The NFL announced it has partnered with Lululemon and Fanatics to release a new apparel collection featuring all 32 teams across the league. This is the NFL’s first collaboration with the retailer.
The collection, which will be available exclusively at NFL Shop, Fanatics, and team shops starting Oct. 28, will feature Lululemon pieces for both men and women — and some Eagles.
“Together with Fanatics, we are introducing an elevated collection that redefines modern fan apparel and is uniquely designed for everyday comfort,” said Renie Anderson, the NFL’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer. “Lululemon boasts a loyal fan base built on culture, meaningful connections, and innovation, qualities that thoroughly reflect the NFL.”
Former Eagles player Emmanuel Acho (right) poses with his brother and former Bears player, Sam Acho, to promote the NFL’s partnership with Lululemon and Fanatics.
The collection will include products from the retailer’s signature lines like Define, Scuba, and Align. Featured items will include crew neck sweaters, hoodies, quarter zips, crop tops, athletic wear, and belt bags.
To promote the collection, former players are part of the brand’s “Welcome to the Fam Club” campaign, including Nick Foles and Emmanuel Acho, both former Eagles. Joe Montana and Ryan Clark are also featured in the campaign.
“True NFL fans wear their pride. For them, fan gear is more than apparel, it’s a badge of loyalty and a way to instantly connect with a community that is like a family,” said Celeste Burgoyne, Lululemon’s president of Americas and global guest innovation. “We looked to honor that passionate devotion and are thrilled to be part of that ritual found throughout the NFL season.”
Although this is the first time Lululemon has partnered with the NFL, this is the second collaboration between Lululemon and Fanatics. The two partnered in 2024 to curate a collection of NHL Lululemon gear for 11 teams before expanding to all 32 teams the following year.
The collection featuring gear from all 32 NFL teams is set to release Oct. 28.
“We’re thrilled that Lululemon is bringing its premium apparel into the NFL for the first time,” said Andrew Low Ah Kee, Fanatics’ CEO of commerce. “This launch reflects our commitment to delivering elevated fan experiences and expanding our assortment with products that blend sport, fashion, and fandom. We’re proud to offer it across our online platform and team stores, giving fans new ways to show up with pride — on game day and every day.”
Saquon Barkley warms up before Sunday’s win against the Giants.
Running back Saquon Barkley left the game following the final play of the third quarter with a groin injury, but told reporters he could have gone back into the game if needed.
Wide receiver A.J. Brown sat out Sunday’s game with a hamstring injury. NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport reported Brown shouldn’t be sidelined for long and is expected to be able to play in the Birds’ Week 10 matchup against the Green Bay Packers after the bye.
Center Cam Jurgens didn’t play Sunday with a knee injury. It’s unclear when he’ll return.
Nick Sirianni weighs in on Kevin Patullo’s growth this season
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts talks to Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni and Offensive Coordinator Kevin Patullo during the second quarter at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia , PA.
Maybe the bye week is coming at a bad time. Who wouldn’t want to keep it rolling after the offense put together arguably its best four-quarter performance under new coordinator Kevin Patullo?
The Eagles posted a complete effort Sunday and finally found success running the football and passing it during the same game. They schemed up the pin-and-pull block game and showed their under-center versatility.
It has been a bumpy first eight games for Patullo after taking the reins from Kellen Moore. But Sunday — which followed a strong showing with the aerial attack last week — showed the Eagles might be on a better path.
“I think he’s done a good job of continuing to get better, just like our players,” Sirianni said of Patullo. “Every team is a new team so there’s a growth period whether there’s a first-time play caller or not. There’s a growth period within each year for the players, for the coaches, everything. That’s what the first weeks of the season are for, is to find ways to win, find ways to get better, and really be in that continual growth mindset all the way through so you’re playing your best football in November, December, January hopefully.”
Updated Eagles’ Super Bowl and Jalen Hurts MVP odds
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts runs off the field after beating the New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday.
The Eagles improved to 6-2 after a dominant 38-20 win over the New York Giants Sunday. Jalen Hurts had another efficient performance in which he threw for 179 passing yards and four touchdowns — and just five incompletions. Meanwhile, the Birds’ running game took a big step forward, recording 276 yards on the ground.
As the Birds head into the bye week, they are still the favorites to win the NFC East and remain one of the top five favorites to win the Super Bowl, according to FanDuel.
Chiefs (+500)
Lions (+700)
Packers (+750)
Bills (+800)
Eagles (+950)
But at DraftKings, the Birds remain outside of the top five, behind the Los Angeles Rams and the Indianapolis Colts.
Chiefs (+500)
Lions (+650)
Packers (+700)
Bills (+750)
Colts (+900)
Rams (+1000)
Eagles (+1100)
In terms of MVP odds, Hurts’ chances have slightly improved after his performance in the Eagles’ win on Sunday. Meanwhile, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes continue to battle for the top two spots at both sportsbooks.
Nick Sirianni’s message to coaches and players for the bye week
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni walks with Dom DiSandro before the team’s game against the Giants.
The Eagles hit the bye this week with a 6-2 record.
For players, it’s a time to relax and heal up and get some time away from the facility. For coaches, it’s a time to rest but also get ready for the rest of the season.
What’s Nick Sirianni’s message to both parties?
For the coaches: “I think it’s so important that we are completely locked in and focused on finding ways to get better, identifying issues, identifying strengths, and this is a really important week,” Sirianni said Monday. “We’ve benefited from this week in the past, whether that be going into the playoffs or whether it’s in the regular season. It’s that same motivation and that same hunger to do everything that we can do to help the football team.”
As for the players, Sirianni said the message was mostly about getting rest but staying mentally focused on what’s ahead.
“This bye week sets you up for some things for the rest of the season,” Sirianni said.
A.J. Brown is ‘not going to get traded,’ says ESPN’s Adam Schefter
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman hasn’t been shy about making moves at the trade deadline in the past.
A.J. Brown sat out of Sunday’s game due to a hamstring injury. Despite Brown’s absence, the Eagles offense dominated, finishing the game with a season-high 427 total yards. DeVonta Smith remained the centerpiece of the Birds’ passing game, recording six receptions (on nine targets) for 84 yards.
Everything came together for the Eagles, including the team’s previously spotty running game. The Birds recorded 276 yards on the ground, with Saquon Barkley eclipsing 100 rushing yards for the first time this season.
With all the drama surrounding Brown’s latest social media posts, and the team’s success without him on the field, there’s already even more discussion centered around whether the team should trade the receiver.
“The only thing that gets or punctures momentum and a loaded roster is drama,” said Colin Cowherd on The Colin Cowherd Podcast. “And I’m watching them today and I’m like oh [expletive]. They almost have 300 yards rushing. Some of this is tied to A.J. Brown’s absence. They’re just free to do what they want to do. … I just don’t think this team needs A.J. Brown.”
“They’re not going to trade A.J. Brown,” Schefter said on ESPN’s Get Up. “Here’s the deal. They’re trying to repeat as a Super Bowl champion. They’re in the business of acquiring talent, not giving it away. And whatever they can get back for A.J. Brown, they can get back in February or March before the draft. They’re going to want him here to help the stretch run after the big win here, he’s not going to get traded.”
