he’s scrambling for yardage or extending the play.
I think we saw in the season finale with Tanner McKee and the backups what happens when the Eagles don’t have a quarterback who can do those things. Re: the lack of answers, how much is that on Patullo for the play call? How much is that on Hurts for not changing the play if he has the freedom to do so based on what the defense presents before the snap? Or on the offense for not getting to the line fast enough for Hurts to make a change? Only the Eagles really know.
Jalen Hurts’ designed runs have been more frequent during the second half of the season.
What adjustments could we hope to see for the offense to finally get going in the playoffs
Reiner: I’m curious to see if Kevin Patullo calls more designed runs for Jalen Hurts now that the team is in the playoffs and they could be a little less concerned with the self-preservation aspect of it. Hurts has insisted throughout the season that his designed rushes being down are more of a product of the offense, not so much an issue of keeping him healthy, though, although Nick Sirianni has acknowledged the health aspect of it.
I wrote about Hurts’ designed rushes being down this year last month. His rushing ability has the power to help keep defenses honest and open up opportunities for his teammates. That could be the most logical tweak to the offense this late in the game. I wouldn’t expect wholesale changes at this point.
Do you think the eagles offense will be able to get it done if they don’t put together four solid quarters in four straight games?
Reiner: Well, that’s how they’ve won most games this season! Many games have come down to Vic Fangio’s defense playing nearly flawless to bail out an inconsistent offense. A.J. Brown referred to it earlier in the season as the defense putting a “Band-Aid” over the offense’s inability to produce over a full four quarters.
I’m not sure if that method will fly in the playoffs. The competition, of course, gets better in the postseason. But can the Eagles offense suddenly become this consistent, well-oiled machine after sputtering so many times throughout the regular season? I think they’re still going to need the defense to bail them out, and that doesn’t sound like a recipe for success going forward.
Jahan Dotson has just 18 catches on the season. Could he be more impactful in the postseason?
If you had to pick a player likely to take a big step forward in production in the playoffs, who would it be? Is anyone unexpected going to break out?
Reiner: Jahan Dotson was kind of that player last postseason, especially in the Super Bowl. I’m more surprised that he hasn’t been more of a factor in the passing game during the regular season given his contributions in February. Maybe he comes down with a couple of key catches in the postseason. Even if it’s just a couple, that would be notable, given that he has just 18 catches on the season (one fewer than 2024).
Regardless of Sunday’s outcome, do you expect major changes to the coordinator staff this offseason? Hopefully that change involves Kevin Patullo.
Reiner: This is pure speculation and not reporting: I would think that Sunday’s outcome has to be taken into consideration regarding any changes at the offensive coordinator position, and the outcome of any additional playoff games. A wild-card exit wouldn’t reflect well on anybody. Another Super Bowl win would. This postseason run is important for Kevin Patullo, as my colleague David Murphy wrote about this morning.
To check out the rest of Olivia’s AMA, click here.
If someone told you 18 weeks ago that the Eagles would be kicking off the playoffs at home with a healthy roster, you probably would have been quite excited.
On the other hand, if you read and listened to what the national media has said about the team’s rocky road, you might be less cheerful.
As the team prepares for its wild-card matchup against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday (4:30 p.m., Fox29), here’s a look at some of the recent chatter surrounding the Birds, from their evolving run game to the current revolving door of NFL head coaches — and how that could impact Philly …
Hurts, by design
There has probably been a time while watching the Eagles this season when you’ve wondered where some of those great play calls from last season went.
A significant piece missing from the playbook, and one many fans have been clamoring to see deployed more, is designed runs for Jalen Hurts. The fifth-year quarterback posted career lows in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in 2025, with 45 fewer rushing attempts than last year.
According to ESPN’s Bill Barnwell, the Eagles have been working toward increasing Hurts’ rushing attempts just in time to face a 49ers defense dealing with a number of injuries to its linebacker unit. Veterans Eric Kendricks and Kyzir White (a former Eagle) could start Sunday.
“The Eagles have quietly expanded Hurts’ rushing volume in recent weeks,” Barnwell wrote. “With the offense seemingly picking up one third-and-long per game with a quarterback draw. Leaving sneaks, scrambles and kneels aside, Hurts had just 10 designed runs through Week 10. The Eagles then gave him 17 designed runs over the next six games, yielding 100 yards and seven first downs. After a week of rest and with the stakes raised, I would expect to see more Hurts in the QB run game, which adds another efficient play to the offense and helps make life easier for Barkley.”
Nick Sirianni has the best winning percentage and third most wins of any coach in Eagles franchise history.
The NFL’s coaching carousel
This week, including Black Monday, saw several NFL head coaches fired. Mike McDaniel and Kevin Stefanski, excused from their duties with the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns, respectively, headline a lengthy list of talented play callers, but no name looms quite as large as John Harbaugh.
