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Justin Crawford is set to debut with the Phillies in 2026. Here are a few prospects who could join him.

In 2025, the Phillies had the second-oldest lineup in baseball.

Collectively, the average age of Phillies hitters was 30.3 years old, ranking only behind the Dodgers’ 30.7. That number only stands to increase when their core reports to Clearwater, Fla., another year older in February — that is, unless the Phillies see an injection of youth. Which, according to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, is the plan.

“We also have some young players that we’re going to mesh into our club,” Dombrowski said in October. “I’m not going to declare that anybody has a job, but there will be some people that we’re really open-minded to be on the big league club next year.”

There are several Phillies prospects poised to make their debuts in 2026. Here’s a breakdown of the position players on the farm most likely to make a major league impact in 2026. (An overview of pitching prospects can be found here.)

Justin Crawford could wind up in center field or left field for the Phillies in 2026.

Justin Crawford

The Phillies have been saying it for a while: Justin Crawford is ready.

There isn’t much left for the outfielder to prove at the triple A level after he hit .334 and stole 46 bases for Lehigh Valley. Crawford, who turns 22 next month, was blocked from a promotion in 2025 because of a lack of a path to regular playing time on the major league club. But with some outfield shuffling expected this offseason, he will have an opportunity in 2026, one he could seize as soon as opening day.

Andrew Painter isn’t the only pitching prospect who might help the Phillies in 2026

“Crawford has a real strong chance to be with our club,” Dombrowski said at the general managers’ meetings last month. “We’re giving him that opportunity to be with our club.”

The Phillies view Crawford internally as a center fielder, though he also played 30 games in left field at Lehigh Valley last season. Where his major league opportunity will come will likely depend on how the rest of the outfield picture shakes out after any free-agent additions or trades.

Beyond youth, Crawford would add speed to the Phillies’ lineup. He has an 81.9% success rate in stolen base attempts throughout his three-year professional career, and last season hit 23 doubles and four triples. He doesn’t have an overwhelming amount of power, with just seven homers last season, and his ground-ball rate continues to be high, at 59.4% in 2025. Despite that, he has hit well at every minor league level, and the only test left is the biggest one.

“I think [Crawford] more than anybody is looking forward to the 2026 opportunity he’s going to have in front of him,” Phillies farm director Luke Murton said on a recent episode of Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball show.

Gabriel Rincones Jr.’s 18 home runs ranked second in the Phillies farm system last season, but all were against right-handed pitching.

Gabriel Rincones Jr.

At his year-end news conference in October, Dombrowski highlighted outfield prospect Gabriel Rincones Jr. as one of the young players in the system the Phillies were high on.

“We really like Gabriel Rincones, who’s got a lot of pop in his bat, and really hits right-handed pitching even better,” Dombrowski said.

The Phillies added Rincones to the 40-man roster to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft on Dec. 10.

Dave Dombrowski’s biggest offseason headache? The bullpen, not the Phillies’ lineup.

Ranked No. 9 in the Phillies’ system by MLBPipeline, Rincones had a .240 batting average and a .799 OPS in 119 games at Lehigh Valley. His 18 home runs ranked second in the Phillies farm system, trailing Rodolfo Castro by one.

All 18 of those came against right-handed pitching, though. Rincones struggles against lefties, with just a .107 batting average and a .323 OPS.

If an opportunity were to arise for him in the majors, it would likely be strictly a platoon role — and the Phillies already have a left-handed outfield platoon bat in Brandon Marsh. But Rincones’ pop against righties could be of value to the major league club at some point in 2026.

Shortstop Aidan Miller led the Phillies farm system with 59 stolen bases last season.

Aidan Miller

Infield prospect Aidan Miller slashed .264/.392/.433 and led the Phillies farm system with 59 stolen bases in 116 games last season. Eight of those games were in triple A after a September promotion from double-A Reading, as Miller finished the season one step from the majors.

When Miller’s big league opportunity arrives, though, he will need to have a chance to play every day to develop.

Miller has played only shortstop in the minor leagues. But there isn’t exactly an opening there for the foreseeable future, with Trea Turner under contract through 2033 and coming off a resurgent defensive season.

The Phillies are eyeing an infusion of youth for 2026. Here’s how three top prospects can fit.

With Alec Bohm heading into free agency after the 2026 season — and once again surrounded by trade rumors — it seems the likeliest path for Miller to break into the Phillies infield will be third base.

“We’d have to make sure that we properly prepared him to do that, and that’s still a discussion that we’ll have to have,” Dombrowski said in October of Miller changing positions. “But he’s a really good player and a good athlete.”

Murton said on Phillies Extra that while the Phillies would not completely rule out Miller playing left field as a path to the majors, it’s “not something that I think we’ve kicked around too much recently.”

Keaton Anthony

Ranked No. 15 in the Phillies’ system, first baseman Keaton Anthony has flown relatively under the radar.

Anthony, who was one of 26 Iowa student-athletes investigated for violating the NCAA’s sports betting policies in 2023, went undrafted that year. He was not charged, and the Phillies signed him as a free agent.

Since then, Anthony has a career .324 minor league batting average and an .869 OPS. He won a Gold Glove in 2024 as the top defensive first baseman in the minors.

Exploring three trades the Phillies could make to address their offseason needs

Anthony, who slashed .323/.378/.484 this season, reached triple A in June. The 24-year-old right-hander’s approach is geared more toward contact and he doesn’t have a ton of power, with six homers last year. But Anthony hits line drives at a 33.5% clip.

As a first baseman, Anthony has a very limited avenue to the majors as it stands. But he has some experience playing outfield in college.

With a strong start to 2026, Anthony could potentially follow a similar trajectory as Otto Kemp in 2025. Kemp, who was also undrafted, was called up as an injury replacement in June. Despite having little outfield experience, Kemp ultimately saw some time in left field to keep his bat in the lineup.

December 4, 2025
Kevin Patullo still loves Eagles fans and Philly as he endures a season of hate

For a husband and father who had just experienced an act of vandalism that impacted his wife and family, Kevin Patullo didn’t just take the high road. He took the highest of all possible roads.

He complimented the overwhelming majority of fans and media who have called for his dismissal and created an environment that can provoke inexcusable attacks.

“I’ve been here for five years now, and it’s been awesome,” Patullo said. “We all know that part of our job is to handle criticism. … But when it involves your family, it crosses the line. That happened. At this point, we’ve just got to move on.”

Patullo is the first-year offensive coordinator for an 8-4 Eagles team that is the reigning Super Bowl champion, occupies first place in the NFC East, and would be the No. 3 seed in the conference if the playoffs began today. After a home loss Friday to Chicago, around 3 a.m. on Saturday, his home in New Jersey was pelted with eggs by what a posted TikTok video indicates was a group of boys. The incident is being investigated by the Moorestown Police Department.

I asked him Wednesday if he was angry about the incident or fearful for himself, his wife, or his son and daughter. I told him I certainly would be both angry and scared. It’s natural.

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni (right) has stood by offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.

“You want to separate the job from your family,” he replied. “Us, as a family, we know we’ve got to stick together. To be honest, there’s a lot of great people in the community. I have great neighbors. There’s so many people who have reached out to my wife and I. …

“We’ve just got to move on. No, you’re not uncomfortable … being in that neighborhood. You’re not uncomfortable with sort of continuing with things as they are. … We’ve had a great experience here in Philadelphia. It’s a very special, unique place.”

You can say that again.

Perhaps Patullo is being so gracious because, according to one Eagles source, far worse things have happened to people in the Eagles organization in the past four years. I shudder to think what those things might be.