Big Dom brought pizza and cheesesteaks to Cam Skattebo after Philly ankle surgery
Cam Skattebo had a surprise visitor at Penn Presbyterian on Monday:#Eagles Do-it-all Chief of Security Dom DiSandro, who dropped off pizza and cheesesteaks for the Giants rookie while he was still at the Philly hospital after dislocating his ankle on Sunday.
Saquon Barkley signals first down after Jalen Hurts’ fumble was negated by an early whistle.
The NFL continues to allow the Eagles to run the Tush Push, but that play earned another strike against it when the owners meet next spring.
Assuming a team introduces another proposal to ban the controversial short-yardage play — which has been assailed as an injury risk, which is ridiculous, and has been assailed as a penalty magnet, which is legitimate — Sunday’s debacle will add fuel to whatever fire remains from last spring’s 22-10 vote, which was two ballots shy of a ban.
Facing fourth-and-1 at the Giants’ 11 early in the second quarter, Jalen Hurts and his line surged forward and Hurts peeled off slightly to the left. Floating on a sea of humanity, Hurts clearly never stopped moving toward the line to gain, and as he reached the ball forward, Giants linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux stripped him of the ball and recovered it.
The play was not reviewable because forward progress is not a reviewable issue.
The larger issue here is, officials don’t seem to be able to consistently rule correctly on a number of areas, among them: whether the defense moves too early; whether the defense lines up in the neutral zone; whether the offensive line moves early; or whether the offense lines up in the neutral zone.
Sunday, they didn’t properly gauge forward progress, even with the runner in plain view.
The final was 38-20, but the call was enormous in the context of the game. Instead of losing the ball to a Giants team that had just completed a 52-yard touchdown drive, the Eagles retained possession and scored a touchdown two plays later to make it 14-7.
It was just the first seven-point swing the officials delivered to the home team.
Quinyon Mitchell breaks up a pass intended for Darius Slayton during Sunday’s win.
Teams don’t often test Quinyon Mitchell, but the Giants on Sunday took to staying away from the second-year corner in a way no other team has.
Jaxson Dart threw to Mitchell’s primary responsibility just once on Sunday. According to Next Gen Stats, Mitchell had never allowed fewer than two targets in a game and no receptions in his career prior to Sunday, and he became one of 10 cornerbacks to allow one or fewer targets for no receptions in a game this season.
Mitchell played 27 coverage snaps Sunday, and 13 of those were in man coverage. His lone target came in man coverage. Mitchell broke up a third-and-16 throw from Dart to Darius Slayton with the Giants near midfield and trailing just 14-7 near the midway point of the second quarter.
Mitchell is allowing a passer rating of just 73.9 so far in 2025, down from 88.7 during his rookie season. Mitchell’s catch allowed percentage is at 47.9%, down from 56.6%. That percentage is third among all NFL defensive backs who have been targeted 25 or more times this season, according to Next Gen.
Jalyx Hunt’s big day comes with the NFL trade deadline looming
Jalyx Hunt, seen here pressuring Jaxson Dart, had one of the best games of his NFL career.
Jalyx Hunt finally got home and sacked the quarterback, and it was a fitting day for the second-year edge defender to at long last get into the sack column.
Hunt had arguably his best day as an NFL player. According to Next Gen Stats, Hunt totaled a career-high nine pressures on 22 pass rushes, four more than his previous best of five. His 40.9% pressure rate was also the best of his young NFL career. Hunt, according to Next Gen, created pressures against four different Giants offensive linemen, including six pressures against right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor on 17 matchups.
#Eagles EDGE Jalyx Hunt finished with a career high nine pressures against the #Giants, had one sack on Jaxson Dart, per @NextGenStats. Hunt also was a strong run defender, as New York averaged just 3.8 yards per carry when they ran to his side. Hunt had 3 run tackles on 14 run… pic.twitter.com/mGsI3vIbe2
The sentiment in the locker room last week in Minnesota, after the Eagles’ rush finally got to Carson Wentz in key moments, was that more sacks were coming. The Eagles got to Dart for five sacks Sunday, with five different players getting on the board.
The Eagles dressed just three edge rushers for Sunday’s game. Hunt played 71% of the snaps while Josh Uche played 60% and Patrick Johnson played 50% of the time. The edge rushing corps has been decimated by injury and then the retirement of Za’Darius Smith. But more help is on the way. The Eagles signed Brandon Graham out of retirement this week and are due to get Nolan Smith back from injured reserve soon.
Hunt’s big day came at an interesting time for the Eagles. The trade deadline is just a week away, on Nov. 4, and edge rush was still an area the Eagles were thought to need some help — even after they brought Graham back.
It remains to be seen if Howie Roseman will be comfortable with a rotation of Smith, Hunt, Uche, Johnson, Graham, and Azeez Ojulari (when healthy), or if he’ll add more talent, but Hunt has made a strong case that the Eagles have enough right now. He had five pressures last week and has six games this season of at least three.
He also made an impact against the run. Hunt, according to Next Gen, had three run tackles on 14 run snaps, and the Giants tallied just 3.8 yards per carry when running in Hunt’s direction.
‘We almost didn’t bring him back’: Dallas Goedert a key part of Eagles’ 6-2 start
Dallas Goedert has seven receiving touchdowns this season, tied for the most in the NFL.
Let’s allow Jordan Mailata to explain the season Dallas Goedert is having in the way Mailata does best, with a touch of swearing and some humorous perspective.
“That [expletive] guy,” Mailata said Sunday after Goedert caught two touchdowns in the Eagles’ 38-20 win over the New York Giants. “We almost didn’t bring him back. Can you believe that [stuff]? How funny is that? How funny is that?”
Yes, there was a time during the offseason when it appeared as if the Eagles would part ways with Goedert after seven seasons. Goedert himself even confronted that possibility before the Eagles reworked his contract to bring him back on a one-year deal worth more than $10 million but less than the original $14.25 million that would’ve been owed to him on his previous deal.
Just how valuable has Goedert been to the Eagles? He is tied for the NFL lead in receiving touchdowns with seven. He reached a new career-high with his sixth touchdown of the season on a second-quarter score Sunday then got to the end zone again early in the fourth quarter to extend the Eagles’ lead to 31-13 and put the game out of reach.
Here are some notable numbers (courtesy of the Eagles) after the Eagles’ 38-20 victory over the Giants:
According to Elias, Nick Sirianni is the eighth head coach in league history to start 6-2 or better in four of their first five career seasons. The others are Paul Brown, Guy Chamberlin, Jon Gruden, George Halas, Chuck Knox, Don Shula and Mike Tomlin.
Sunday’s win was Sirianni’s 60th including the postseason, tied with Dick Vermeil for third all-time in franchise history.
The Eagles are 13-0 against the Giants at Lincoln Financial Field since 2014 (including playoffs). The Eagles are 16-4 overall vs. New York over the last 20 matchups.
The Eagles’ 276 rushing yards Sunday are the most by an NFL team this season.
Including the playoffs, Saquon Barkley has eight rushing touchdowns of 60-plus yards since he joined the Eagles. That’s the same amount as the next three closest Eagles combined since 2000: Miles Sanders (3), Brian Westbrook (3) and Bryce Brown (2).