Let go on Tuesday after 18 years with the Baltimore Ravens, Harbaugh, the former Super Bowl winner and AP Coach of the Year, will be a hot commodity.
Nick Wright, host of Fox Sports’ First Things First, believes that if the Eagles struggle Sunday, Howie Roseman could boot Sirianni for a chance at landing the newly single Harbaugh.
“If Philly loses in bad fashion, I think that is the exact type of perfect fit for Harbaugh,” Wright said. “Harbaugh, I don’t want to say he’s not a schematics guy, but he’s not an offensive coordinator or a defensive coordinator, he’s a culture CEO head coach. Howie Roseman wants to pick the coordinators anyway. He’s not going to be in the offensive game plan the way some of these young, brilliant head coaches would want to be as it is. We have seen them be very bold with championship-caliber and championship-winning head coaches.”
“I do think Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman are the type of people that will say, ‘Is he better?’” Wright finished. “If we can get the guy who’s better, shouldn’t we do that? I just think they are fearless in that.”
If firing Sirianni a year after winning the Super Bowl for a coach that last saw playoff success during the Barack Obama presidential administration sounds ludicrous, just remember that Wright is the same guy who picked the Chiefs to three-peat and said the Eagles had a “Jalen Hurts problem.”
Kevin Patullo is in his first season as the Eagles offensive coordinator.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler also believes a coaching shakeup may be in Philadelphia’s future, with many around the league questioning Kevin Patullo’s job security after a difficult year as the Birds’ play caller.
“Some around the league are wondering about the future of Kevin Patullo because of the offense’s struggles,” Fowler wrote. “Patullo has clout in Philadelphia because of his strong relationships with key players and a long-standing position as a Nick Sirianni confidant. The offensive line’s quality of play has certainly not been the same as last year’s, which is bad timing for Patullo. The offense ranks 24th in yards per game, which is tough considering the overall talent of the group.”
Patullo might not be the only assistant coach on his way out, with Fowler also reporting that certain defensive coaches might have earned themselves a promotion elsewhere.
“Additionally, defensive backs coach Christian Parker should be in the mix on the coordinator carousel,” Fowler wrote. “Teams are intrigued by him. And defensive line coach Clint Hurtt has coordinator experience and has helped in developing DTs Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, which could lead to opportunities elsewhere.”
The Eagles’ offense has been the team’s biggest question mark throughout the season. So when Sirianni announced that the team’s offensive starters would sit out the Eagles’ Week 18 matchup vs. the Commanders, it drew plenty of criticism — especially with the No. 2 seed still on the line.
Following the team’s 24-17 loss to the Josh Johnson-led Commanders, criticism intensified even further, but not in the mind of Hall of Fame quarterback and two-time MVP Kurt Warner. Speaking on ESPN’s The Rich Eisen Show, Warner explained his belief that, despite the offense’s inadequacies, fewer reps and more rest was the right way to go.
“Sometimes it pays such huge dividends early in the playoffs when you get a chance to rest and recover,” Warner said. “When other teams are beat up and going through physical games, I just think that lends itself to the advantage for the Philadelphia Eagles, even though I’m with you, I don’t know what we’re going to get from the offense. I don’t know what they’re going to try to do offensively, but San Francisco’s defense hasn’t been great. They haven’t been able to get pressure, giving up some yards in the run game.
“So I just feel like, from a matchup standpoint, as struggling as this Philly offense has been I feel like it’s a good matchup for Philly against that defense to start the playoffs.
Despite a loss in the regular season finale, the Eagles are heading into the playoffs healthy and rested — and trending in the right direction. Philadelphia (11-6) ended its season winning three of its last four games, earning the NFC East crown.
Now, all that stands in the way of a rematch against the Chicago Bears in the divisional round are the San Francisco 49ers (12-5), fresh off a Week 18 loss of their own. With wild-card weekend rapidly approaching, here is an updated look at the game odds and player props from the two biggest sportsbooks …
Eagles vs. 49ers wild-card odds
The last time these teams played in the playoffs was in the 2023 NFC championship game. The Eagles trounced the 49ers 31-7 in a game that was over quickly and saw both Niners quarterbacks injured. Now, three years later, both FanDuel and DraftKings have the defending Super Bowl champions as slight favorites, up a point from where they were Monday.
Jalen Hurts never touched the field in the Eagles’ Week 18 loss to the Washington Commanders, as head coach Nick Sirianni opted for player health with no chance at a first-round bye. Hurts threw for a mere 110 yards in his last outing against the Bills, with under 50% of his passes finding the target.
San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy managed just 127 yards on 19 of 27 passing against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. For this week’s game, oddsmakers set Hurts’ total around 208 yards, while Purdy’s is near 228.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts got the day off against the Commanders Sunday.
