January 11, 2026
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
A.J. Brown and the Philadelphia Eagles had a bad finale to a disappointing season.
The Philadelphia Eagles' season is over, after they lost in the Wild Card Round to the San Francisco 49ers. As always, win, lose, or tie, we hand out 10 awards.
With 2:54 left and three timeouts in their pocket, the Eagles' offense was tasked with driving 65 yards for a game-winning score against one of the worst defenses in the NFL. Somewhat surprisingly, they did drive down to the Niners' 20 yard line, but then went sack, incompletion, incompletion, incompletion, season over.
Like, nobody thought they'd score, right? We've all watched this season? Cool, moving on...
In what will probably be his final game with the Eagles, A.J. Brown had multiple drops, and only three catches on seven targets for 25 yards. During the 2025 season, he just wasn't the same player we saw earlier in his Eagles tenure. He didn't get as much separation, his hands weren't as reliable, and he had a presence that felt a little like... disinterest?
After the Eagles' loss to the 49ers, all of Brown's notable teammates talked with the media, and took accountability for the game and the season. But Brown was only visible for a minute or two. He was showered and dressed by the time media was allowed to enter the locker room, which was out of the ordinary. He hugged a few teammates, and bounced. The Eagles will have a locker room clean-out day soon. Maybe he'll talk then, maybe he won't. My guess is the latter. We might never see him in an Eagles locker room again.
But as time passes, Brown will be remembered fondly. He caught 339 passes for 5,034 yards and 32 TDs in his four seasons in Philly. He played in two Super Bowls with the Eagles, and won one. At his best, he was an alpha, a physical beast gifted with strength and speed who could bully opposing defensive backs and consistently make highlight reel plays. He might be the best receiver in Eagles history, but it feels a lot like he doesn't want to be here, and he'll be playing elsewhere in 2026.
The Eagles' offense stunk this season. The offensive line played way below its standard, the quarterback had a bad season coming off a Super Bowl MVP award, and Saquon Barkley eclipsed the 1,000-yard rushing barrier instead of, you know, 2,000. They couldn't run it consistently, and they were barely functional at times passing it.
The in-game conservative strategy falls on Nick Sirianni, and in opinion Kevin Patullo took too much of the brunt of the offense's ineffectiveness. But what is true is that Patullo didn't seem to add anything, and he can very easily be replaced.
He'll be gone, but unlike A.J. Brown he will not be remembered fondly.
There were too many times this season in which we referred to a Jake Elliott missed kick in these "10 awards" posts and said, "Those points mattered."
Had Elliott not missed a PAT after the Eagles' first TD of the game, the Eagles would've only needed three points to tie on their final drive instead of a TD to win.
Elliott is pretty safely the best kicker in Eagles history, but over the last two seasons, he has simply become too unreliable, and he does not have the power leg that many of the other kickers around the league do.
Penalties killed drives and took positive plays off the board all season, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.
Against the 49ers, a Fred Johnson false start, a Cam Jurgens hold, and a Darius Cooper hold all helped drives stall.
Sirianni's mantra is "Tough, detailed, together." The 2025 Eagles failed at the details.
The 49ers were missing their best pass rusher, their top FOUR (!) linebackers, and star TE George Kittle tore his Achilles in the first half.
Against other significantly depleted teams this season, the Eagles failed to capitalize by stressing backups, and Sunday was no different.
The Niners were undermanned, so you know what they did? Creative stuff, like this:
The Eagles did none of that this season, and that's why the Niners are advancing in the playoffs and the Eagles are booking trips to Cabo.
It was expected that Lane Johnson would return to the field against the 49ers, and a few national folks even reported that he would almost certainly play. However, Johnson was never able to recover from the Lisfranc injury he suffered against the Lions way back in Week 11.
He missed the final eight games, a stretch during which the team had a 3-5 record. It's well documented how much the Eagles win when Johnson plays and how much they don't when he doesn't, and we saw that again this season.
Fred Johnson filled in and played reasonably well in relief, but there's simply no replacing one of the best offensive linemen of all-time.
After a bad opening drive, Mitchell bounced back and had a hell of a game, picking off Brock Purdy twice. Mitchell was probably the team's best player this season, and generally speaking, the Eagles have a very good young defense to build around going forward.
The Eagles are most Eagles fans' favorite TV show, but watching them this season was like being a diehard fan of a television series, getting a few episodes in to a new season, and realizing, "Oh s***, this plot is going nowhere."
But you sit through the slop and hope that it will all eventually have a payoff at the end. As each episode passes you realize that the writers got nothing, but you watch anyway, and go to bed annoyed.
That was the 2025 Eagles, who more than anything else, were bad, boring TV.
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