Barkley and Tank Bigsby became the first Eagles duo to each rush for 100-plus yards in a game since Bryce Brown (115) and LeSean McCoy (133) on Dec. 22, 2013 vs. Chicago.
Jalen Hurts is the third Eagles quarterback since the 1970 NFL merger to produce a 140-plus passer rating in consecutive games, joining Nick Foles (2013) and Randall Cunningham (1992).
Dallas Goedert is tied with Amon-Ra St. Brown for the NFL lead in receiving touchdowns (7).
Lane Johnson made his 166th career regular season appearance, tying Tra Thomas for the ninth-most games played in franchise history. Johnson and Thomas are also tied for the second-most games by an Eagles offensive lineman in the Super Bowl Era, trailing only Jason Kelce (193).
Eagles snap counts: Nakobe Dean overtaking Jihaad Campbell?
Nakobe Dean defends a pass to Giants running back Devin Singletary during Sunday’s game.
The Eagles were able to pull their defensive starters with six minutes to go after building a 25-point lead, so Sunday’s snap counts are a little busier than normal. Let’s get to some of the takeaways from the playing time.
Jihaad Campbell’s workload decreased. Nakobe Dean’s, meanwhile, increased. Campbell played just 21 of the 52 (40%) defensive snaps while Dean played 33. A changing of the guard? We won’t know Vic Fangio’s thoughts until after the bye.
The early pulling of the defense meant two rookies saw their first work of the season with the defense: Linebacker Smael Mondon Jr., and cornerback Mac McWilliams, both of whom played seven snaps.
The Eagles rolled with three active edge rushers: Jalyx Hunt (71%), Josh Uche (60%), and Patrick Johnson (50%). Campbell also took eight of his 21 snaps along the defensive front, according to Pro Football Focus. The Eagles finally rushed well for nearly a complete game, and they’re adding Brandon Graham to the mix and will soon get Nolan Smith back, likely after the bye.
Kelee Ringo (81%) started the game and played until it was time to pull the starters. Is the revolving door at CB2 over with? We’ll see.
Over on offense, the Eagles were able to start and finish a game with an offensive line unit intact. That’s been a rarity. Of course, Cam Jurgens missed the game with an injury, but the Eagles didn’t have to move pieces around on the fly. They did get to put rookie Drew Kendall in the game in the fourth quarter for his first four snaps of the season.
The Eagles dressed four running backs, but AJ Dillon didn’t see the field. That’s two straight weeks the veteran wasn’t used after he was inactive last week vs. Minnesota. Saquon Barkley (59%) probably would have played a little more if he didn’t tweak his groin. Behind Barkley was Tank Bigsby (27%), who went over 100 yards on just nine carries, and Will Shipley (14%). That seems to be the pecking order right now.
With A.J. Brown out, it was a heavy workload for Jahan Dotson, who played 42 of the 59 snaps (71%). Darius Cooper, activated off injured reserve, saw more snaps (26) than he had in his first three games (20). John Metchie (9) and Xavier Gipson (5) even saw extended run.
Tanner McKee (4 snaps) also got on the field for the first time this season.
Unlike 2023, Eagles righted the ship before bye week
Seventeen days ago, Jalen Hurts and the Eagles lost to Jaxson Dart and the New York Giants. They more than righted the ship in the rematch.
It was just 17 days ago that the Eagles lost for the second straight time, lost to the New York Giants by 17 points at MetLife Stadium, lost in so humiliating a fashion that their All-Pro right tackle called out the play-calling as predictable and their star wide receiver admitted that with more than 11 minutes left in the game he had already resigned himself to defeat. It was bad.
Two seasons before, it had been worse. The Eagles had lost back-to-back games to the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, and those pathetic performances triggered the kind of midseason change that reveals a franchise’s leadership has started to panic. The defensive coordinator was demoted. A Bill Belichick acolyte was promoted. And what began as a pebble rolling down a hill turned into an avalanche: six losses in seven games, a head coach whose job was in jeopardy, a collapse whose psychological residue remained on this team for a long time.
Maybe, after their 38-20 victory Sunday in their rematch against the Giants, the Eagles can assure everyone that they’ve scraped away the last of that sticky stuff from 2023. Their Super Bowl win in February took care of most of it, but burping up that late lead against the Denver Broncos on Oct. 5 and getting manhandled by Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo four days later brought up all those bad memories again. The Eagles were 4-2 but reeling, still formidable but vulnerable, and it was fair to wonder whether they could straighten themselves out over their two games before their bye week.
They did. They won a challenging road game against the Minnesota Vikings, then handled an inferior opponent Sunday. Now they enter their 15-day break with a 6-2 record, with a stranglehold on the NFC East, and — despite several injuries to key players, despite the ever-present mist of controversy around A.J. Brown — without the worry that their season was spiraling out of control.
Tom Brady talks with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie before Sunday’s win against the Giants.
During Sunday’s Eagles-Giants broadcast, Tom Brady made a mistake we all make in the living room with our family watching the game — the only problem was that he was live on air for Fox.
After an early scramble by Jalen Hurts to escape a Brian Burns tackle in the first quarter, Brady took a moment to compliment the Eagles starter.
While describing Hurts’ ability to escape the pocket, Brady dropped an obscenity before quickly finishing his sentence in hopes no one noticed … but we noticed.
“Whenever I watch him play it’s like the D-line is almost there to get him,” Brady said. “And then nope, he just squirts away, and they can’t f— …”
A.J. Brown didn’t play Sunday with a hamstring injury.
Eagles receiver A.J. Brown sat out Sunday’s game with a hamstring injury, but that didn’t prevent him from being the center of attention leading up to the game.
ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter reported Brown wasn’t expected to be traded by the Birds ahead of the Nov. 4 trade deadline. The news comes after Brown posted a photo of himself on Instagram last week captioned, “Using me but not using me.”
“We do what’s best for the team,” Lurie said. “We don’t even consider it seriously unless it’s best for the Eagles. We will always do what gives us the best chance of winning big. Everything else is secondary.”
So how do you keep a star receiver happy?
That’s what former New York Jets coach Rex Ryan asked Hall of Famer Peyton Manning yesterday on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown. Manning is more than just an observer — he has said he speaks regularly with Jalen Hurts about the offense and certain plays, and had some advice on the Brown situation.
“People always ask, ‘Hey, why did Marvin Harrison never complain about not getting the ball?’ Because I always threw him the ball!” Manning said.
“I would tell A.J. the grass isn’t always greener on the other side,” Manning added, pointing out he’ll play in some big games over the next few months if he remains in Philly.
“There’s only one ball,” Manning said. “He’s not going to have 10 catches for 160 every single week, but if he just stays in there, I can promise you good things are coming.”
NFC standings: Eagles pad their lead heading into bye week
Jordan Mailata jogs to the vintage Eagles logo at the Linc ahead of Sunday’s game.
The Eagles (6-2) padded their lead in the NFC East Sunday, defeating the Giants (2-6) at the Linc and watching the Dallas Cowboys (3-4-1) get blown out by the Denver Broncos.
The Birds head into their bye week two and a half games up on the Cowboys. The Washington Commanders (3-4) play Monday night against the Kansas City Chiefs (4-3).
NFC East standings
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It remains crowded at the top of the NFC, with seven teams with five or more wins.