Passing touchdown props
After five touchdown passes in a two-game span, Hurts had a down week against the Bills. He had just one touchdown throw, as the Eagles were shut out in the second half. Purdy did not throw a touchdown pass against the Seahawks.
Like Hurts, running back Saquon Barkley also had the week off against the Commanders. He ran for 68 yards a week earlier against the Bills, following a 132-yard performance in Washington in Week 16. Christian McCaffrey had 23 yards on 8 carries against the Seahawks last Saturday.
Will George Kittle lead all receivers in yards on Sunday?
Receiving yard props
Wide receiver A.J. Brown joined Hurts and Barkley as an inactive last week, while DeVonta Smith played briefly in the final game of the regular season. Smith finished the game with three catches for 52 yards, pushing himself over 1,000 yards for the third straight season. McCaffrey had 6 catches for 34 yards and Jauan Jennings totaled 35 yards on 4 catches vs. Seattle.
In Week 18, Tank Bigsby and Grant Calcaterra were the Eagles only touchdown scorers, but that was without most of the Birds starters playing. The 49ers were held without a touchdown against Seattle.
As Champagne showered behind him in the Eagles’ postgame locker room following their Super Bowl LIX victory, Jeffrey Lurie raved to reporters about Jalen Hurts’ “clutch gene.”
Hurts, then 26, dazzled under the bright lights of the Superdome, earning Super Bowl MVP honors after he totaled 293 yards (221 passing, 72 rushing) and three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing). Lurie, the Eagles’ owner, noted that his quarterback seemed to amp up his play when the stakes were the highest.
That so-called clutch gene, according to Hurts, is truly inherent.
“Some things are in you,“ Hurts explained Wednesday.
Hurts will have an opportunity to flaunt that trait again on Sunday when the Eagles return to the playoffs after last year’s Super Bowl win. They will start from the beginning once more in the wild-card round against the San Francisco 49ers, a team they have not faced since 2023.
The opponent may be relatively unfamiliar, but the postseason is a familiar stage to Hurts. In his fifth season as the Eagles’ starter, he is tied for the best playoff win percentage (6-3; 66.7%) among postseason quarterbacks with the 49ers’ Brock Purdy (4-2; 66.7%).
Hurts has more overall playoff experience than Purdy and a Lombardi Trophy to his name. That experience, Hurts said, informs his approach to the postseason.
“I think experience is the biggest teacher,” Hurts said. “So a lot of moments you can lean on experience in itself. So just being able to reflect on, not always someone else’s opinions but your own experiences, that’s valuable.”
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles last played the Niners in 2023.
Hurts has experience playing against the Kyle Shanahan-led 49ers, too. Hurts has started at quarterback against San Francisco three times in his career from 2021-23, including the NFC championship victory that punched their ticket to Super Bowl LVII in the 2022-23 season.
Shanahan isn’t calling the defense, though. Hurts has yet to face a 49ers defense led by Robert Saleh, who rejoined the staff as defensive coordinator this year. Despite his lack of direct experience with Saleh’s 49ers, he is familiar with their physical brand of football.
“I think any time we’ve matched up against this team, it’s been a very physical, fast, and intense game,” Hurts said. “So we’ve got a lot of respect for this opponent and how they play ball and the mentality that they have. That’s something that we have a lot of respect for.”
But the 49ers defense of late isn’t the same group that throttled the Eagles, 42-19, two seasons ago. For one, Dre Greenlaw, who got into it with Eagles security chief Dom DiSandro on the sideline in that game, is no longer on the team.
That isn’t the only difference, nor the most notable. Injuries have ravaged Saleh’s unit this season, with inside linebacker Fred Warner and defensive ends Nick Bosa and Mykel Williams sustaining long-term injuries that will prevent them from suiting up on Sunday.
The San Francisco inside linebacker corps has experienced the most turnover of any position. All five linebackers who made the 49ers’ initial 53-man roster out of training camp are injured, including projected starter Dee Winters, who did not practice on Wednesday due to an ankle ailment.
The 49ers will be missing defensive end Nick Bosa (center) and linebacker Fred Warner (right) for Sunday’s wild-card matchup.
The Eagles, meanwhile, are potentially getting healthier. Lane Johnson returned to practice on Wednesday for the first time since he sustained a Lisfranc foot injury in the Nov. 16 win over the Detroit Lions. His status for Sunday’s game remains in question, as he was a limited participant in Wednesday’s practice.
Hurts is healthy, too, and fresh off a week of rest, luxuries the Eagles haven’t always had in the postseason. His good health seemingly correlates with his career-low as a starter in rushing attempts this season (105). But Hurts pushed back on the notion that the decrease in carries was intended to keep him out of harm’s way.
“I think the season just kind of going the way it has, the approach this year and how the games have been called with this coordinator, with coach KP [Kevin Patullo],” Hurts said. “It’s just kind of going that way. Just kind of taking it in stride and tried to give my best, whatever position I’ve been put in.”
