All the Latest Eagles Updates

Good morning, happy Tuesday, and a very Go Birds to you and your loved ones.

🚦THE Philly Sports Newsletter will often have a Phillies-centric, Sixers-centric, or Flyers-centric tilt. We generally believe that we discuss the Union, the Wings, and local college teams more than most anyone else in Philly sports media.

But we know our audience, and we know where everyone’s thoughts are right now. So let’s jump right into everything you need to know about the Eagles as they get ready for their wild card showdown with the Pack.

In the email today:

• 🦅 Early Eagles-Packers Storylines

• ☀️ Suns Spoil Sixers Homecoming with Embiid Out Again

• 🔥 "Don't Get Fired": A Brief Measured X Survey of the Skip Bayless/Joy Taylor News

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

Three major topics dominated Birds talk on social media on Monday. You can find more extensive thoughts on each over on the website. But here’s a quick primer on what you need to know.

1) The Eagles / Packers Point Spread Moved Significantly From Sunday to Monday.

For those who believe in the wisdom of crowds, the Eagles’ odds of beating the Packers improved between Sunday and Monday.

Before Sunday's Eagles/Packers playoff matchup was a certainty, at least one popular sportsbook listed the Birds as 3 point favorites in a hypothetical game between the two teams.

When the Packers lost to the Bears on Sunday and made the hypothetical game a reality, the Eagles opened as 3.5 point favorites. Those odds implied about a 65% chance that Philadelphia would win the wild card game outright.

Bettors hammered the Eagles at -3.5, causing most sportsbooks to move the line to 5 points (implying a 70% chance that the Birds would win outright). And some gambling sites now list the line as 5.5 points, which translates to a 71% chance of an Eagles victory.

By Monday evening, a consensus seemed to form around 4.5 points / 69.6%.

Mathematically-inclined readers will note that even a 71% chance of an Eagles win implies a 29% chance of an Eagles loss. The crowd is not always as wise as we hope it will be.

But all things considered, you'd rather be a Birds fan than a cheesehead this week.

2) Jalen Hurts is still in the 'Concussion Protocol.' What Exactly Does That Mean?

Massive amounts of conflicting information flooded social media on Monday regarding Hurts and the NFL’s concussion protocol. Being the capital ‘J’ Journalists that we are, we went straight to the league’s rules in an attempt to clear things up.

While there’s a gameday concussion protocol that needs to be followed after hits to the head, and that protocol led to Hurts’ removal from the Commanders game, the Eagles’ QB1 is now technically in what the league calls the “Return-to-Participation Protocol.”

Hurts must clear the five steps described in the graphic below to participate fully in practice or play in a game:

The Eagles organization has not said a word about which of the five phases Hurts has cleared. So anyone telling you our hero will be fine—or anyone telling you to panic—should be ignored.

The Packers game will be played 21 days after Hurts was removed from the Commanders game. So it’s reasonable to hope that he will be cleared very soon.

But.

The NFL states the following in its Return-To-Participation Protocol:

Without knowing 1) which of the five phases Hurts has cleared, 2) whether a club physician has cleared Hurts for full activity, or 3) whether an INC will soon be asked to concur with the club physician's clearance, speculation on Hurts’ status is exactly that—speculation.

Hopefully Tuesday brings more clarity to the situation.

3) The Packers have injury issues of their own.

NFL.com's Ian Rappaport reported Monday that talented Packers wide receiver Christian Watson tore his ACL during Green Bay's loss to Chicago on Sunday.

Watson, 25, registered more regular season receiving yards (620) than all but two other Packers: WR Jayden Reed (857) and TE Tucker Kraft (707). Averaging 21.4 yards per reception, Watson was considered Green Bay's top deep threat.

And Watson won’t be the only missing Packer. The club placed two-time All-Pro cornerback Jaire Alexander on injured reserve on Saturday because of a sprained PCL. (Alexander has a shot to return if the Packers make it to the Super Bowl.)

Finally, while Packers QB Jordan Love is expected to play against the Eagles, it’s unclear whether he will be 100%. Love left Sunday’s game against the Bears after this play:

Got all that? By tomorrow, we will surely have a whole new set of Eagles storylines.

When an extremely talented Birds squad is just a few wins away from the Super Bowl, that tends to happen.

Saturday night, the Sixers were all vibes in beating up on the woeful Brooklyn Nets on the road.

Many men can relate to the phenomenon of overdoing it away from home. The bill always comes due, though.

Joel Embiid had a double-double in that win over the Nets. Last night, before the paying customers, Embiid was a late scratch. Stop us if you’ve heard this one before.

The Sixers really could have used a big night from Paul George. Yeah, about that.

George is giving something between “Al Horford signing a huge contract and actively stealing money” and “Tobias Harris signing a huge contract and just not being him.”

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether George cares a lot, a little or not at all about how ineffective he has been. It only matters that he’s shooting 34% from three-point range as a Sixer en route to scoring six fewer points per game than last season.

George’s game isn’t exactly pyrotechnic when he’s right. That’s a reasonable concession to his years and his mileage. But it also leads to some turgid viewing.

Looking on the bright side, the Sixers didn’t risk a dumb injury celebrating boisterously on the sideline. The vibe was decidedly less joyful.

The rest of the week is promising, with the Wizards (dead last in the Eastern Conference) and Pelicans (dead last in the Western Conference) coming to town.

If the Sixers can’t pick up a pair of needed wins over those two pathetic squads, things might be even worse than we fear.

Jalen Rose used to go on Bill Simmons’ podcast a lot. Every time the subject got a little hot or risky, one or both of them could be counted on to say “don’t get fired.”

In that spirit, we’re going to try to tell some of the Skip Bayless/Joy Taylor story through X posts without confirming or denying any of it, or taking any position at all. Ahem.

Away we go.

We don’t know whether Bayless would go that far into his pocket for female companionship.

At least one prominent sports voice doesn’t think so, though the reasoning is less “he wouldn’t do that because it’s the wrong thing to do” and more “he wouldn’t do that because he has short arms and very deep pockets.”

Meanwhile, Taylor was the subject of an absolutely predictable and super sad barrage of misogynistic social media posts. It almost felt like people have been waiting for this sort of thing.

Apparently at least one somebody certainly was.

That’s about all we are willing to do with this story for now. We’re going to go bathe in lye, rinse our eyes with bleach and hope the boss doesn’t read the newsletter today.

You know, so we don’t get fired.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On January 7, 1980, an incredible Flyers streak came to an end. And on January 7, 1996, Randall Cunningham played his final game as an Eagle.

📊 Poll

Results from Monday:

🔗 Links

• 🌴 Old friend Doug Pederson got his walking papers from the Jaguars.

• 🗽 Brian Daboll, on the other hand, is going to keep his job with the Giants.

• 🐻 The Bears are interested in Mike McCarthy, who for now still coaches the Cowboys.

• 📺️ Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made a cameo on “Landman.”

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

• Flyers vs. Maple Leafs, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN+)

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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