The Green Bay Packers (5-1-1) remained in first place, thanks to their win against the Pittsburgh Steelers (4-3) on Sunday Night Football. The Eagles (6-2) head into their bye in second place, and will play the Packers in Week 10 on Monday Night Football on Nov. 10.
The Birds are one of two NFC teams with a 6-2 record, but hold the tiebreaker against the Buccaneers (6-2) thanks to the Eagles’ Week 4 win.
NFC standings
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Jordan Davis stands during the national anthem before Sunday’s game.
Next week is the Eagles’ bye, and when the Birds come back they’ll play five straight national games — three in prime time, one in the late afternoon window on Fox, and one on Black Friday.
They won’t have another 1 p.m. kickoff until Week 15, when they host the Las Vegas Raiders at the Linc on Dec. 14. That could also be their last, with two games against the Washington Commanders yet to be scheduled.
In Week 16, the Birds will play the Commanders on Saturday, Dec. 20, which will be either a 4:30 p.m. or an 8 p.m. kickoff. They’ll also face the Commanders in Week 18, a game that could be elevated to late afternoon or even prime time, depending on what’s at stake.
So why did the NFL lump the Eagles’ two Commanders games into a three-week span at the end of the season? Onnie Bose, the NFL’s vice president of broadcasting (and a Lower Merion High School grad), said the league tries to schedule as many divisional games late in the season as possible, and it just rolled out this way for the Eagles.
“Division games late in the season matter,” Bose told The Inquirer in May. “Playing a team in the division twice in three weeks might feel like a lot, but it does happen.”
The remaining schedule also means it’s not likely you’ll see the Eagles flexed into Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football this season, unless the Raiders somehow become a compelling story over the next eight weeks.
The worst of the coronavirus pandemic that started nearly six years ago is well in the past, but Philadelphia’s biggest nonprofit health systems are still contending with the financial disruption unleashed by the virus that led to thousands of deaths in the area.
Operating conditions for hospitals started improving in 2023, but “the slope of the recovery is a bit more shallow than a lot of health systems had planned for,” said Mark Pascaris, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, one of three major credit ratings agencies.
Patients have returned, but the pandemic led to a resetting of expensesfor labor and supplies at a higher level, Pascaris said. “That’s been the challenge over the last two or three or four years now, trying to manage through a very challenging expense situation,” he said.
To show how the financial landscape has changed, The Inquirer compiled financial data for the region’s six biggest health systems that have fiscal years ending June 30 each year. The analysis compared average operating profits in three years before the pandemic (fiscal years 2017-19) to the results in most recent three years (fiscal years 2023-25).
All six systems showed a substantial drop in a measure of earnings that excludes certain accounting expenses and interest costs. This slice of financial results is known as earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization. Abbreviated as EBIDA, it’s a primary indicator watched by influential credit ratings agencies.
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The experience of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia clearly illustrates what has happened: The organization’s aggregate revenue in the most recent three fiscal years was 58% higher than it was in the three years that ended June 30, 2019, but its EBIDA climbed only by half a percentage point.
“Hospitals and healthcare systems across the country continue to face significant headwinds, driven by reimbursement challenges, increased supply and labor costs, uncertain governmental pressures, and the continued ripple effect of the pandemic,” CHOP said in a statement.
Officials at ChristianaCare, Main Line Health, and Temple University Health System echoed CHOP’s remark.
“Margins were far better prior to the pandemic, largely due to lower supply and labor costs,” Main Line’s chief financial officer Leigh Ehrlich said. “Those costs rose sharply during the pandemic and continue to rise.”
ChristianaCare’s CFO Rob McMurray noted: Not only have Medicare and Medicaid rates not kept up with inflation, but more people have those government forms of insurance for people 65 and older and for low-income people.
The nonprofit is expanding from its base in northern Delaware to Southeastern Pennsylvania and is expanding alternative formats, such as hospital-care-at-home and micro hospitals, to reduce costs, McMurray said.
A significant worry for Temple University Health System is the impact of the 2025 budget reconciliation bill, sometimes called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The North Philadelphia nonprofit estimates that Medicaid cuts in that law will cost it $519 million over the next 10 years, said Jerry Oetzel, the system’s CFO.
Philly theater darling James Ijames, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Fat Ham, will return to local stages with a special spotlight next spring, with a slate of three plays running at three theaters.
Recognizing this scheduling synergy, the venues are partnering to offer a three-ticket pass, called “The Citywide James Ijames Pass.”
The first collaboration of its kind dedicated to a contemporary playwright, the pass covers the Philadelphia premiere of Good Bones at the Arden Theatre (Jan. 22 to March 8), The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington at the Wilma Theater (March 17 to April 5), and the world premiere of Ijames’ latest work, Wilderness Generation, at Philadelphia Theatre Company (April 10 to May 3).
Ijames wrote all of these plays in South Philadelphia, which he considers his artistic home. This year, he left his teaching position at Villanova University to run the playwriting program at Columbia University. While that means he’s spending most of his time in New York now — though his husband, Joel Witter, still works for the Philly school district — Ijames says Philadelphia is “still very much a place where I want to continue to make art.”
“I’ve lived in Philly more than I’ve lived anywhere in my life, so it is incredibly special to me,” said the Tony-nominated playwright, a founding member of the local playwriting collective Orbiter 3.
After growing up in North Carolina and attending Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ijames got his MFA in acting at Temple University. He performed on stages all over the city, including at the National Constitution Center, People’s Light, and all three theaters featured in the pass.
It was during the 2012 production of Angels in America at the Wilma where he wrote Miz Martha Washington, one of his earliest plays, in the dressing room. Ijames went on to serve as one of three co-artistic directors of the Wilma, which premiered the digital production of Fat Ham — his incisive and irreverent queer reimagining of Hamlet — that earned him the 2022 Pulitzer Prize.
Flashpoint Theatre Company’s Barrymore-nominated “The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington.” From left: Darryl Gene Daughtry Jr., Steven Wright, Taysha Canales, and Jaylene Clark Owens surround Nancy Boykin as Martha Washington.
Photo by Ian Paul Guzzone.
In the sharp satire Miz Martha Washington, the titular first lady is on her deathbed, surrounded by the people she and her husband enslaved. With freedom inching closer — George Washington’s will promised them liberty upon his widow’s death — the Black characters appear in various hallucinations, putting Martha and her family on trial.
The play will come back to town amid Philadelphia’s celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, apt timing for a sharp satire on the Founding Fathers’ legacy of slavery.
“I think we were all kind of hoping that the world and the politics would be a little different when we first started thinking about it,” said Ijames. “But I always say, we have to look at the history directly in the face and, from that, try to imagine something different.”
Good Bones is a more contemporary story about the development of a new stadium that stands to disrupt a city neighborhood (sound familiar?). The upper-class newcomer, haunted by those who were pushed out, gets into fiery debates over gentrification with her contractor.
The Philly premiere will be directed by Ijames’ longtime friend and collaborator Akeem Davis, who starred in the Ijames-directed production of August Wilson’sKing Hedley II at the Arden earlier this year.
Arden Theatre producing artistic director Terry Nolen hopes audiences will come out to cheer on a “hometown hero.”
“Philly audiences love Philly artists, and there is so much pride for James’ success,” Nolen said in a statement.
