👋 Good morning! We are gonna do something that we do not always do in this space: Give Ruben Amaro Jr. some credit.

Before Kyle Schwarber stepped to the plate with two outs in the eighth inning on Monday, the Phillies lineup looked more or less hopeless. Laborious, in honor of the holiday. They had been shutout to that point. They had continued the weekend-long trend of leaving a million guys on base. And Didier Fuentes, Atlanta’s talented 21-year-old reliever who unfortunately appears to be A Problem, was a strike away from his second scoreless two-inning outing of the series.

🎤 That is when Ruben, taking a page out of John Kruk’s book, said the following: He’s allowed to make a mistake here. I mean, there’s no rule against it.

Next pitch: Fuentes makes his mistake, resulting in a majestic Schwarbomb.

Ruben was right, there was no rule against it.

And you know what else there is no rule against? Upgrading your Broad Street Bulletin subscription, just in time for the busiest part of the local sports calendar.

We have a full Eagles season kicking off, a full Phillies playoff push ahead of us, and some highly-anticipated Sixers and Flyers campaigns getting underway shortly. You want to keep up with your teams, with this level of detail five days per week? Subscribe here for either $50 per year or $5 per month.

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⚾ Phillies split with the Braves: Both teams can probably take something from these four games.

For Atlanta, the NL East math is unfortunately mathin’. The Braves got a split in their house of horrors, which means their division lead is four games with 18 left. And practically, it is five games since the Braves already clinched the season series with the Phils. As it turns out, all of those games in April count the same in the standings. Rats, I was hoping that would not be the case.

Let’s keep monitoring the situation this week. Since Atlanta treats Chris Sale like a college starter and throws him once a week, they are rolling out their B-Team against AL-leading Tampa Bay in a three-game set that starts tonight. And then the Phillies go back to Truist for three more (including Sale again on Friday night, womp womp), a series that is almost in gotta-sweep territory if you wanna keep the division hopes alive. Not over yet, but probably not happening.

Not the end of the world. For the Phillies, we knew the division race was gonna be an uphill battle. They just dug such a massive hole in April, it was always gonna be tough to catch a team that wins in the mid-90s. But back in July when the Phillies lost to the Dodgers and Yankees, it felt like they were outclassed. That did not feel like the case this weekend. If they play the Braves in the postseason, it does not feel like they will have to do anything extraordinary to beat them. That felt like two pretty even teams.

And as much as the April games matter in the standings, they do not matter one bit once you get into October. It is all about the type of baseball you are playing right then. And against one of the best teams in baseball this season, the Phils did not feel outgunned at all. Not in the slightest.

In particular, the starting pitching was phenomenal:

If I have my math right, that is five runs in 28 innings. Pretty, pretty good. The starting rotation is in such a groove right now. They give you confidence that these Phillies are gonna run through the tape in an effort to hold off the Cubbies for the No. 4 seed. And once they get into most playoff series, their starting pitching is gonna be better than yours. As for the bullpen and lineup, well, let’s not talk about that today.

The Nolassaince has been an absolute pleasure to watch, especially since it is happening at the same time as the Painterssance. So many -ssances in South Philly right now.

And man, how about Zeus? HOW ABOUT ZEUS?

Some notes from yesterday’s absolute masterpiece:

Remember how I did the whole Luzardo Coaster bit last year? There is none of that this time around. He had that incredibly odd first month, in which his ERA was sky-high. But anyone poring over #ThePeriphs was adamant that, “This guy is good! No, seriously!” They were so right. Luzardo started the first game of The Don Mattingly Era. Since that night, he has a 2.14 ERA and 188 strikeouts in 151.1 innings.

Are you ready to get uncomfortable? I think Mattingly is gonna have to tell one of Sánchez or Wheeler that they are starting Game 3 (if necessary) of the wild-card series. Those guys are both absolute studs. But Zeus is forcing his hand.

OK, let’s quickly touch on the other two big talking points from the series: the Phillies’ bullpen and Ronald Acuña Jr.