Perhaps Patullo feels so secure because, as a high-ranking figure in an $8.3 billion franchise that belongs to a league that annually generates more than $20 billion in revenue, those entities take stringent measures to protect their own. Copycats, beware.

Saquon Barkley and the Eagles running game have struggled this season.

You might consider the use of “terrorism” overwrought in this case, but consider Merriam-Webster’s definition:

“The systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion.”

A single house-egging might not be “systematic,” but, as the Eagles offense continues to sputter, Patullo has, for months, been the most viciously criticized of eligible targets. There have been calls for his dismissal since the Eagles began the season 4-0. No, that’s not a misprint.

Yes, Jalen Hurts is the ‘problem’ for the Eagles, not Kevin Patullo: So what?

This, despite the inconsistent play of quarterback Jalen Hurts and the disappearance of running back Saquon Barkley. This, despite the continual injury issues along the offensive line. This, despite A.J. Brown, Hurts, Barkley, and the offensive line saying it’s not Patullo; not primarily, at any rate.

Patullo might not exactly be Bill Walsh, but he’s not Dana Bible, either.

Also: Vic Fangio’s defense collapsed in Dallas and got gashed by the Bears, but nobody egged his house. Take one look at Vic. I dare you to vandalize that man’s house.

Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio during training camp in August.

You might use the tireless excuse that Patullo’s home was violated by that vague minority of so-called supporters intent on perpetuating the stereotype of Philly fans being venomous cretins who would gladly eat their own. You know, the fans who, in April 1999, booed the drafting of Donovan McNabb, then, that October in Veterans Stadium, cheered when an ambulance drove onto the field to take Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin to the hospital.

But how many of those fans — your friends and neighbors — dismissed this act of vandalism as “boys being boys”? How many shook their heads and said, “That’s too bad, but fire his butt anyway”?

How many? Too many.

I’m a transplant to Philadelphia, but that was 30 years ago, so this is my home. However, I still marvel at how folks choose to revel in sports misery; how many choose to bemoan what is imperfect, and what might go wrong, and the fixation on blaming one particular villain.

Nick Sirianni, Kevin Patullo struggle as Eagles lose again due to poor focus, fundamentals

I take full responsibility for my part in the critical nature of Philadelphia sports coverage, especially in the 15 years I’ve been a columnist, a television panelist, and a radio personality, and I’ve criticized Patullo when it was warranted, but I strive to keep my criticisms impersonal, unless the person in question has acted in a manner that reveals flaws in his character.

There seem to be few flaws in Patullo’s character.

“When you look at the big picture, it’s just a piece of who I am, who my family is. Ultimately, you know, it’s fine.”

No. No, it’s not fine.

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is at the helm of an inconsistent offense.

Objective criticism is fine. Targeted criticism — the sort Patullo is enduring — is not. Not when there are so many other issues.

There’s a difference between criticism and toxicity. Toxicity can lead to violence. Violence always is abhorrent.

The Eagles rank 24th in average yardage. They are 23rd in average passing yardage — which is six spots better than 2024 — and 19th in scoring.

They are 22nd in rushing yardage, which is the real issue, since they were second last season. That can be blamed not only on Patullo’s sometimes clunky sequencing and predictability, but also on teams selling out to stop the run and a clear falloff by both the offensive line and Barkley.

The offense has health issues, but every team has to deal with injuries. The Eagles spend more than twice as much on the offense as they spend on the defense. Nick Sirianni is a former offensive coordinator with the Colts, and Patullo has been his right-hand man since Sirianni hired him as his receivers coach in Indianapolis eight years ago.

Hurts has been a Pro Bowl quarterback and a Super Bowl MVP. Barkley, Brown, DeVonta Smith, and several of the linemen have Hall of Fame talent.

Should the offense be better? Absolutely.

But if you expect Patullo and the offense to be better, why can’t you?

December 3, 2025
Philadelphia Whole Foods workers filed for a union a year ago. Here’s what’s holding up their contract.

Nearly a year after Philadelphia Whole Foods workers voted to form a union, becoming the first group in the grocery chain to do so, their union’s ability to move forward and negotiate a contract is locked in a procedural standstill.

The Monday before Thanksgiving, workers and supporters gathered outside the Pennsylvania Avenue store, holding signs that read “Amazon-Whole Foods: Treat workers with respect & dignity!” Nearby, an inflatable “fat cat,” used by labor organizers and often denoting a person who uses wealth to exert power, stood tall outside the Whole Foods store.

Edward Dupree, who has been employed at Whole Foods for over nine years and works in the produce department at the Philadelphia store, told the crowd that in the 1970s, unionized grocery employees could maintain a middle-class family, but today workers are facing rising housing and healthcare costs as well as uncertainty in the economy.

“There’s been a concerted effort by billionaire business class — folks like [Amazon and Whole Foods owner] Jeff Bezos — to crush working class power by fighting unions like this,” said Dupree. “For 50 years, we’ve seen the worsening of living standards in tandem with the drop of unionization rates. It’s been long due for us to stand up for one another and fight back for a better future.”

Workers at the Philadelphia grocery store filed a petition to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board in November 2024 and made history in January as the first company store to successfully vote to unionize.

Employees want the company to begin negotiating a first contract, but for now, the case is at a standstill. Whole Foods has challenged the union election, and resolution of the issue lies with the National Labor Relations Board, which for months has been without the required quorum to make a decision since President Donald Trump fired a board member.

“We want Whole Foods to do what they’re obligated to do. What’s right to do is sit down and bargain a contract,” said Wendell Young IV, president of UFCW Local 1776, the union that Whole Foods workers elected to join. “We understand there’s a give and take in that process, but that’s from both sides. They’re refusing to even sit down and begin those discussions for a contract.”

An inflatable fat cat is seen outside the Whole Foods at 2101 Pennsylvania Ave. on Nov. 24, marking a year since workers first filed their intention to form a union with the National Labor Relations Board.

Why is the Whole Foods case at a standstill?

Whole Foods raised multiple objections to the worker union election earlier this year including alleging that the union promised employees would get a 30% raise if they voted for a union.

In May, the National Labor Relations Board’s regional director dismissed the challenge by Whole Foods, but the company asked for that decision to be reviewed. The union, for its part, has tried to block that review, but the board can’t make a decision either way without the required quorum.

“As previously stated, we strongly disagree with the regional director’s conclusion, and as demonstrated throughout the hearing earlier this year, including with firsthand testimony from various witnesses, the UFCW 1776 illegally interfered with our team members’ right to a fair vote at our Philly Center City store,” a spokesperson for Whole Foods Market said via email.

A union spokesperson said via email that they must wait until the board again has at least three members to review the case and added, “We expect that we will be successful at that time.”

Young, the president of the union local, has said in the meantime that the company is hiding behind the situation at the NLRB “to refuse to bargain.”

Edward Dupree, a Whole Foods worker, gathers with colleagues and supporters outside on Nov. 24 asking that the company come to the bargaining table and negotiate a first contract.

In the 1960s and into the 1970s, when it was not uncommon in the U.S. to see grocery workers strike or threaten to, Republicans and Democrats in office understood that unions were a permanent part of the economy, said Francis Ryan, a labor history professor at Rutgers University who has been a member of UFCW local 1776. The NLRB “provided some balance between the company and the union,” acknowledging that both parties “had an important role to play in our society,” he said.

“What we have in more recent years is a much more polarized political context, where the National Labor Relations Board is sometimes stocked with people who are aggressively anti-union,” said Ryan.

The Trump administration firing an official at the NLRB and not replacing them “is a deliberate attempt to make the process of collective bargaining and also organizing much more difficult,” said Ryan, adding that this is playing out in the case of Whole Foods.