Philly playwright James Ijames attends the 76th Annual Tony Awards at United Palace Theater on June 11, 2023, in New York City. His play “Fat Ham” had five nominations, including best play. (Photo by Cindy Ord /Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
The playwright’s newest work, Wilderness Generation, examines the relationships between cousins as Ijames, who’s close to his own cousins, wanted to spotlight that kind of family dynamic. Five cousins reunite at their grandmother’s house in the South to help her downsize; while there, they unpack a painful family history and confront the damage of their relatives’ behavior as they try to forge a future together.
Ijames wrote the work with Philadelphia Theatre Company co-artistic directors Taibi Magar and Tyler Dobrowsky in mind. Though Ijames has performed at PTC before, this world premiere marks the first time a play he wrote will grace its stage.
“I am where I am because a lot of theaters in Philadelphia took a chance on me,” said Ijames. He hopes future collaborations can highlight more “really brilliant folks” writing new plays in Philly.
“I hope a thing that happens as a result of this is a Jackie Goldfinger package one day, a Michael Hollinger package, an Erlina Ortiz package, [and] an AZ Espinoza package.”
The three-play pass costs $130, about $43 per ticket, and includes preferred seating, flexible ticket changes, parking discounts, and member benefits at each theater, as well as exclusive swag — a yellow beanie, inspired by Ijames’ personal style. Passes are available online or at the TKTS booth at the Independence Visitor Center.
Dyresha Harris is a Halloween enthusiast. Every year, Harris, 43, of Cobbs Creek, and her partner, Eo Trueblood, go all out. Over the years, they’ve decorated the house with everything from a 20-foot scary robot, a reenactment of the Netflix show Stranger Things, and as an underwater cave.
And every year, Harris hears the same things from her proud Philly neighbors: “See,” they say, “you don’t have to go out to the suburbs to have a good Halloween.”
This year, Harris, who works as a summer camp director, is making sure of it. She’s organized the West Philly Fright Registry, a webpage and map dedicated to everything “Wicked in West,” as it advertises, with a directory of nearly 100 businesses and homes offering tricks or treats, decorations, or Halloween events for families.
Screen image of the West Philly Fright Registry website, which maps out nearly 100 homes and businesses for families to enjoy on Halloween.
“Halloween is the only American holiday that has this element of interacting with your neighborhood and specifically going door-to-door interacting with the folks who live all around you. And no one does creativity, joy, and community quite like the folks in West do!”
To make the point, Harris biked up and down the neighborhood cataloging all the homes and businesses worthy of Halloween shout-outs, making sure to get their permissions before adding them to the directory.
Mind you, this is no directions-scrawled-on-the-back-of-a-Halloween-napkin map that Harris has created. A map legend with ghoul and pumpkin icons highlights what spots will be decorated and handing out candy treats. The directory highlights special neighborhood Halloween events, with times and details.
“I thought a map would be a fun way to hype each other up, promote block pride, and showcase the creativity of our neighborhood while helping trick-or-treaters get the most fun out of their Halloween season,” she said.
Delaware County’s homeless services, already overextended and stretched to its limits, are slated to lose two shelters and a much-needed rental assistance program at the end of the month as a result of the ongoing budget impasse in Harrisburg.
The closures, though likely temporary until state lawmakers set aside partisan disagreements to approve a budget, would mark a major blow to a system some say is on the brink of collapse in one of Pennsylvania’s most populous counties.
Delaware County officials have attempted to stave off suspensions in critical social services for the first few months of the budget impasse by dipping into their coffers. According to officials, the county typically spends $12 million a month on homeless shelters and other services for children and youth, mental health needs, and substance use disorders.
Now out of options to pay for these critical supports, the county has notified local service providers that they won’t be able to help them any further. Only a budget can restore funding.
“We had hoped the impasse would be resolved much sooner and had fully funded our providers through September, but unfortunately can no longer fully fund providers without the funds from the state,” county spokesperson Mike Connolly said.
Men’s dorm at Life Center-Eastern Delaware County in Upper Darby on Friday.
The Community Action Agency of Delaware County, which operates three shelters and a rental assistance program, among other services, has no choice but to make cuts to its services or even close, its executive director Ed Coleman said.
Life Center, a shelter that has room for about 50 people, has gradually cut its capacity by half. Wesley House and Family Management Center, which have a combined capacity to house more than 110 people, are slated to close by the end of the month. Plus, CAADC’s rental assistance program, which helps approximately 270 families a year, will be paused until the state budget is passed.
Remaining homeless shelters, such as Breaking Bread in Upper Darby and the Salvation Army in Chester, have already seen a surge in people seeking assistance in recent weeks as Wesley House Shelter and Family Management Center wind down operations.
“We’re at capacity. We have no more room,” said James Stephenson, who leads the Salvation Army’s 40-person facility.
Mental Health Partnerships, which provides services for people with mental health conditions or substance use disorders, has been assembling a weekly working group with local shelters and county government to prepare for a winter with at least one emergency shelter, in anticipation of more shelter closures, said its president and CEO, Jeannine Lisitski. Mental Health Partnerships officials have already begun seeing more people on the streets around Delaware County as part of their street outreach there due to the diminishing number of places that people can go to stay warm in these cooling months.
“There’s a real crisis in Delaware County brewing now,” Lisitski said.
‘It’s childish for people to be so politically divided’
With no state budget in sight, public schools, counties, and service providers that help Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable have been forced to find ways to keep their doors open as they await reimbursement from the state. School districts have had to make up more than $3 billion in expected state payments, while some counties have had to lay off staff or take out major loans.
But the issues are particularly dire in Delaware County, where the budget impasse is just the latest blow to the threadbare safety net that has only been further stretched in recent years.
Delco had the fourth-highest eviction rate in Pennsylvania in 2022, at 11.5%, according to a study by PolicyLink and Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.
The persistent issue pushed Delco officials and dozens of other stakeholders to convene the following year to find ways to help the more than 300 people already facing homelessness and the 100 families on wait lists for shelters in the county, as well as all those in danger of losing housing.
Breaking Bread, which until recently could serve 25 people, can take in only eight after moving back to its original building, which is in need of repairs and has limited space.
And the county’s adult and family services agency, which contracts with shelter providers, saw a loss of $1 million in funding.
Lisitski said Mental Health Partnerships — which serves Delaware County, the other three collar counties, and Philadelphia — has already taken out a significant amount of credit to continue operating. And she has grown deeply frustrated with the state government that leaders have not been able to come together to achieve a budget deal.
“I’m really disgusted, I have to say. I hold myself to a very high standard as a CEO and as a leader. I would not leave my post if I did not take care of every program. I would not leave for the day until I resolved everything,” she said.
“That’s my commitment. I want the same commitment from our elected officials. And it’s childish for people to be so politically divided,” she added.
Separately, the federal shutdown is poised to delay funds from the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program, which help about 300,000 Pennsylvanians pay their heating bills, as well as the distribution of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
At Wesley House, which can serve an average of 50 children at any given time, families like Grayson’s are scrambling to find temporary housing.
The 52-year-old has been living in Wesley House for almost seven months after caring for his terminally ill mother drained the family’s finances and led his family of four to be evicted. He asked that his full name be withheld to protect the identity of his two young children, as not everyone knows the family became homeless this year.
