Nov. 11, 2026
It brings me joy great to be able to write something positive about the Eagles in the midst of this lost season. They finally did something right. It should surprise no one that the person who brought some light into this darkness was GM Howie Roseman.
If you’re looking for a quick rebound from this 2-7 nightmare, Howie is your best chance. Yes, he has had a couple of uncharacteristically bad off-seasons since the championship parade in early 2025. Yes, he totally ignored his public responsibilities during the Jalen Hurts health crisis. And yes, he has built a roster this year doomed to failure.
But he’s still the best GM in all of sports. He proved it again on Monday when he swapped overpaid, underachieving DT Jordan Davis to Jacksonville for a first-round draft pick in 2027 and a second-rounder in 2029.
Let me repeat that. Roseman got two top picks for Davis, who is owed $78 million over the next three years. My skepticism last winter at that new contract proved to be prescient. Davis displayed a predictable lethargy this season spurred by his newfound independent wealth.
Davis was the best quote on the defense – the bar is very low – and by all accounts he had become a leader in the clubhouse. What he will never be is a model of conditioning, nor a poster boy for self-motivation.
Keep in mind that Davis basically has been a part-time player this season, present on the field for only 52 percent of the snaps. (His partner, Jalen Carter, has been there for 84%.) Twenty-six mil a year for half the snaps is not cost-effective.
What is cost-effective, however, is shedding that salary burden and getting back two draft picks that could offer much more help in the next few years.
If I were a Jacksonville fan, I would be calling 911 right now to report a theft because Howie fleeced the Jaguars. Based on his meager production this season, Davis is not worthy of a first-round pick, let alone also a second. Roseman robbed the Jags blind.
All we can hope now is that this remarkable trade signals a return to form for the Eagles GM. The roster right now needs some Howie magic more than it has in years. Its lack of depth proved fatal to this injury-riddled season. Surely Roseman realizes that by now.
If he and owner Jeff Lurie have a clearer understanding as to why the Eagles have cratered this year, they probably also realize by now that this entire coaching staff, starting with head coach Nick Sirianni, needs to follow Jordan out the door at the end of the season.
Then it’ll be time for another round of marathon job interviews, the selection of another young coach who will do what he’s told, and some bold proclamations by Lurie about the Eagles brilliant formula for success. We’ve seen this pattern too many times to expect anything different now.
But I’m feeling more positive today. If these are the final months of Sirianni’s puzzling tenure here, I’m willing to weather the storm. Anything is better than more nonsense beyond this season by this overrated coach.
Bravo, Howie. He finally gave Eagles fans something to cheer this season. Hopefully, it’s a sign of better things to come.
After all, they couldn’t get much worse, could they?
The Fickle Finger of Nick
At the end of another dismal performance, Nick Sirianni didn’t like the boos he heard as he walked off the field last Sunday. You can see it in his face, and even more so in his right hand. It’s all right there on tape.
As the boos rained down and a fan shouted, “You’ve got to be better than that!” Sirianni elevated his right hand and lifted his middle finger in the direction of the clamor. If it were an unintentional gesture, he wouldn’t have held the finger in that position for a full five seconds.
Nick Sirianni gave the fans who pay his $15-million-a-year salary the finger on Sunday. He may be spinning a different tale now, but the tape doesn’t lie. The hothead couldn’t handle the boos. The coach who has the audacity to try to school Eagles fans on when they should and shouldn’t boo didn’t like it when those howls of frustration were aimed at him.
Look, we already know Sirianni is a liar. He admitted it after he announced “Tanner’s our guy” while already locked into a quarterback change from Tanner McKee to Joe Milton last week. He even admitted that he would deceive the media if he thought it was in the best interests of the team.
So when he denied flipping the bird, he did so with his credibility already in tatters.
“Absolutely not,” he began at his Monday news conference. “We thrive off the crowd when they cheer for us; that’s all I’ll say. We hear them when they boo. We don’t necessarily like it. I don’t think that’s productive for anybody.”
There it is again, this exasperating philosophy that booing is verboten, even here in Philadelphia. Sirianni is saying two things with those words. First, he still can’t stand hearing negativity in a city famous for it. And second, he still has no understanding of how lucky he is to have a fan base that is still passionate after a seven-game losing streak.
I would say Sirianni’s latest misstep was a minor offense, but not when this entire season has been a major one – from the decision to put Jalen Hurts on a plane to London, to the idiotic strategy that cost the Eagles that game, to the collapse that followed that crushing loss.
When Sirianni does leave Philly – the sooner, the better, please – some fans will cheer the championship he won here, and the two Super-Bowl appearances. I will not be one of them. When he has needed to prove he was a creative and resilient coach, he has done the exact opposite.
The roster Howie gave him six years ago should be on its way to a third or fourth parade, not the sole victory in 2025, thanks largely to OC Kellen Moore and DC Vic Fangio.
Instead of applauding Sirianni’s tenure here, I plan to lift a glass of champagne when he leaves, and if the middle finger of my hand seems a bit elevated, well, it should not be interpreted as a fitting, final insult to the coach.
Absolutely not.
Other bye-week musings. . . .
- As someone who prides himself on holding grudges, I must applaud Jaylen Brown for his game-long snub of former teammate Jayson Tatum on Tuesday at the Xfinity Mobile Arena. There’s not much question that Tatum used his power as an elite player to shove Brown out of Boston. Despite Tatum’s lame denials, Brown was right to ignore his ex-pal throughout the game. Of course, the night would have been a much bigger success if the Sixers didn’t get squashed by the Celtics.
- Nick Sirianni isn’t the only one who gave our fans the finger this week. Ex-Sixer Paul George aimed the bird at a fan during the Celtics’ win over the Sixers on Tuesday night. “He was being an asshole,” George explained later. Just a couple of questions, Paul: Was the fan an a-hole when he spent hundreds (maybe thousands) of dollars to see you play? Do you think you’d still be making $54 mill a year if fans like him didn’t pay those prices? Paul Geroge will break down again soon. I look forward to this inevitability, as should you.
- The last thing the Flyers needed was the report on Tuesday that their best player, Matvei Michkov, would like “a new start” somewhere else. Michkov is in the last year of his rookie contract, and he is on the cusp of superstardom at 21 years old. The report cited the “inner turmoil” on the Flyers as the main cause of the young player’s discontent. OK, let’s make this simple. Whoever is responsible for that turmoil needs to go, not Michkov. If the Flyers can’t keep young studs like him, what’s the point?
- In my years on WIP, we always picked a Weasel of the Week. This week it’s a no-brainer. The Cincinnati Bengals pulled out of a trade for Eagles pass-rusher Arnold Ebiketie on Tuesday when they found out they would lose a third-round compensatory pick as part of the deal. The Bengals didn’t know the rule. Howie Roseman did. Lesson: Howie knows more than you, stupid.
- My biggest laugh of the past week was the report that the Phillies will listen to offers for Trea Turner this month. OK, it’s time to line up all the suckers who want to make a trade proposal for a 33-year-old shortstop with seven years and $190-million left on his contract. He is also one of the worst defensive players in MLB, and he struck out 147 times last season. Let the bidding war begin!