Whole Foods workers and supporters outside the Center City grocery store on Nov. 24.

UFCW Local 1776, which Whole Foods workers in Philadelphia elected to join, represents thousands of workers across Pennsylvania and neighboring states in drugstores and food processing facilities, among other areas of work. The union represents grocery employees at ShopRite, Acme, and the Fresh Grocer.

Under the ownership of Amazon, the quality of work life at Whole Foods has deteriorated, said Young, adding that the company has unrealistic expectations and doesn’t compensate workers fairly in terms of wages, healthcare, retirement security.

“These people have no say in any of that — and that’s what led them to organize,” he said.

Whole Foods has said employee benefits include 20% off in-store items, as well as a 401(k) plan that offers a company match. The company also says it evaluates wages to ensure it is offering a competitive rate.

The number of unionized workers at grocery stores grew in the 1950s and 1960s in large part because areas of the U.S. were becoming more suburban and adding new grocery stores in the process, according to Ryan.

“You had thousands of workers in these new supermarkets that were unionized, and they made the retail clerks union one of the largest unions in the United States by the time you get to the 1970s — and Philadelphia was one of the real centers of supermarket unionization.”

It wasn’t unusual in the 1960s and 1970s for someone to make a living as a supermarket worker, although it was not uncommon for workers to have more than one job, said Ryan. In some cases, workers would stay at a grocery store for decades, he says, where they made decent wages and had a stable job indoors, adding that between 1965 and 1975 the wages of retail workers in Philadelphia nearly doubled.

Since then, it’s become much harder to make a living overall in the service industry, says Ryan.

But having unionized grocery stores amid other nonunion stores today can help shape the economy of the industry, says Ryan. A business that wants to maintain a nonunionized workforce might try to pay their workers the same starting rate that union workers make in wages, for example.

Unionized grocery stores “have a hidden-planet kind of role: They have this gravitational pull on the industry that actually raises conditions for everyone,” Ryan said.

While the Whole Foods store in Philadelphia is the first of the company’s locations to vote to form a union, others seem to be following.

“We now have active organizing going on, not only in other Whole Food stores in the area and around the country, but other grocery stores,” said Young.

December 3, 2025
An alternate history of 2023, and why the Eagles are preaching the right message

The biggest risk to the Eagles right now is overcorrection. There’s an alternate history to their 2023 collapse that they should consider before making any drastic changes.

The setup is mostly the same as the one we all know well. A team fresh off a Super Bowl berth arrives in November looking like a good bet to again win its conference. But after a 7-2 start, the hubcaps start to rattle. The team loses four of the next six games, failing to crack 20 points in all four. Questions begin to swirl about its first-year offensive coordinator. The head coach stands by his man. The team finishes the regular season 11-6 and will likely need to win two games on the road in order to get back to the Super Bowl.

In truth, this isn’t an alternate history at all. It’s the actual history of the 2023 Chiefs. The drop-off from the season before was massive on the offensive side of the football. Kansas City scored 125 fewer points in 2023 than it did in 2022, when it beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl. The Chiefs’ average yards per play fell from 6.43 to 5.54. And it really hasn’t rebounded. Since the start of the 2023 regular season, the Chiefs have averaged 23.1 points and 348.7 yards per game, down from 28.7 and 405.2 in 2021-22.

Friday’s loss to the Bears was the most concerning one of the Nick Sirianni era. Is it 2023 all over again?

But the Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 2023 despite entering the playoffs having lost four of their last eight to finish 11-6. They beat the Bills and Ravens on the road, thanks in large part to a late missed field goal in Buffalo and two fourth-quarter turnovers inside the Chiefs 25-yard line by Baltimore.

Are there lessons for the Eagles to draw here? I don’t know. Lessons probably isn’t the right word. I’m not going to sit here and argue that people are overreacting to the mess that they’ve seen from Jalen Hurts, Kevin Patullo and Co., most acutely over the last three weeks. But I do think it can be detrimental if we fail to consider the Eagles’ struggles within the appropriate context.

Walking around the locker room after the Eagles’ 24-15 loss to the Bears on Black Friday, I heard several players use the same phrase.

Center Cam Jurgens: “We’re 8-4. The sky’s still above us.”

Running back Saquon Barkley: “The sky’s falling outside the locker room, but I have nothing but the utmost confidence in the men in this locker room, players and coaches included.”

Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo with Jalen Hurts and Jahan Dotson during the loss to the Bears.

The remainder of the season will be determined by whether the Eagles can internalize all of this talk. They are correct when they say that the situation inside the locker room is not nearly as dire as the angst that abounds outside those walls. They still have three games remaining against the Raiders and the Commanders. That should get them to 11 wins, bare minimum. That would leave the Cowboys needing to win out in order to steal the division from them. The Eagles will tell you that they aren’t thinking about these things. Such is the NFL’s this-game-is-the-only-game ethos. But, sometimes, it can be helpful to take a little peek down the road, if only to remind yourself that you aren’t standing on the edge of a cliff.

The Eagles play in an environment that can make it awfully tough to maintain perspective. The Birds are an all-consuming thing here. Questions, headlines, boos, all of them multiply. There comes a point when any human being will stop and wonder whether everybody else is right.

There is a long list of reasons why it makes little sense to compare the Eagles’ current straits to the ones that led to the 2023 collapse. The one similarity is the way the chicken can become the egg and snowball into a big scrambled mess. The prime mover of the Eagles’ dysfunction that season wasn’t Hurts or Brian Johnson or Nick Sirianni or some chemical imbalance within the locker room. It was a defense that couldn’t get a stop, a defense that was of a wildly different makeup than it is right now.

Fear factors: Ranking the Eagles’ road to the Super Bowl, from the real Rams to the Bears

It’s funny to look back to the numbers from that season. The Eagles’ NFL rankings in yards and points in 2023 were exactly what they were in 2024: seventh in points, eighth in yards. They scored 31 points in a loss to the Cardinals down the stretch in 2023.

The worst thing the Eagles can do is hold on to any sort of thought that the foundation of their collapse in 2023 lies within themselves. The dysfunction grew from the on-field struggles, not vice versa. Yes, that dysfunction eventually reached a point when it became self-fulfilling. But the Eagles allowed it to get to that point. The Chiefs of 2023 did not.

The reality of the NFL is that good teams struggle. It is a counterpunchers league, led by a bunch of maniac coaches who won’t rest until they figure out what you are doing and how to beat it. Andy Reid did not suddenly become a worse offensive coach over the last three seasons. Patrick Mahomes is still the same Patrick Mahomes who threw for 5,250 yards in 2022. Nobody in Kansas City or elsewhere is seriously questioning whether one of them is the problem.

The Eagles made it look easy last year. But last year was an anomaly. The competitive environment this season is much closer to the norm. The Eagles are still one of the two teams in the NFC most capable of making the Super Bowl. In the Rams, they have already beaten the one team that looks better than everybody else.

The message that Sirianni and his team have been preaching is the right one. They just need to keep believing it.

December 3, 2025
Brett Gordon keeps his late father in mind as La Salle continues its run in the state playoffs

There are days when Brett Gordon is driving down Route 309 toward La Salle College High School and he’ll think about his late father Drew, the Hall of Fame coach who died on Sept. 4, 2023, at the age of 73. Memories of his dad, Brett admits, have become more vivid, especially these last couple of weeks.

The Explorers are on a special journey this season. So is their second-year coach Brett Gordon, who learned everything about football — and life — from his dad.

The only time La Salle won a PIAA state football championship was 2009, when the Explorers won the Class 4A title with Drew as their head coach and Brett as their offensive coordinator.