“This is people’s last resort. This is the last stop before being on the street,” Grayson said of the room with four bunk beds he shares with his family. “I feel like we’re being kicked while we’re already down.”
With news of Wesley House’s closure, Grayson and his wife are working with social workers to get rapid rehousing so as not to disrupt their children’s lives, but it’s a race against time in between the three combined jobs the couple is working.
John Weis, Life Center of Delaware County’s lead case manager (left) assists client Joseph Wallace Friday.
For Heather Schearer, her several months living at Life Center were a necessary step up in her recovery process. She had been unhoused for about five months earlier this year, and was sleeping in her car until it got too cold. When approached, she agreed to stay at Life Center until she eventually was connected to longer-term provider Mental Health Partnerships for its rapid rehousing and peer support programs, she said.
“[Politicians] don’t want to get their boots on the ground, take your ties off, and sit and talk,” Schearer said. “It’s the little things that matter that will get you to the next step.”
According to Community Action, similar scenes are playing out at Family Management Center, which can serve an average of a little more than 30 children at any given time. And while the most significant service reductions in homeless services are not scheduled for another week, the impacts of cuts are already visible across Delaware County.
Lisitski, of Mental Health Partnerships, which provides street outreach around Delaware County, said staff have already seen “a lot more people” than usual living on the street.
When shelters close like this, it becomes a “life-and-death situation” for people who are unhoused, she added. If the people who access critical services — usually people who are homeless, have substance use disorder, or have serious mental health conditions — cannot do so, she said, it will result in their being jailed, institutionalized, or, in the worst cases, dead.
In anticipation of the added need for housing due to the impasse, Mental Health Partnerships is working with Delaware County officials, faith-based entities, and other local groups to prepare emergency shelter space from December through April. It is also taking a line of credit to stay afloat.
But loans are not a viable option for all service providers.
Coleman, of Community Action, said even if the nonprofit could be approved for a line of credit, leaders have no way of knowing how much to ask for since they don’t know when a budget will be passed. Then there would be the question of interest.
“There’s no way [shelters] can afford to pay back interest on a loan, and the interest on a loan cannot be charged to a grant, so it would just be money lost to them,” he said.
Without a state budget, local government is the nonprofit’s last hope. Upper Darby, where Life Center is located, has awarded Life Center $120,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds, which will become available Jan. 1, according to officials there.
It’s much-needed money, but only one thing can help Community Action’s two other shelters stay open.
“We’re hoping that the legislators can do their job and pass a budget so the county doesn’t have to deal with some unfortunate situations,” Coleman said.
Gilbert Rolle Jr. and his youth basketball team gathered in Freeport, the Bahamas, on Wednesday, the night before traveling to the nearby Abaco Islands for a tournament.
They were all locked in on a front-room television showing the 76ers’ season opener at the Boston Celtics, where one of their own was making his much-anticipated NBA debut.
It felt like a full-circle moment for Rolle, because the last time he traveled to this tournament, a seventh-grade VJ Edgecombe was with him. Now, there were outbursts of cheers whenever Edgecombe scored for the Sixers, making it feel like “every shot was a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 … moment,” Rolle said.
Edgecombe’s historic NBA debut — his 34 points were the most in a Sixers rookie’s first game in franchise history, and the most scored in any NBA debut since Wilt Chamberlain’s 43 with the Philadelphia Warriors in 1959 — dazzled those who follow the sport.
But for those with roots on the tiny island of Bimini, who watched Edgecombe grow into this player and man, the pride cannot be overstated.
“It was like, ‘Wow, it was just so inspiring,’” said Rolle, a coach and principal at Gateway Christian Academy. “Because this isn’t somebody we just know. This is somebody who sat in our schools, that we watched him play in the park, walked through the community. We know, know, know, know him. …
“It was so personal, and it was amazing.”
When asked how Edgecombe was ready to make such an instant impact at basketball’s highest level, Rolle and others reached by The Inquirer by phone pointed to the 20-year-old’s maturity and confidence. Those qualities were shaped by Edgecombe’s childhood circumstances, when his family spent time living with a generator for power in their home. And on the basketball court, he played against older kids.
In every way, Rolle said, Edgecombe was “always a notch above his age.”
Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe passes against the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Leano Rolle saw this in Edgecombe from the beginning. They are such close friends that they consider themselves cousins or brothers. As kids, they started playing basketball together barefoot on a neighborhood dirt lot, with a makeshift hoop made of a crate and two-by-fours.
When Edgecombe went through his pre-draft process earlier this year, Leano Rolle was still by his side. The night before Edgecombe was selected third overall by the Sixers, tears of disbelief and joy fell from the corners of Leano Rolle’s eyes as he stared at the ceiling while lying in a New York City bed.
“I texted [Edgecombe] and told him how proud of him I was,” Leano Rolle said. “It was so amazing because, where we’re from, you wouldn’t expect nothing to happen like that.”
But the younger Rolle is chasing his own basketball dreams at Southwest Mississippi Community College, and Wednesday’s practice overlapped with the start of the Sixers-Celtics game.
When a team manager alerted Rolle that Edgecombe had 14 first-quarter points, he was in shock. He kept checking his phone for box scores and Instagram dunk highlights as he moved from practice to a mandatory pep rally, convinced that Edgecombe was about to get 50 points.
When Rolle finally returned to his room, Edgecombe called him and their other best friend for a postgame chat.
“Just talking and laughing and telling him how he did,” Rolle said. “Letting him know he went out there and did well, and did what he was supposed to do.”
Also watching that night was LJ Rose, the general manager of the Bahamian national team. He did not realize that Edgecombe took 25 shots against the Celtics, because “he was just flowing.”
Rose, who is also the general manager of the University of Miami’s men’s basketball team, remembers first learning about Edgecombe from a local media member named John Nutt. Nutt persuaded Buddy Hield, the fellow NBA Bahamian and former Sixer, to invite a young Edgecombe to his basketball camp.
“He held his own,” Rose said of Edgecombe. “And ever since then, he’s kind of been on the radar.”
Sixers center Joel Embiid fires a pass to VJ Edgecombe on Saturday.
That buzz only grew when Edgecombe joined the senior national team for an Olympic qualifying tournament last summer. He played alongside NBA players Hield, current Sixer Eric Gordon, and Deandre Ayton, the first time Edgecombe had been surrounded by teammates with more credentials and experience.
Still, Edgecombe “showed up Day 1 and he asserted himself,” Rose said, a testament to Edgecombe’s “everyday” work ethic and temperament. Rose went back to the Houston Rockets, where he was an international scout at the time, and told general manager Rafael Stone, “Hey, we have one.”
“He did not get rattled when he got overseas,” Rose said. “And it was a new environment. Some adversity was coming, but he just kind of kept on plugging away. And I think that just goes back to, it’s the everyday. His consistent grind and just coming from where he’s come from.”
Even during this dramatic life transition to the NBA, Edgecombe has remained connected to those Bimini roots.
Leano Rolle is planning to visit Edgecombe in Philly for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Gilbert Rolle texts Edgecombe at least once per week and said any impromptu phone call would be answered with a, “Hey, what’s up?”
When asked late Saturday — after totaling 15 points, eight assists, and six rebounds in the Sixers’ comeback win over the Charlotte Hornets — about the support he has felt from back home in recent days, a grinning Edgecombe said, “Yeah … I’ve heard from a lot of people.”