Orion Kerkering has been officially leap-frogged by Alex McFarlane in the Phillies’ bullpen pecking order. In Friday’s game, Kerkering got hosed on a check-swing call but responded by hanging a sweeper to Mauricio Dubon. The numbers do not back this up 100 percent, but I feel like Kerkering’s sweeper shares many similarities to Chip Kelly’s offense in the NFL: revolutionary at the beginning, a limited strategy that he continued to spam, and something that has been more or less figured out by Year 4.

The problem? McFarlane then picked a bad time to have his first major-league blow-up. Handed a 4-1 run lead by Nola, McFarlane let two runners reach base before giving up a no-doubter to Acuña. The sound of the bat caused McFarlane to jump.

That loss really stung. It stung about as much as an early September baseball game can. Nola dominated, the Phillies scored enough runs and the bullpen blew up. Nobody is gonna feel great about the ‘pen headed into October, I have made my peace with that.

But it also goes to show the ups and downs of a baseball season. Phillies fans were angry with Garrett Stubbs’ Caleb Cotham’s decision to spam fastballs with McFarlane against Acuña. But the pitch selection was excellent earlier in the week in Arizona, when McFarlane bailed Nola out of a jam. And even on Schwarber’s homer on Monday, a Braves fan might wonder why Fuentes threw Schwarber a fastball with two strikes. That same Braves fan might also ask Walt Weiss why a lefty was not in the game to face Schwarber. Sometimes, you are on the wrong end of those calls. But this one definitely hurt as a Phillies fan.

Then Acuña rounded the bases. And you know what I wondered?

What does Brian McCann think about all of this?

The longtime Braves catcher used to consider himself the chief of The Unwritten Rules Police. Do you remember when McCann and the entire Braves team took umbrage at Carlos Gomez for simply staring at his moonshot homer? Can you imagine how mad McCann’s Braves teams would be if they ever played Acuña? He watches it for forever, flaps his wings in between first and second, stops running and stutter-steps between second and third, and then cruises home. The Gomez clip is tame by comparison.

I will not be applying for The Unwritten Rules Police anytime soon. In general, I believe that a player who hits a homer can do what he wants. If you do not like it, get him out. But I gotta say, Acuña does test your limits in that regard. The stutter-step, in particular, is pretty outrageous. But I thought the Phillies handed it great: Wheeler slipped in a dig, while saying that Acuña can do what he wants. McFarlane did not take the bait. And then Luzardo got him out three times.

But I just worry about poor Brian McCann. He probably cannot believe The Unwritten Rules are being desecrated by his beloved organization. The horror!

Football! Football! Football! Football! 🏈 🏈 🏈 🏈

We made it, everyone. It is very much that time of year again. The NFL is back this week, first on Wednesday for the Super Bowl rematch in Seattle and Thursday for Rams-49ers down-undah in MEL-bin.

Speaking of that second game, did you see that the Rams are making that long flight less than 48 hours before kickoff? Weird! Interesting! The Eagles sports science department better figure out their Netflix passwords and take notes of how that one goes. We all know The Shield is gonna make the Eagles go to Australia at some point, on account of their wonderful left tackle being from there.

And then we have the Birds at 4:15 p.m. on Sunday. America’s Game of the Week, Burkhardt and Brady on the call.

I have ten Eagles predictions coming your way over the next few days: four on offense, four on defense and two overall predictions. Just like we did with the offseason checklists for the Sixers and Flyers, I will come back to my predictions at the end of the season and see how I did. We strive for accountability here at The Broad Street Bulletin.

Today, it is all about the offense.

Prediction #1: The offensive line will be back. Because of that, we will see another monster Saquon season.

Did anyone have a quietly better summer than Chris Kuper?

Heading into this offseason, there were plenty of questions about the new Eagles offensive line coach. Kuper already had the deck stacked against him, since sports history suggests that you do not want to be the man who replaces The Man. Upon more scrutiny, the questions only increased. The Vikings offensive line did not appear to have a ton of success during Kuper’s four-year tenure. And Kevin O’Connell, someone who seems to know what he is doing on offense, told Kuper to take a hike.

This was gonna be the guy to replace Jeff Stoutland? Seriously?