Drew and Brett are on the brink of doing something no father-son duo has ever done in the 36-year history of the PIAA football state playoffs — win state championships as head coaches. But first, one game stands in the way of accomplishing that. La Salle (12-1) will face Central Catholic High School (13-1) of Pittsburgh in the PIAA Class 6A final on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Cumberland Valley High School.

“I know how much my father would have loved to be a part of this,” Brett said. “I think about him all the time. If my father was with us and he was in good health, he would have been around here coaching in some capacity. I wouldn’t have a choice. The thing I admired the most about my father was that it never was about him. He grew up in a generation of serving. He never cared about any recognition. He was direct. He was there to coach. He cared about the kids. That was all that mattered. That was how he operated.”

Brett Gordon was an assistant coach on the staff of his late father, Drew Gordon, at La Salle in 2006.

After La Salle beat St. Joseph’s Prep for the first time in 10 years for the Catholic League 6A crown on Nov. 1, Brett, 46, a 1998 La Salle and 2002 Villanova graduate, received a long, congratulatory text from former St. Joe’s Prep coach Gabe Infante, currently Duke’s assistant head coach, special teams coordinator, and defensive tackles coach. When Infante was first hired by The Prep in 2010, he was not exactly embraced by the area football community after taking over for the popular Gil Brooks.

One of the first welcomes Infante received came from Drew in a letter sent to Paramus Catholic in North Jersey, where Infante was leaving to take the Prep job.

“I know people will not want to hear this, but Drew and I were very close, even after he stopped coaching [in 2014],” Infante said. “Drew welcomed me, and that showed me who Drew was. He was a true competitor. He showed tremendous class. I was definitely an outsider who was not welcomed when I originally went down to Philadelphia. I would not be where I am today without Drew Gordon and what he built at La Salle. He raised my level, and I would like to think Prep’s success raised La Salle’s level again.

“I was in Brett’s shoes. I could appreciate what Brett is doing there. I am a fan of people who are committed to sacrifice like Brett is. True competition brings out the best in people. When Drew got sick, I reached out to him. We had a really good relationship, and it all started with a very kind, simple letter welcoming me to the Philadelphia Catholic League and Philadelphia area.”

How St. Joe’s Prep vs. La Salle became Philadelphia’s ultimate football rivalry

Letters from Drew

The notes fill a shoebox in a bedroom drawer. They came in the form of either a Hallmark card, yellow legal paper, or a simple scrap of printer paper or from a looseleaf notebook. They sometimes would be sitting in an envelope on the kitchen table, tucked under a door or stuffed in a mailbox. Brett still has most of them — letters from Drew.

Father and son share a lot in common. They always took a cerebral approach to football. They always were focused and intense about the steps in the process of preparing. Brett, a two-time Catholic League champ and league MVP at La Salle, says he tends to wear his emotions on his sleeve, probably more than his father, who was far calmer on the sideline and emotionally indifferent.

It’s why he communicated with his son and two daughters through letters.

Drew was a baby boomer born in 1950, the oldest of six. He was 12 when his parents separated, moving with his mother, Dorothy, and five younger siblings from Ohio to Glenside, Montgomery County. He was “the man of the house” who worked a paper route in Abington to help his mother pay the bills.

Brett Gordon and his late father, Drew, talking on the sideline.

He was steeped in Midwestern stoicism and self-reliance.

“That was my dad,” Brett said. “He came from that generation when men did not show emotion. Verbal communication was not my dad’s strong suit. He had a very regimented way he did things. He built Gordon Truck Leasing from the ground up. We are similar in certain ways, and we are also very different. My dad was always about the process. I still use a lot of his old-school principles. But he came up in a different, authoritative generation. I’ll ask the players for their feedback, like what uniforms they want to wear. He would never have done that.

“The compliments he gave me came in letters. I still have a lot of them. He came from a different generation. He would put things down on paper.”

La Salle takes down St. Joe’s Prep to win Catholic League 6A crown: ‘This is only the beginning’

When Brett was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Villanova and La Salle, Drew left his son a letter stating how proud he was of him.

Sometimes letters were better.

After Brett threw for a Villanova single-game passing record of 460 yards (which still stands) and three touchdowns in guiding the Wildcats to a last-second 38-34 victory over rival Delaware in November 2002, he was greeted by Drew and his mother, Bernadette, outside the Villanova locker room. The first thing Drew said to Brett was, “Your footwork was horrendous today.”

“In a weird way, that was his way of complimenting me,” Brett said, laughing. “It was very hard for him to hand out compliments. I’m sure he told his buddies about the game I had. I always knew he was proud of me. I wouldn’t be where I am without him. Yeah, you could say it was the good, tough love. It is that constant reminder that there is always room to be better. That is my coaching philosophy today.”

This season is as much a homage to his dad as it is giving a group of dedicated seniors a year to remember.

An ‘emotional’ run

When John Steinmetz resigned after the 2023 season following nine years as Explorers’ head coach succeeding Drew, there was a groundswell of support from the La Salle community for Brett to take over. Brett, who was his father’s offensive coordinator from 2006 to 2014, dabbled in coaching after his father left La Salle in 2014. He joined Albie Crosby’s Imhotep Class 3A state championship staff in 2015 and helped occasionally at his alma mater.

Numerous current players were looking to transfer out of La Salle after their sophomore year. The Explorers had been competitive, though not exactly in the class of Catholic League foe St. Joe’s Prep. The Hawks had turned what once was a rivalry into a lopsided series. There is a standard at La Salle, a touchstone of success the football program had not felt since Drew left.

La Salle coach Brett Gordon talks to his team at practice on Nov. 10.

“It was not 100% that we were all leaving, but a lot of guys were talking,” said Gavin Sidwar, the Missouri-bound quarterback who has broken all his coach’s passing records at La Salle. “When we found out Coach Brett would be the head coach, it’s something a lot of us were happy to hear. Personally, I can’t say enough about what Coach Brett has done for me. He’s brought out a growth in me, and I am willing to put in 100% for him.

“He gave up his job for this. We know that. This run is going to be emotional for a lot of us. I know for me, being here for four years with some adversity, winning a state championship means everything. Knowing now the tradition his father has here and being the first father-son combination to ever win a state championship, it means more for all of us. We play our butts off for Coach Brett and the whole coaching staff. To get Coach Brett a state title, we are even more motivated.”

Brett received his business degree from Villanova and worked in the corporate world for 15 years, building a national reputation in the software industry. It gave him financial flexibility, he said, to do what he is doing now. He had to first check with Tanya, his wife, son, Luke, who is a sophomore quarterback for La Salle, and teenaged daughter, Grace, who follows her father everywhere.

La Salle’s Gavin Sidwar broke school records held by his head coach

“Tanya puts up with a lot, especially at certain times of the year like now,” he said. “In order to take on the role as coach at La Salle, I needed full support from not only Tanya, but Luke and Grace. This job impacts our entire family, so it was very important for me to have both Tanya and Grace involved so they feel a part of what we are building here.

“Tanya has gotten to know most of our players and has our son in the program, so it can be difficult being the head coach’s wife and being a parent in the program. She has done an amazing job balancing it all. Tanya and Grace often remind Luke and I at home when it is time to talk about something other than La Salle football.”

La Salle coach Brett Gordon with quarterback Gavin Sidwar at practice.

In 2009, father and son were robbed of their time in the sun, or in the Gordons’ case, that late-December Saturday, the snow. When the Explorers played State College in the 2009 Class 4A championship, the game was postponed for a day because of a raging blizzard. Luke had been born a few weeks earlier with a collapsed lung. His medical situation put the family on edge. Brett woke up at 7 a.m. on a snowy Saturday, Dec. 19 morning and had the roads to Hershey to himself. La Salle handily beat State College, 24-7, to become the first Catholic League team to win a state football championship.