Because Edgecombe is still the “humble spirit” that Gilbert Rolle watched cry “as if somebody died” after losing in that Abaco Islands tournament as a seventh grader. To Rolle, that visceral reaction cemented how seriously Edgecombe took the sport.
“He’s not only talented, but he worked for this and he wanted this,” Rolle said. “This was something that he put his mind to do. And every opportunity he had, he went and got up extra shots. Any opportunity he had to get better in his game.
“To see him crying from losing a game, to on TV playing and breaking records, I’m like, ‘He deserves this.’”
And now, Gilbert Rolle has direct evidence of Edgecombe’s hard work to pass along to his current crop of young players. That is one component of the Edgecombe chatter that spread throughout the Bahamas into the weekend, as those close to the rookie revel in his instant success.
And if Edgecombe continues this torrid start to his NBA career?
“The people back home are ready to name the island after him one day,” Leano Rolle said. “That’s VJ Island.”
Joel Embiid has played alongside All-Stars and future Hall of Famers as a 76er.
So the 2023 MVP and seven-time All-Star has become a good talent evaluator during his decade-plus with the franchise. And he knows that rookie guard VJ Edgecombe has a chance to be a special player.
“Whether shots are going in or not, [he] always plays the right way, makes the right plays,” Embiid added. “I think tonight he had eight assists, so letting the game come to him. In Boston, he made shots; he attacked. I thought tonight, he was a little shy — not shy, but he wasn’t attacking enough. He’s just got to keep going.
“He’s got space. Attack. He’s way too athletic for someone to be in front of him. Then, once he jumps, you’ve got no chance.”
Sixers guard VJ Edgecombe finished with 15 points on 6-for-15 shooting against the Hornets. He also had six rebounds and a team-high three steals to go with his eight assists.
Edgecombe finished with 15 points on 6-for-15 shooting. He also had six rebounds and a team-high three steals to go with his eight assists.
While impressive, his scoring was a drop-off from the 34 points scored Wednesday in a season-opening 117-116 victory over the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. The performance placed him in the same rarified air as Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain and future Hall of Famer LeBron James.
It was the third-highest scoring debut in NBA history behind Chamberlain’s 43 points on Oct. 24, 1959, and Frank Selvy’s 35 on Nov. 30, 1954. Edgecombe’s 14 first-quarter points set a record for the most in the opening period of an NBA debut, surpassing James’ 12 points on Oct. 29, 2003.
But to Edgecombe’s credit, Saturday’s decreased scoring output had a lot to do with not forcing anything while Embiid had the hot hand. The 7-foot-2, 280-pounder scored five of the Sixers’ first seven points and nine of the first 18. He finished with 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting in 20 minutes, 7 seconds. Embiid played only the first 4:58 of the second half because he was on a minutes restriction.
Sixers guard VJ Edgecombe lays up the basketball for two of his 15 points against the Hornets.
“You’ve got to keep being aggressive, but also letting the game come to you,” Embiid said. “And that’s what he did tonight. Every night, I said it after the first game, every night — it might be Tyrese [Maxey]. It might be me. It might be him. It might be someone else, but you’ve still got to play the right way.
“Some nights, you’re not going to score. How else are you going to contribute? He’s doing it defensively and sharing the ball.”
Milestone for Nurse
Friday’s victory marked Nick Nurse’s 300th win as an NBA coach. In 556 regular-season games, the 58-year-old has a 300-256 record in eight seasons with the Sixers and Toronto Raptors.
Nurse went 227-163 with one NBA title during five seasons with the Raptors. He’s 73-93 since being hired by the Sixers on June 1, 2023.
Up next
The Sixers (2-0) will entertain the Orlando Magic (1-2) at 7 p.m. Monday at Xfinity Mobile Arena. After facing Orlando, the Sixers will play Tuesday night at the Washington Wizards.
It was just 17 days ago that the Eagles lost for the second straight time, lost to the New York Giants by 17 points at MetLife Stadium, lost in so humiliating a fashion that their All-Pro right tackle called out the play-calling as predictable and their star wide receiver admitted that with more than 11 minutes left in the game he had already resigned himself to defeat. It was bad.
Two seasons before, it had been worse. Two seasons before, the Eagles had lost back-to-back games to the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, and those pathetic performances triggered the kind of midseason change that reveals a franchise’s leadership has started to panic. The defensive coordinator was demoted. A Bill Belichick acolyte was promoted. And what began as a pebble rolling down a hill turned into an avalanche: six losses in seven games, a head coach whose job was in jeopardy, a collapse whose psychological residue remained on this team for a long time.
Maybe, after their 38-20 victory Sunday in their rematch against the Giants, the Eagles can assure everyone that they’ve scraped away the last of that sticky stuff from 2023. Their Super Bowl win in February took care of most of it, but burping up that late lead against the Denver Broncos on Oct. 5 and getting manhandled by Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo four days later brought up all those bad memories again. The Eagles were 4-2 but reeling, still formidable but vulnerable, and it was fair to wonder whether they could straighten themselves out over their two games before their bye week.
They did. They won a challenging road game against the Minnesota Vikings, then handled an inferior opponent Sunday. Now they enter their 15-day break with a 6-2 record, with a stranglehold on the NFC East, and — despite several injuries to key players, despite the ever-present mist of controversy around A.J. Brown — without the worry that their season was spiraling out of control.
“I don’t think from an inside perspective there was ever any like, ‘Oh man, this is like ’23,’” coach Nick Sirianni said. “You know what I mean? But were there lessons learned in ’23? Absolutely. We continue to try to learn lessons from ’24 and ’25.
“I always like our process off of a bye week and during a bye week. That’s my job as a coach. We’ve still got a lot of things to fix and clean up, but that’s what this week will be about: the players resting, looking at stuff themselves, and then us really grinding it out this week to put ourselves in a position to move on through the rest of the season.”
It would be easy to argue that the Eagles are mentally tougher now than they were then; that they have a more talented, more cohesive collection of players; that Sirianni is a better head coach with a better coaching staff; that Jalen Hurts is a better quarterback. All those assertions are true, but they can feel intangible and opaque. The explanations for why a team regresses (as the Eagles did late in the 2023 season), improves (as they did in 2024), or stabilizes itself (as they’ve done over their last two games) often come down to the schematic and tactical adjustments that the team tries to make. They come down to concrete changes in the way the team does things.
Take one example that went awry. When the Eagles decided in December ‘23 that they needed a new defensive coordinator, when they replaced Sean Desai with Matt Patricia, they failed to take a vital factor into consideration. Patricia’s defensive scheme was a lot of things, but simple wasn’t one of them, and there was little chance that the players would learn it well enough in time to thrive within it.
“I still remember we used to come in here before games, and he’d have an entire greaseboard — it looked like a 15-foot-long greaseboard — and the entire thing was written up with all the calls,” Eagles center Brett Toth said after Sunday’s game. “And to see that, it’s like, ‘Wow.’ That’s tough on anyone to try to switch to midseason.
“It’s a very hybrid defense. Anything with the Patriots is going to be very complex, high-IQ stuff. To have to learn and install that in the middle of the season, it’s a huge ask. This is chess. Football is 11-man chess.”