Hurts has been put in all kinds of positions this season, whether he handed the ball off to Saquon Barkley or dropped back more to pass. The Eagles have shown flashes of an identity at times throughout the season, especially when to establish the run game and build passing concepts off those looks. But their overall performance as a group has been characterized by inconsistency.
Still, winning in multiple ways, according to Hurts, isn’t necessarily bad.
“I think it depends on what perspective you look at, half empty or half full,” Hurts said. “I think being able to evolve and change as much as we have and still find ways to win, maybe gives off this perspective of, ‘Well, what are they going to do? Who are they?’ I do definitely think that is a way that you can look at it.
“Also, at the end of the day, we’re not going to be judged off how it got done. We’re going to be judged off if we did it or not. So my focus is on doing it.”
Hurts and his clutch gene have done it before in the playoffs. Doing it again hinges on whether he can help the offense, as listless as it has been at times this season, find a new gear.
The perimeter of the gridiron isn’t necessarily the vantage point the Eagles quarterback enjoys. But with the playoffs looming, Nick Sirianni is expected to rest most of his key starters for the regular-season finale against the Washington Commanders, even with the NFC’s No. 2 seed up for grabs.
That choice is out of Hurts’ hands. And he says he has faith in those decision-makers that they’re making the right one.
“Just giving my trust to the coaches and trusting their plans and everything that we do,” Hurts said Wednesday. “Obviously, I’m very competitive. Every opportunity we have, we want to take advantage of and try and go out there and compete at a high level. So if that opportunity is given to us this week, I’ll have that mentality, just as I had last week.”
That trust extends beyond Sirianni’s decision. For all of the ups and downs the Eagles offense has experienced this season, Hurts emphasized the trust he has in the coaching staff to put the players in advantageous situations going forward.
Sunday’s 13-12 win over the Buffalo Bills was a microcosm of the offense’s inconsistency this season. The group had a solid start in the first half, then cobbled together just 17 yards in 17 plays in the second.
Jalen Hurts and the offense had a miserable second half in Sunday’s win at Buffalo.
The Eagles couldn’t recover from their inefficiency on early downs in the second half. They punted on all five second-half possessions, outside of the final kneel down.
Following the early-December mini-bye in the aftermath of the loss to the Chicago Bears, Hurts said the sequencing of the offense from seasons past was one of the details he focused on in his film study. But as evidenced by Sunday night’s performance, an inefficient first down is going to make it more difficult on offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo to sequence the ensuing plays.
While Hurts acknowledged he has opinions and even a degree of influence over the sequencing of plays, he said it’s not his primary focus.
“As a quarterback, you want to go out there and purely focus on executing what’s called and doing that,” Hurts said. “We all have a feel for the rhythm of a game and how it flows. And I think as a unit, you don’t want to speak from a place of divisiveness or anything, but we are what we are, and we have what we have, and we’ve got a great opportunity in front of us, and so everybody’s working together to try and figure those things out.
“Ultimately, trusting my teammates to go out there and make plays. We’ve got to master the material. We’ve got to know what to do. We’ve got to know where to line up and operate efficiently and control the things we can, and then, from a coaching standpoint, I trust our coaches to go out there and put us in good positions.”
Every year, Hurts is required to reestablish that sense of trust with his offensive play caller, which this season is Patullo. Hurts has had a revolving door of offensive play callers since he was drafted in 2020 (and even before that as a college player at Oklahoma and Alabama).
One of his constant companions as an Eagle has been Tanner McKee, the 25-year-old backup who is expected to start Sunday for the first time this season. Since the Eagles drafted McKee in 2023, he has been a valued sounding board for Hurts.
“I think the conversations, the dialogue, those things are very important in the quarterback room,” Hurts said. “And considering he’s been a constant in the room for the last three years he’s been here, being able to go through some of those changes together and process those things and take the coaching and go out there and play — I think that’s very beneficial.”
For now, the focus is on preparing McKee and the rest of the backups for the Commanders. But in just two weeks, Hurts is slated to return to action as the playoffs begin.
It’s a stage he knows well, having appeared in the postseason in every year since he’s been the starter. That experience, Hurts said, is the biggest teacher, especially for an offense that has “played ball together” dating back to last season.
Can that experience provide a spark in the playoffs? Despite the inconsistency that has defined the offense this year, Hurts is optimistic about the opportunity ahead.
“For everything it’s been this year, we’ve got a great opportunity in front of us,” Hurts said. “And that’s not saying that in a bad way. We’ve done a lot of special things this year. We’ve set a high standard for ourselves. And when you’ve had the level of success you have that comes with it, ultimately, nothing else matters.
“As we play through this week and prepare through this week and then enter the tournament, it’s 0-0 for everyone. And so the mentality is just go find a way to win.”