The problem was Brett had no time to celebrate. He had to trek back home to be with Tanya and Luke.

Around 9 p.m. that night, Brett got a knock on the door. It was his dad, who drove through a snowstorm to get there, tossing aside the state championship celebration himself to see his grandson. He stayed in the guest room that night.

Drew never missed anything Luke or Grace did. To this day, Luke wears a silver chain his grandfather gave him.

There were more than 1,000 people who attended Drew’s funeral services, Brett recalled. It stretched over two days in September 2023.

“I saw my dad cry once, after my last high school game on Thanksgiving against St. Joe’s Prep in 1997,” Brett said. “We lost, and I remember when I saw him after the game, I told him I was sorry. He just burst open and hugged me. I remember his younger brother, my godfather, telling me years later he never saw anything like that with my dad. … It won’t be easy on or off the field. I wish I could bounce ideas off him, but I also know how much he would love being a part of this. If we are able to pull this off, he’ll be the first one I think of.”

December 2, 2025
Andrew Painter isn’t the only pitching prospect who might help the Phillies in 2026

When Mick Abel, then the Phillies’ No. 8 prospect, made his major league debut in May, it was just for a spot start.

But he impressed enough in those six scoreless innings that the Phillies decided to give him a chance in the rotation two weeks later. After a tough 2024 season, Abel was a bit of a revelation for the Phillies early on as their fifth starter.

And while he was ultimately sent back to triple A in July to reset after some struggles with command, his turnaround continued to impact the major league club when he was traded to the Minnesota Twins as part of the package for Jhoan Duran.

Of the players yet to make their major league debuts, who could be the Abel of 2026? Let’s take a look at the Phillies’ pitching prospects who are the most likely to make a major league impact next season.

Andrew Painter struggled with his command in his return to the mound with Lehigh Valley following Tommy John surgery in 2023.

Andrew Painter

Plenty of ink has been devoted to the subject of Painter’s major league debut since at least 2023, when he was under consideration for the Phillies’ rotation at age 19.

A ligament sprain and subsequent Tommy John elbow surgery delayed that timeline. But once he returned to the mound in 2025, it was expected he would figure into the Phillies’ plans by the summer.

That didn’t happen, either.

The Phillies were pleased with the quality of Painter’s stuff and his velocity. But command is typically the last thing that returns to a pitcher after Tommy John surgery, and that’s what Painter struggled with the most in 2025. He had a 5.40 ERA and issued 3.9 walks per nine innings at triple-A Lehigh Valley, and the call-up never arrived.

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“I think everybody was excited about getting him back,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said in September. “I think at the end of the day you look back on it, you say, ‘First time going through this, it usually takes two years for a guy to come back [from Tommy John].’ I think we can all look back and think, ‘Man, [we] probably should have expected this.’”

Given that he remains healthy, next season should be different. Painter will have a normal offseason and spring for the first time since 2023. He will again enter camp in contention for a rotation spot, and this time he isn’t a teenager; he’ll turn 23 in April.

There figures to be a place for him, too. Ranger Suárez is likely to command a big contract as one of the top left-handers on the free-agent market, and unless the Phillies outbid pitching-starved teams or make a splash elsewhere, that would leave an opportunity for Painter to break camp with the team.

“We’re optimistic that with a regular offseason training program and getting ready to come in the season, that he’ll be able to regain that [command],” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said.

Jean Cabrera had a 3.81 ERA and 1.23 WHIP over a career-high 137 innings last season with double-A Reading.

Jean Cabrera

At the general managers’ meetings last month, Dombrowski pointed to the 24-year-old Cabrera as the Phillies’ current minor league starting pitching depth beyond Painter.

“You never have enough starting pitching,” he said. “And really, for us, after you get past Painter, now you’re talking about Cabrera, [who] would be one of those guys. But we don’t have a lot of starting pitching, so that’s something we’re going to be cognizant of.”

Cabrera spent the 2025 season with double-A Reading, where he posted a 3.81 ERA and 1.23 WHIP over a career-high 137 innings. The right-hander allowed just 0.72 home runs per nine innings. Cabrera has been on the Phillies’ 40-man roster since 2024, when he was added as protection from the Rule 5 draft.

Cabrera was consistent in terms of workload last season. He made 26 starts and none was shorter than 4⅓ innings. In the event of an injury or if a spot start is needed, Cabrera provides the Phillies with crucial starting depth.

Alex McFarlane had a strong second half in his first season back from Tommy John surgery.

Alex McFarlane

McFarlane was added to the Phillies’ 40-man roster last month ahead of the Rule 5 draft, signaling the team’s faith in the 24-year-old righty.

Like Painter, McFarlane is coming off his first full season back after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023. He had a stronger second half, with a 2.54 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in his last 39 innings compared to a 7.02 ERA and 1.71 WHIP in his first 41 innings.

Dave Dombrowski’s biggest offseason headache? The bullpen, not the Phillies’ lineup.

That improvement also came with a move to the bullpen in August. McFarlane was promoted from high-A Jersey Shore to double-A Reading in September to finish out the year.

With a fastball that can touch 100 mph, McFarlane could be possible bullpen depth for the Phillies in 2026.

The Phillies left pitcher Griff McGarry unprotected in the Rule 5 draft for the second straight year.

Griff McGarry

It’s possible that McGarry could find himself in a new organization come Dec. 11, as he was left unprotected in the Rule 5 draft for the second year in a row.

Another team can pay the Phillies $100,000 to select McGarry, but he must remain on that team’s 26-man roster for the entire season or be offered back for $50,000. Last December, the Twins selected right-hander Eiberson Castellano from the Phillies in the Rule 5 draft, but he was returned in March. (Castellano elected free agency at the end of the season.)

McGarry built a solid foundation for 2026 with a bounceback 2025 season. The 26-year-old righty won the Phillies’ Paul Owens Award, an internal honor for their top minor league pitcher, after posting a 3.44 ERA in 83⅔ innings.

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McGarry has struggled with command throughout his minor league career and was moved to the bullpen in 2024. Last year, though, the Phillies moved him back to a starting role. He cut his walks from 10.2 per nine innings in 2024 to 5.3 per nine in 2025.

“Heading into this year, early in the spring, they kind of made it known to me that I’d be back in a starting role,” McGarry said in September. “I think I definitely am capable of doing both. And I love starting; I love relieving. So it’s kind of wherever the Phillies want me, I’m willing to perform.”

McGarry spent most of the season at double-A Reading, but he finished the year on a high note with a final start back up in triple A.

“I think in years past in triple A, I’ve had my ups and downs there,” he said. “It’s good to really finish there and kind of finish the season how I wanted to, with a successful start.”

Gage Wood, the Phillies’ 2025 first-round pick, is likely to be on an innings limit in 2026.

Names to know, but unlikely for this year

Moises Chace was a deadline acquisition from the Baltimore Orioles in 2024 and had an intriguing fastball that missed a lot of bats. But the 22-year-old right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery in 2025 and is still rehabbing.

Since the Phillies drafted right-hander Gage Wood out of Arkansas — going the college pitcher route in the first round for the first time since Aaron Nola in 2014 — questions have swirled about how soon he could arrive in the majors.

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But don’t bank on Wood following the breakneck trajectory of Pottstown’s Trey Yesavage, who went from starting games in single A to the World Series with the Blue Jays in four months. The Phillies plan to build him up as a starter, but Wood is likely to be on an innings limit in 2026, according to Dombrowski.

