The Eagles lost, and everyone's upset. 

They're also waiting on what the Phillies might do with Bo Bichette, while cautiously watching to see if the Flyers and Sixers are legit.

Philly sports haven't wasted anytime making headlines a couple of weeks into 2026.

So for each of the core four teams, here's a vibe check...

Eagles – What the hell?

They crashed and burned in the Wild Card to a walking wounded San Francisco team, and in the almost exact fashion that everyone but Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo could see coming.

Their defense wasn't as dominant as it was down the stretch, but Quinyon Mitchell still came up with two interceptions, and they still gave the Eagles a chance.

And all the offense could do with that was their second-half disappearing act, with three-and-outs, slow breaks from the huddle, and highly predictable and easily stopped play calls galore. 

The season, the hopes of a repeat Super Bowl bid, but also months of obviously bad yet shrugged off football, ended with everyone running deep and Jalen Hurts trying to jam a destined-to-fail pass to Dallas Goedert in triple coverage. They needed their absolute best play in that spot on a do-or-die fourth down, took a timeout to talk it over, and that's what they came up with: Four Verts. It sounded about right, honestly.

Patullo has since been yanked as offensive coordinator, though the Eagles have been careful, and frankly, weird about not saying "fired."

Either way, he still had to be pulled from that job for letting what was a Super Bowl-winning offense a year ago regress miles backwards under his watch.

Thing is, that alone won't fully fix the Eagles' problems, or confront all the blame. It was just the only immediate step to take. 

Sirianni, Hurts, A.J. Brown, they all have their share in this, too. 

This is the second time Sirianni has fumbled around with an increasingly abysmal offense after an established playcaller left (Shane Steichen and then Kellen Moore), leading to heavy fan and media scrutiny over how important he really is to the Eagles' whole operation when half of it can't survive without someone more competent in control – as bizarre as that seems at face value for a coach who hasn't missed the playoffs and still has a recent championship.

Hurts has had an up-and-down year and just looked bad in that last game, which justified or not for the QB who has been at the forefront of the Eagles' recent success, is taking on his own level of criticism over how well he can read a defense, how willing he is to run, and how willing he is to takes snaps under center. 

Then there's Brown, who just might be on his way out of Philadelphia after killer, uncharcteristic drops on Sunday and disinterested looking body language to go along with it. He's one of the Eagles' best wide receivers ever, but there's been some kind of rift happening between him and the organization for some time now and it was hardly hidden this season.

There's the offensive line, which didn't have Lane Johnson able to return from injury in time, and Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens, who both battled through pain and injury themselves all season and never looked quite right. This might be the first time in a long time where the O-line isn't the Eagles' key advantage over everyone anymore.

And there's Jake Elliott, who might have kicked his last game as an Eagle, Dallas Goedert, who was only ever here for one more year, and Reed Blankenship and Nakobe Dean, whose contracts are up and didn't seem to know what comes next.

Oh yeah, and now there's the new offensive coordinator search, which has a lot of pressure on the Eagles to get it right, because that Super Bowl window only stays open for so long.

They just played bad. They were miserable to watch on offense for months, had to have known, yet never did a thing about it, and no one's happy with them. 

Mitchell and Vic Fangio might be the only ones genuinely excused from all the scorn.

Phillies – Same old, same old?

They kept Kyle Schwarber. They pretty much had to. 

They've been running around picking up a lot of bullpen arms over the winter, though it's unknown whether any of them will really strengthen what's been a problem for the club for years.

They have Cristopher Sánchez and Jesús Luzardo as their 1-2 starting punch, but who knows what Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola will look like when they come back, whether Ranger Suárez will come back at all (Ranger just signed with Boston), or when Andrew Painter might actually get here. 

And then they're taking a gamble on Adolis García as their new everyday right fielder, with the hopes that Justin Crawford will be ready to take on center while they find some sort of out from Nick Castellanos.

They'll probably still be good, but World Series good? I've been hanging on to this exchange with a vendor from the Christmas Village at City Hall last month, who noticed my Phillies beanie as I was scrolling through his prints...

"Phillies, huh?"

"Yeah."

"You ready for '26 to be just like '25?"

"...I guess so, yeah."

At least my kitchen wall looks nice.

A Bo Bichette signing would be pretty cool, too.

Flyers – Are they gonna make it?

They're still rebuilding. They are better, and they can make the playoffs this year. 

There's a legitimate path for them to do it, but it has been tough sledding for the past week after Toronto came in and caught them in overtime, and then Tampa Bay followed up with consecutive durbbings.

They also got pretty banged up leaving the Anaheim game, as big of a win as it was for them, when Jamie Drysdale and Bobby Brink both had to exit after some pretty nasty hits. 

They have Buffalo later Wednesday night and then rival Pittsburgh immediately after on Thursday. It's a close Eastern Conference race right now, with both of those teams in the thick of it, so both matchups present multi-point swings. The Flyers have to capitalize. 

Some of the good: Trevor Zegras was a gamble on some badly needed offensive skill that keeps paying off for them; Dan Vladar was another shrewd offseason move that has resulted in their No. 1 goaltender; Travis Sanheim's reputation around the league has gotten so good that he's going to play for Canada in the Olympics next month; and prospect Denver Barkey made his way up to the team and has so far held his own way sooner than most expected. 

Some of the bad: Matvei Michkov is having a brutal sophomore year, and there's no getting around that; leaning on Sam Ersson to make a save for Vladar isn't yiedling much confidence right now; Tyson Foerster's injury put him out for the season when he was probably the team's most important forward; and, yeah, that power play is still miserable.

The Flyers have had some pretty decent crowds, sellouts even, in their last handful of homes games at Xfinity Mobile Arena. 

I think there is a genuine desire from Philly Faithful to believe in the Flyers again. It's just been such a long time since they've had reason to, coupled with the fact that they've been burned before and have never truly had to see this team endure an actual, long-term rebuild. 

Most seem to be waiting for that true moment to buy in. It's on this team to show it to them.

Sixers – One 77 black throwback jersey, please

If you asked me before the season, I would've told you the Iverson-era throwbacks finally coming back were a "break glass in case of emergency" kind of measure to brace for the Sixers being awful again. 

But they're actually alright – well, mostly. 

Tyrese Maxey is playing like a true superstar, and rookie VJ Edgecombe has hit the ground running. Joel Embiid, by his standards from the past few years at least, has been pretty durable and able to contribute, albeit with less mobility, and even Paul George is somewhat quietly having a better Year 2 in Philly.

They're right in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, maybe not as a true title contender right now, but they are competitive again. 

And key to the bigger, more future-minded picture, their true strength as a team has shifted to their backcourt between Maxey and Edgecombe, which is probably far more sustainable than trying to run everything through a star center who isn't getting any younger and isn't ever absent from the daily injury report anymore. 

The hangup is just that right now, the Sixers, as they are, probably aren't any better than the second round. And in the full scope of the past decade – The Process, Bryan Colangelo, Ben Simmons, James Harden, and all – that's really just the long way around to the organization spinning its wheels...

But man, does the throwback black Edgecombe jersey look great.

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