And who knows, maybe Kuper will prove to be in over his head. But as a skeptic, this offseason has assuaged some of my fears. The offensive line, all of whom earned graduate degrees in the ornate halls of Stoutland U, offered effusive praise for Kuper across the board. They even have a oft-used nickname for him: Kup (pronounced “Coop”). Do not underestimate the power of oft-used nicknames for offensive line coaches. The linemen also expressed excitement at the prospect of running a scheme that will ask them to do less thinking, and in the case of the tackles, less pass blocking on an island.

The Eagles offensive line was a banged-up unit in 2025. They were the first ones to tell you that. Of the Medellín Men, it sounds like Cam Jurgens was ahead of Landon Dickerson health-wise from those on the ground at training camp. But even if Dickerson loses effectiveness or misses time, the best depth development of camp was the emergence of both Drew Kendall and Willie Lampkin. Another point in Kuper’s favor!

That brings us to a guy we never talk about during training camp: Saquon Barkley.

The running game cannot accurately be measured during camp, because the Eagles do not tackle. Sure, it is nice to see Saquon yapping with defensive players and catching the occasional dime from Hurts. But no player goes from in the shadows to in your face during Week 1 as much as the franchise running back.

Last season, the offensive line could not spring Saquon to the second level consistently after excelling at that in 2024. You can see that in the YBCON/ATT number in the graphic: yards before contact per rushing attempt, a stat that I took from the good people at Fantasy Pros.

And as you can see in the graphic, the big plays decreased in a big way. An unofficial list of players with more 20-yard runs than Saquon last season: Blake Corum, D’Andre Swift, Baker Mayfield.

I expect Saquon to bounce back along with the offensive line. If No. 26 plays most of the season, put me down for 1,500 rushing yards. No, Eric Dickerson will not be in the news again around New Year’s, but that would be the second-best statistical season of Saquon’s career.

Prediction #2: Howie Roseman makes an in-season trade for a pass-catcher (receiver or tight end).

The optimistic view of the new-look receiver room is summed up by the equation Smitty + Scheme.

We are finally getting to learn what a fully-formed DeVonta Smith will look like as an unquestioned No. 1 wide receiver. The 2021 season, when DeVonta was a rookie and Jalen Hurts was a first-year starter, was our only look at that arrangement so far. Now, both guys are in their primes age-wise. Put me down for a real breakout for DeVonta, but not quite at the level of JSN: 1,400 yards and 10 touchdowns, both career highs. Hey, the ball has gotta so somewhere.

The other hope is that Sean Mannion’s scheme, which marries the run and the pass better than whatever that slop was last season, plus an improved running game, will open up throws for Hurts and the other receivers. Due to the personnel, I just cannot get all the way there. The more I look at this pass-catching group beyond Smith and Dallas Goedert, the more it makes me nervous. The rookies are certainly not helping matters. I have relatively low expectations for Makai Lemon out of the gate, and almost no expectations for Eli Stowers. Not great, Bob!

Dontayvion Wicks will start as the No. 2 receiver. After three years in the Green Bay spread-the-wealth system, hopefully he is ready for some more volume. And maybe Lemon follows The Cooper DeJean Plan from 2024, dipping his toe into the pool early and then picking up steam midseason. Both things are far from guaranteed.

After them? I just do not know if Darius Cooper, Hollywood Brown and Elijah Moore are anything more than depth pieces. And I do not like the tight end room very much, with all due respect to the Mundt Heads out there. To do any of the things that the Rams major in, don’t you need more than one dual-threat tight end (Goedert) capable of catching passes and blocking? If so, the Eagles just do not have that.

Because I think the Eagles will be contender-ish, it says here that Howie Roseman trades for a receiver or a tight end who can play with Goedert. That will be his first such in-season move since swinging a 2018 trade for Golden Tate. That one did not work out, although ol’ Golden made one important play at the end.

Prediction #3: Jalen Hurts has a 2023 type of season. That is to say, he plays a more high-risk, high-reward brand of football.

If that sounds wishy-washy, fine. But I have the least feel for this one.

Eagles fans bristle at the idea that this is a make-or-break season for Jalen Hurts. And I get it! The Eagles fan part of my brain certainly does not want to hear that talk. THIS IS A SUPER BOWL CHAMPION! ALL HE DOES IS WIN!