Wood didn’t experience a full starter’s workload in his college career. He pitched 37⅔ innings for Arkansas in 2025, missing almost two months due to a shoulder impingement. In his two college seasons before that, Wood was primarily a reliever for the Razorbacks.

December 2, 2025
Gavin Sidwar has high expectations — and sights set on La Salle’s first state title in over a decade

La Salle senior quarterback Gavin Sidwar has many admirers, including a fan who asked him to autograph a $5 bill on Saturday. But Sidwar also likes to consider himself just one of the guys, as he enjoys going out to eat all the time with those big lugs on the Explorers’ offensive line.

“He could call a handoff to me, and I would be confident in him,” said Grayson McKeogh, the mighty left tackle.

McKeogh, a 6-foot-7, 275-pound senior, will throw blocks next year at Notre Dame, but Sidwar, the offensive line and all of his La Salle teammates have one more week to play football together, culminating in the PIAA Class 6A state championship game this Saturday.

Sidwar, a 6-3, 190-pound senior with remarkable composure and impeccable touch, plans to play football at the University of Missouri next year. But that can wait. The Explorers (12-1) have not played for a state title in 15 years and have not won one since 2009.

Explorers quarterback Gavin Sidwar (7) throws the ball against North Penn on Nov. 29.

With frightening ease, they powered to a five-touchdown halftime lead this past Saturday against District 1 champion North Penn (12-3) and rolled to a 49-14 victory in a state semifinal before an overflow crowd at Central Bucks South. Central Catholic (13-1) of Pittsburgh awaits La Salle in the state championship.

The Explorers opened the season by beating the Vikings in a nonleague game outside Pittsburgh, 23-6. La Salle’s season has included just one setback: a 39-36 Catholic League loss Sept. 26 to Roman Catholic (11-3), which plays Bishop McDevitt for the 5A state title on Friday.

Since the PIAA expanded to six classes in 2016, the Catholic League champ is 8-0 in the 6A state semis against the best team in the Philly suburbs. But all seven of those previous victories were by St. Joseph’s Prep, La Salle’s archrival. The Hawks won seven state titles.

Northeast High QB Jayden Boyd was shot in September while playing video games. Then he played on Thanksgiving.

But it is, finally, someone else’s turn. La Salle, whose 2024 season ended with a 21-14 loss to the Prep in the District 12 title game — the Explorers’ only loss — has rebounded this fall to beat the Prep twice: by 31-20 on Oct. 4, then by 24-14 on Nov. 1 for the district title.

Sidwar played only the first half against North Penn, completing 14 of 19 passes for 246 yards and four touchdowns, including a 40-yarder and a 72-yarder. He spent the rest of the afternoon on the sidelines, helmet off, his shaggy black hair tousled, cheering on the reserves.

“We’re going to play teams that are good, but we’re a good football team, too,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’ve just got to go out and play fast, play physical and play disciplined. Be us. Don’t press. It’s just a football game that we’ve been playing since we were kids. So play the game, not the occasion. Just go out and play football.”

Gavin Sidwar (7) raises his helmet with his fellow teammates in celebration for beating St. Joe’s Prep on Nov. 1.

La Salle is not quite unstoppable. Much to the displeasure of second-year coach Brett Gordon, the Explorers lost two fumbles against North Penn and were penalized eight times. He told his huddled team at midfield afterward, “I’m counting on you all to fix it.”

Sidwar threw a couple of passes Saturday that he’d like to have back. But Gordon said later that Sidwar has become even better after the Roman loss. In three state playoff games, he has completed 71% of his passes for 802 yards and nine touchdowns — and no interceptions. La Salle won those three games by a combined score of 129-35.

“Just when we think he’s got it all figured out, he figures out a way to continue to improve,” Gordon said. “He’s built for this, and he’s put in the work.”

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It does help that Sidwar has a mountainous line and astonishingly talented receivers, including Joey O’Brien, the 6-3 senior who is also bound for Notre Dame. O’Brien, who is projected as a college safety, made two brilliant leaping catches on Saturday.

“He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and he proves it every day,” O’Brien said. “You always get a clean spiral, every time. And he doesn’t get too high or too low. He knows there’s more to be done. If we play our game, there’s nobody beating us.”

Sidwar spreads it around. His 72-yard touchdown pass Saturday was to Jimmy Mahoney, a 5-8 speedster who missed the previous two games with an injury. Sidwar flipped a short pass to Mahoney, who scored with the help of a couple of downfield blocks.

“They make it really easy,” Mahoney said of his teammates.

Mahoney said of Sidwar: “He’s making big-time plays — especially at big times. Every single game, he’s getting better.”

Explorers quarterback Gavin Sidwar (7) looks on during the PIAA Class 6A football semifinal game between La Salle College High and North Penn.

Sidwar has clearly benefited from working with Gordon, 46, who led La Salle to two Catholic League championships as a quarterback before playing at Villanova and serving as a La Salle assistant. La Salle has won 22 of 24 games with Gordon as its head coach.

As he told his team after Saturday’s game, “We set out two years ago on this mission, to get right here, right now.”

This team won’t get a chance to avenge its loss to Roman, which also has a terrific senior quarterback, the Akron-bound Semaj Beals. La Salle and Roman, and Sidwar and Beals, are generally considered to be interchangeable, No. 1 and No. 2 in the state.

Brett Gordon keeps his late father in mind as La Salle continues its run in state playoffs

Gordon smiled when he said of his senior quarterback, “He has set his expectations so high.”

Before he posed for photos after the game on the field Saturday with a stream of friends, family, and fans, Sidwar said, “We’re not going to leave anything unturned at this time of the year. It’s all or nothing at this point.”

He said of North Penn, “We knew they were good. We knew they had a good coach over there,” in Dick Beck. “But if we executed our game plan, we weren’t going to get stopped.”

Fans cheer during the PIAA Class 6A semifinal game between La Salle College High and North Penn at Central Bucks South High School in Warrington on Saturday.

December 1, 2025
Dave Dombrowski’s biggest offseason headache? The bullpen, not the Phillies’ lineup.

The lack of hand-wringing about the Phillies bullpen this offseason isn’t too surprising. By the time everyone finishes worrying about the offense, their palms are raw. Nearly half of the starting lineup from Game 1 of the NLDS is no longer under contract. They need to re-sign or replace their catcher, left fielder, center fielder, and designated hitter. The guy who was their longtime right fielder is a $20 million sunk cost. Other than that, the bats are looking great.

But, hey, save some angst for the later innings. Dave Dombrowski has 99 problems and a pitcher is one … namely, a pitcher who is capable of locking down high-leverage situations. Even if Jhoan Duran is the guy he has been throughout his career, and if Matt Strahm is the guy he has been during the last three regular seasons, if Jose Alvarado is the guy he was in 2022-23, the Phillies will still need a fourth guy who is better than Orion Kerkering was even before he short-circuited in Game 4 of the NLDS loss to the Dodgers.

Phillies pitcher Orion Kerkering posted a 3.30 ERA in 2025.

That’s true whether Dombrowski realizes it or not. You’d think he would by this point in time. But, then, you’d be thinking. Everyone knows the cliche. Doing the same thing over and over is the definition of Dombrowski’s bullpen plan. As the nation at large celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, there’s a very good chance that the Phillies will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of realizing they need another reliever six days after the season starts. The Masters isn’t the month of April’s only tradition unlike any other.

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It’s getting to the point of mathematical certainty. If ’n’ is the number of high-leverage arms the Phillies need in order to win a postseason series, then ’n-1’ is the number of such arms the Phillies actually have. Feel free to alert the Fields Medal committee.

Look at the list of relievers who have pitched make-or-break innings for the Phillies over the last several postseasons.