Now take another, more recent, more successful example: the Eagles’ use, at long last, of under-center snaps and play-action passes. There’s no getting around the fact that their offense has been more dynamic overall — and their running game back to its old dominant self against the Giants — partially because putting Hurts under center allows Kevin Patullo to call a wider variety of plays. They didn’t have to rewrite the playbook. A new wrinkle was all they needed.
“It’s not necessarily that you stick a guy under the center or you’re playing from the shotgun or you’re in a pistol,” said Hurts, who over his last two games has completed 34 of his 43 passes for 505 yards and seven touchdowns. “It’s about what you’re doing when you’re under center, how we’re leveraging what we do, how we’re leveraging the guys, what spots are we putting guys in when we’re in these different positions. We just want to continue to build off it.”
Seventeen days ago, the idea that the Eagles would be building off anything heading into their bye seemed tenuous at best. The defending champs had staggered. The Giants had embarrassed them. And the memory of that awful ending to 2023 was fresh again. Now? It seems deeper in the distance, and they have a chance to make sure it stays there.
A.J. Brown stood on the sideline with a kelly green hoodie pulled over his head, which was also wrapped in a towel. The Eagles led the New York Giants, 31-13, late in the fourth quarter, despite the absence of their No. 1 wide receiver.
But it wasn’t the passing game, nor Brown’s replacements, that had the offense looking its most efficient this season. It was the resurrection of running back Saquon Barkley and the ground attack that carried the torch.
Eagles receivers other than DeVonta Smith had just one catch for 3 yards by the time quarterback Jalen Hurts dropped back on third-and-6 with just over six minutes remaining. But Hurts went to Jahan Dotson even though he had no separation against man coverage, on the type of jump ball that Brown has mastered the art of catching.
And he’d probably like to see Hurts throw to him more often.
But Dotson was the target on this 50-50 opportunity, and he made the best of it, hauling in the 40-yard heave for a touchdown. Brown, out with a hamstring injury, raised his right arm and pumped his fist. He hung back near the bench reserved for receivers and greeted Dotson with a smile and a handshake after his score.
“It’s tough when you’re missing not only the best receiver on your team, but one of the best receivers in the league,” Dotson said of Brown, who missed his first game of the season. “We have this motto in our room: There’s no drop-off, no matter who goes out there.”
Make no mistake, the Eagles need Brown if they are to make a deep postseason run and repeat as Super Bowl champions. Sunday’s lopsided 38-20 win might suggest otherwise, because a balanced offense scored its most points and gained its most yards.
But the Giants offered the perfect remedy. They had embarrassed the Eagles just 17 days earlier, but a perfect storm of a short turnaround following a choke job to the Denver Broncos, untimely injuries, and an offense still wandering in the identity wasteland contributed to an uncharacteristic loss.
The Eagles should have taken advantage of the Giants’ run defense deficiencies in the first meeting. They got behind, and Hurts and the drop-back passing game couldn’t compensate. But Eagles coaches wanted to establish the run two weeks later, and Barkley’s 65-yard touchdown dash on the second play from scrimmage meant they could stick with it and open the playbook.
A diversity of run calls and directions — and even personnel — helped spring Barkley for 150 rushing yards on 14 carries and reserve Tank Bigsby for 104 yards on just nine carries.
“That’s my all-time favorite way to win,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said during his postgame speech in the home locker room at Lincoln Financial Field.
It was a vintage performance in a Sirianni era full of rushing records. The Eagles’ 276 yards on the ground ranked second in the last five years (behind 363 yards vs. the Green Bay Packers in 2022) and their 8.4 yards per carry were first over that span (ahead of an 8.2 average against the Giants, also in 2022).
Sirianni’s Eagles with Hurts at quarterback are normally at their best when the run offense is humming. He was never going to abandon the cause with Barkley as his bell cow and the offensive line, despite injuries, superior to most.
But Brown’s absence, at least for one week, allowed the Eagles to focus more on getting Barkley back on track. It meant having one less potent mouth to feed in the pass offense, but also one that can be vocal about his hunger.
“Obviously, any time you lose a player like A.J. for a game, it changes some things as far as how you go about putting guys in different positions,” Sirianni said. “But if you have faith in the guys that you have that are backing him up, whether that’s receiver or O-line, you’ve still [got to] go about doing what they can do the best, but also putting them in a position to make plays.”
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts completed 15 of 20 passes for 179 yards and four touchdowns on Sunday against the Giants.
Hurts still dropped back to throw. But Smith was far and away his primary target, catching six of nine passes for 84 yards. Barkley was next with four grabs, with one coming on the oft-neglected screen pass. Tight end Dallas Goedert had three receptions with two resulting in red zone touchdowns.
Overall, Hurts completed 15 of 20 passes for 179 yards and four touchdowns. There were still struggles against pressure and four sacks that appeared to fall on him more than anyone else. But it was a methodical day after an explosive aerial showing against the Minnesota Vikings last week.
“It’s definitely a different rhythm, because you get a flow of playing with A.J. and Smitty and Dallas and you have your crew,” Hurts said, before adding: “But when we are able to run the ball like we did, it creates more of a balance and free will of how we attack people.”
Aside from three victory-formation kneels, and one Tush Push, the run-pass ratio was an equal 50-50. Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo had maybe his best play-calling day, and mixed in variety with Hurts under center, run-pass options, and outside runs on gap schemes.
Offensive linemen Landon Dickerson and Jordan Mailata said the game plan called for more diversity in the running game. Sirianni countered that claim. “That doesn’t mean we haven’t had them in,” he said.
Whatever the case, not getting to them before required patience from Barkley and the O-line after weeks of frustration.
“I think it’s just being professional,” Barkley said of finally breaking loose. “Knowing that every week’s not going to be how you learn to be sometimes, but you can’t lose faith.”
It could be a lesson for Brown, who has expressed his disappointment with the passing offense, both publicly in interviews and cryptically on social media. Few have objected when he has stood in front of microphones and, in so many words, said he wants the ball. He should. He’s one of the best receivers in the NFL.
Even his post on X after the Tampa Bay Bucs game last month — when he quoted Scripture about not being listened to — was understood by many because he and Hurts had mainly failed to hook up in Tampa.
But Brown’s most recent post — “using me but not using me” — after he caught four passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns in Minnesota probably took whatever discontent he may have to uncharted territory within the Eagles organization.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, shown before his team’s win on Sunday, is unlikely to move A.J. Brown ahead of next week’s trade deadline.
He is well-liked in the locker room, by the coaching staff, and the front office. But every player is expendable. The Eagles are unlikely to trade Brown ahead of next Tuesday’s deadline. There’s an astronomical dead-money hit, and Howie Roseman would need blockbuster compensation to even consider it.
The Eagles general manager also isn’t known for trading players in their prime who are crucial to winning titles. Brown may not be pleased with whomever — most likely, Hurts — but it makes little sense for him to want to be moved. At least now.
Hurts, to his credit, went out of his way to praise the receiver several times during his Wednesday news conference last week. But it would behoove the quarterback to make Brown happy on the field and off. His success raises all ships.
“I think the best is yet to come,” Hurts said when asked about Sunday’s run offense explosion.
He sounds like he knows something. Getting Brown more involved would help.