Craig Kimbrel? The Phillies probably win a World Series if they have an elite shutdown arm to pitch the ninth inning of Game 3 and/or the eighth inning of Game 4 in the 2023 NLCS.

David Robertson? He faced three batters last postseason, all in Game 1 of the NLDS, two of whom scored.

Jordan Romano? Nope. Just kidding. He didn’t pitch a make-or-break inning in the postseason. Actually, he didn’t pitch any innings.

Jesús Luzardo? He was exactly what the Phillies needed out of the bullpen in the 10th and 11th innings of Game 4 against the Dodgers. There was only one problem. He was their No. 2 starter. And he will be again.

Phillies president of baseball operations David Dombrowski is tasked with building the Phillies’ bullpen.

Nobody wants to admit this, but the best way to fix the Phillies offense is to build a roster where the offense doesn’t need to matter so much. It’s easy to forget that the Phillies took a 1-0 lead over the Mets into the eighth inning of Game 1 of the 2024 NLDS before Jeff Hoffman and Strahm combined to allow five runs in the eighth. As lopsided as that series felt in hindsight, the Phillies were two shutdown innings away from potentially heading to New York with a 2-0 series lead. They also blew a 1-0 lead when the bullpen allowed four runs in the bottom of the sixth in Game 4.

Bryce Harper and Trea Turner are fast approaching the points of their careers where the next season probably won’t be as good as the previous one. Same goes for Kyle Schwarber, assuming the Phillies re-sign him. J.T. Realmuto is already there, and re-signing him is still their best option at catcher. At some point, building an elite bullpen becomes a more feasible option than counting on a Max Kepler bounce back season.

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Unless we assume that John Middleton is going to bump up his spending to the level of the Dodgers, then we’re wasting our breath arguing that what the Phillies really need is Kyle Tucker or Alex Bregman or Pete Alonso. It would be a silly thing to assume. If you are worth $2 billion, then a $100 million contract is 5% of your net worth. Even us common folk aren’t lighting our cigars with $1,000 dollar bills.

Which brings us to the real issue with the Phillies’ bullpen. You have to squint a lot harder to see a fiscally sound path to improvement. The Orioles just signed closer Ryan Helsley to a two-year, $28 million deal after a lackluster campaign. Braves closer Raisel Iglesias took a big step backward last season and will be 36 years old next year. He just re-signed for one year and $16 million.

Chances are, both of those deals will look awful a year from now. Look at last year’s market. Of the 12 relievers who signed for an AAV of $8.5-plus million, seven finished with an ERA north of 4.30, five of whom had an ERA over 5.00. That group doesn’t include the Mets’ A.J. Minter, who pitched only nine innings after signing for two years and $22 million.

Essentially, the success rate on big-ticket bullpen signings was 33%. Even that is overstating things. The Dodgers spent a combined $39.9 million in AAV on Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates and Blake Teinen. The odds said that one of them should have panned out. But none of them did.

Unless the Phillies are willing to shell out $20-plus million for Edwin Diaz, they’ll be fishing in treacherous waters. There are a lot more Jordan Romanos than Josh Haders, at pretty much every price point. Dombrowski has found value before with Strahm, Hoffman and Alvarado. He’ll need to do it again in order to win this offseason.

December 1, 2025
Friday’s loss to the Bears was the most concerning one of the Nick Sirianni era. Is it 2023 all over again?

Over in the visitors’ locker room, the head coach had his shirt off. He was flexing and jumping and shouting and looking like a man who might soon be taken away by some folks in white gowns. Ben Johnson had every right to act a fool. He earned it. His team earned it. All anybody else could do was shrug.

“We’ve got great people in this team that I have a lot of faith and belief in,” Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert said after a disconcertingly definitive 24-15 loss to the Chicago Bears. “I think we still have everything we want ahead of us.”

It is getting harder for those of us outside the locker room to share in that belief. The Bears didn’t just beat the Eagles on Friday evening. They shook them to their core. They walked into Lincoln Financial Field on the day after Thanksgiving as a seven-point underdog with a rookie head coach and a second-year quarterback who might not be good and they walked out with a win that lifted them to the second-best record in the NFC and dealt a serious blow to the Eagles’ hopes of landing the conference’s top playoff seed.

Sielski: Nick Sirianni defended Kevin Patullo, but it might not matter if Jeffrey Lurie decides he must act to save the Eagles’ season

The Bears will frame it as a statement victory. It felt more like a statement loss by the Eagles. They lost an important game in tough conditions against an opponent that entered the day having earned none of the benefit of the doubt. In short, the Eagles did exactly the opposite of what they had done, almost without exception, over their previous 32 games. They made it very clear that they were not the better team.

That’s a remarkable thing to write, considering the circumstances. The Bears entered the day with an 8-3 record that couldn’t be taken seriously. They’d played the second-easiest schedule in the NFL, the easiest in the NFC by far, with six of their eight wins coming against teams that ranked among the 12 worst in point differential. The other two victories came against winning teams who barely qualified as such: the 6-5-1 Dallas Cowboys and the 6-5 Pittsburgh Steelers. In fact, until Friday, the Bears had been outscored on the season.

“The sky is falling outside the locker room, we understand that, but I have nothing but confidence in the men in this locker room, players and coaches included,” said running back Saquon Barkley, who finished with 56 yards on 13 carries and has now gained 60 or fewer yards in nine of 12 games on the season. “It’s going to take all of us to come together, block out the noise.”

Until Friday, we could err on the side of nodding along to such sentiments. All season, as the Eagles have struggled to replicate last year’s dominance, they’ve insisted that their Super Bowl blowout of the Kansas City Chiefs was an exorcism of the demons of 2023. They swore they were a different team. They’d learned their lessons. Plus, they had an actual defense.

Neither of those things was evident against the Bears.

They allowed 281 rushing yards, their most since 2015 and the third-most in the last 50 years. They lost the turnover battle, in a fashion meek and mild, a fumble on a Tush Push and an ugly interception, both at the hands of the quarterback. Neither could be written off as the unfortunate byproducts of a warrior mindset.

Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo and quarterback Jalen Hurts have failed to inspire confidence for much of the season.

Every quarterback has bad days. Where they differ is in their energy. Some quarterbacks are maddening, some erratic, some just plain dumb. Hurts at his worst looks listless. A nonfactor. Completely uncompetitive.

His coaches look that way, too. For most of the last month, Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo have looked like video game players who suddenly move the difficulty slider from All-Pro to All-Madden. Again, the computer won handily. The issue isn’t a lack of improvement. It’s that things are getting worse.

“It was both units, offense, defense, hats off to them,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “They played a good game; they coached a good game. They outcoached us; they outplayed us. That’s obviously something that I need to go through and watch, look through it, but to say I don’t want to — again, they ran for however many yards. We didn’t run for many yards. We lost the turnover battle. We lost the explosive play battle. All those things are going to dictate the win and loss.”

They didn’t just lose. They are at a loss. No answers. No ideas, even. This was the most concerning game of the Sirianni era, and it isn’t particularly close. Sure, 2023 was ugly. But at least it hadn’t happened before. The three scariest words in the world are “here we go again.”

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If this Eagles season ends up where it is currently heading, the faces of the Bears will be the last thing they see on their final swirl around the toilet bowl. This was the kind of loss that can break a team through what it reveals. Until now, they’ve maintained an air of invincibility, a belief in the virtue of winning ugly. While the latter may be true, the Eagles looked entirely vincible on Black Friday.

They could write off their loss to the Denver Broncos as a game they should have won. Their loss to the New York Giants was a Thursday night fluke. After their loss to the Cowboys last week, they could cling to their one great quarter.

Their loss to the Bears? It felt like a culmination to all of that. The end of their suspension of disbelief. They are back in the same place they were when it all went up in flames. Talk has sufficed until now. Adversity is easy in its hypothetical form. Now, the Eagles must actually show us what they are made of.

November 29, 2025
Jalen Hurts is at the root of the Eagles’ offensive problems, but that doesn’t excuse ‘Siritullo’

It would be unfair to pin the Eagles’ 24-15 loss to the Chicago Bears on Jalen Hurts, even if his two turnovers and ineffectiveness as a passer were contributing factors.

Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo’s inability to scheme to the quarterback’s strengths, while also covering for his weaknesses, again was the primary reason for another inept showing from the offense. The same could be said for their game plan in the run game.

The rest of the offense, meanwhile, underperformed — from the offensive line to skill position players. And, for the first time in some time, the defense can’t be absolved. Vic Fangio’s group couldn’t stop a pig in an alley. The Bears’ 281 rushing yards were the most the Eagles have allowed in 10 years.

The Eagles were collectively bad on Black Friday. “They had that thousand-yard stare in their eyes,” said one team source about players and coaches on the sidelines at Lincoln Financial Field.

Sirianni has a mini-bye to turn another two-game losing streak around. He’s done it before. He’s earned the benefit of doubt. But he may have to cut his offensive coordinator loose, alter the play-calling command, or bring in a consultant to save a unit that currently has no chance in the playoffs …

Assuming the 8-4 Eagles don’t collapse and fail to reach the postseason.

“We’re not changing the play caller,” Sirianni said.

Jeffrey Lurie may have something to say about that.

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Sirianni probably can’t change the quarterback, nor should he. The Eagles have won a lot of games with Hurts, including the Super Bowl just 9½ months ago. But his limitations as a dropback passer have been a season-long problem and are central to what’s plaguing the offense.

If you want to know why the Eagles can’t run the ball, look at the play-calling, the O-line, and running back Saquon Barkley. But don’t forget the quarterback. Defenses have concentrated their efforts on stopping Barkley, and Hurts has failed to consistently make them pay through the air despite lighter secondaries.

If you want to know why the passing route design sometimes looks rudimentary, look at Sirianni, Patullo and their nondescript scheme. But don’t forget the quarterback. There are swaths of the playbook that aren’t touched because Hurts isn’t comfortable with certain concepts.

And if you want to know why a group that returned 10 of 11 starters and costs more than any other offense in the NFL is among the worst in the league, look at the men in charge. But if Sirianni and Patullo are to be called out for failing to coach to their talent, Hurts has to face that same scrutiny.

On Friday, there was plenty beyond the big-picture problems to be critical of.

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts jogs off the field after the loss to the Bears.

“A combination of a lot of things,” Hurts said when asked about the offensive struggles. “Ultimately, you look inward first, and I see it as how the flow of things has gone for us this year and being practical about that. I can’t turn the ball over, so the ultimate goal is to go out there and find a way to win.

“That’s been a direct correlation with success for us being able to protect the ball and so that really, really killed us.”

No quarterback had been as efficient in protecting the ball this season. Hurts had just one interception and two lost fumbles in the first 11 games. But the Bears force turnovers at a higher rate than any defense.

And Hurts was careless when he was flushed from the pocket early in the third quarter and was picked off by former Eagle Kevin Byard for the safety’s NFL-leading sixth interception.

“I saw Kevin coming over and I knew there was a chance he was going to be able to make a play on the ball,” Hurts said. “Just was trying to give him a chance and throw it to the sideline where A.J. [Brown] could try and make a play on it, and I wasn’t able to connect with him.”

The defense held and Hurts bounced back on the ensuing drive. He drove the offense 92 yards and hooked up with Brown for a 33-yard touchdown. Jake Elliott missed the extra point, but the Eagles only trailed, 10-9, despite having just four first downs on their first seven possessions.

Saquon Barkley found some running lanes on Friday, but it wasn’t enough.

Then Eagles outside linebacker Jalyx Hunt intercepted Caleb Williams. Off the turnover, Barkley ran three times for 24 yards down to the Chicago 12 and the Eagles appeared primed to take an inconceivable lead. But Hurts was stripped by cornerback Nahshon Wright when he was stood up on a Tush Push.

“I have to hold onto the ball,” Hurts said when asked if he felt there should have been an earlier whistle to blow the play dead. “It definitely presents itself as an issue and it always has. It’s just never gotten us and so today it got us, and it’s something that we and I need to tighten up.”

As for the Eagles’ patented quarterback sneak, Hurts admitted that “it’s becoming tougher and tougher” to execute.

It was a tough day to execute the passing game with winds blowing at 18 miles per hour at kickoff. Hurts’ passing inefficiency should be viewed through that lens. Williams completed just 47.2% of his throws. Hurts finished 19 of 34 (55.9%) and threw for 230 yards and two touchdowns.

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But he was 9 of 18 through 3½ quarters. Hurts converted just one of seven third downs as a passer over that span. He threw behind receiver DeVonta Smith on an early third down and the Eagles settled for a field goal.

“It was two guys on two different pages,” Hurts said, “and that’s a bit of the issues that we’ve kind of been having.”

Smith, who caught five of eight targets for 48 yards, declined an interview request after the game because he said he had to see the team doctor. He’s been dealing with various injuries. Brown had more success, pulling in 10 of 12 attempts for 132 yards and two scores.

But the outspoken receiver didn’t seem any more pleased even though he’s been more involved in the last three games. Brown understands the run game is paramount to the Eagles offense functioning at a high level.

“They’re making it extremely tough to run the ball,” Brown said of opposing defenses. “And we have to run the ball. We have to. That’s how you get the game going, you know?”

Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown have seemed more on the same page in recent weeks, a good sign for a team that needs one.

It’s a shame because the Eagles got some push and there were some lanes for Barkley to run through against one of the league’s worst run defenses. But the offense was hardly on the field in the first half partly because the defense couldn’t contain Bears running backs D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai.

Hurts also had some moments on the ground. He picked up 23 yards off a draw that set up the first touchdown. It’s long been one of the Eagles’ more effective plays, but only recently has it been featured.

There were more run-pass option plays this week, and Hurts kept once as a runner. But including him more in the run game might be like trying to stuff toothpaste back into a tube. There are so many issues with the offense, and yet, it wasn’t just Sirianni who defended Patullo.

“That’s a crazy question,” Brown said when asked about making coaching changes.

He said receivers were getting schemed open. So why has the passing game been listless?

“Execution,” Brown said.

Eagles grades: Jalen Hurts has two turnovers; run defense porous vs. Bears

Hurts supported Patullo — seemingly with a caveat.

“I have confidence in him,” he said. “I have confidence in this team. I have confidence in us when we’re collaborative. I have a lot of confidence when we have an identity.”

The offense had an identity built around Hurts, which was to establish the run — with his involvement — and open the downfield passing game. And when the Eagles secured a lead in the fourth quarter, they could salt the game away behind their four-minute offense.

But they haven’t been able to run at will anymore and Hurts hasn’t been able to shoulder the offense as a dropback passer — at least on a game-to-game basis.

“I thought he made some good plays, had some good scrambles, had some good things that he did,” Sirianni said of his quarterback. “Just like all of us, he had some plays that he’ll want back, and he had some really good plays, but, again, we just weren’t consistent enough as a whole.”

Hurts can win, obviously. Some inside the NovaCare Complex seem to have forgotten that, based on frustrations with how he’s performing seeping into the public. He isn’t perfect. Far from it.

But he’s been good enough. And he’ll have to be — for now. It’s on Sirianni to figure it out.

November 29, 2025