#AsExpected, Howie Roseman shut down that talk on WIP last week. That is relatively meaningless, but fine. Actions speak louder than words. Jeffrey Lurie and Roseman were noticeably less effusive in their praise of Hurts this past offseason, and the normally-proactive Eagles did not extend his contract. Nobody is taking away all of those wins that Roseman referenced, but it is fair to believe that the Eagles’ brain trust wants to see an improved offense before handing Hurts another contract with an average annual value that starts with a five or six.

I think it is gonna be messy, with at least close to a career-high in interceptions (15, in 2023). But I also think that Hurts will make meaningful progress in areas like throwing with rhythm and over the middle. As a result, the Eagles passing game will be more volatile but also more aesthetically pleasing. Put another way, I think it is gonna look very different from the uber-conservative brand of football we saw the last two seasons.

Finding that right balance might prove tricky. On paper, the best version of this Eagles team might not be entirely different from the 2024 Super Bowl champs: run the ball on offense, play great defense. But can Hurts lead a more fluid and efficient passing offense off of that run game? That would represent meaningful progress, because losing A.J. Brown definitely makes Hurts’ job harder on Sundays (even if it might be a tad easier Monday to Saturday 😉).

I am much more interested in the offense’s overall numbers than Hurts’ individual numbers. Some more points, way fewer three-and-outs and more consistency on a down-by-down basis (success rate).

The Eagles’ ranks in those stats last year:

One other point I would make here: We could see some strides from Hurts and an improved running game, and not a massive jump in scoring overall. Last season, the Eagles were the best team in the NFL in the red zone by a good bit. The paradox of 2025 is that the offense was at its best in the highest-leverage moments, particularly some of Goedert’s schemed-up touchdowns. Hopefully Kevin Patullo left that part of the playbook (and only that part) on the way out, but you would imagine that number comes down a little bit.

This probably will not be a linear progression for the Eagles offense. Look at who is on the schedule the first five weeks. Hurts should be sharp against Washington-Tennessee-Chicago out of the gate, especially with no tape of him in this offense. But then things get really real against Jacksonville and the Rams. In a five-day span around Christmas, the Eagles play perhaps the best two defenses outside of Philly: Seattle and Houston. Remind me to disregard the Christmas Eve game against the Texans in Jalen’s total evaluation. That one is gonna be survive and advance.

Anyway, expect some serious ups and downs from Jalen and the passing game (more interceptions, in particular). New system, new play-caller, new personnel. But my guess is that Jalen sticks with the preseason plan better this time around, because he has to. And yes, everyone will be arguing about a potential contract extension come next March.

Prediction #4: The Eagles offense will improve, but not enough for Sean Mannion to get a head-coaching job.

Give me 10th through 12th in EPA per play, with an increase in turnovers.
Give me much, much higher than last season’s 23rd-ranked success rate.
And give me 26.5 points per game, a nice bump up from last year’s 22.3.

After a successful first season as play-caller, Mannion will interview for a few head-coaching jobs. But when the list gets whittled down to the less-desirable situations, he ultimately pulls a Ben Johnson and sticks around for Year 2… to the delight of Jalen Hurts and everyone in the Delaware Valley.

And you know what else delights the Delaware Valley? The Broad Street Bulletin!

The free subscribers here already know the ground rules, you one of these newsletters every two Mondays in the free tier. One of ten.

You can see the level of detail that I get into for a weekend Phillies series, and you will get that same dedication every Monday for a Birds game. Here is what our free Monday newsletter schedule will look like for this year’s Eagles season, starting two weeks from now in the Music City:

So, that is 6.5 game recaps… with the “half” being the one handling the Thanksgiving Cowboys game on the following Monday. I dunno what to do with that one. But you know what is better than 6.5? SIXTEEN day-after newsletters! For either $50 per year or $5 per month, you get every single one… plus all of the weekly coverage to get you hyped for Sundays.

New seasons bring new initiatives. This upcoming football/basketball season for me? At least trying to up my social media presence is definitely one.

So, I am gonna at least try to post some video content on the platforms that I have a few followers on:

And the ones I have almost no followers on:

So, give me a follow on any of those if you would like to hear some #takes and maybe even some of the sights around Philly. I am gonna be posting pretty consistently.

The news and notes of the day…

Aidan Miller: Well, Friday’s newsletter did not age well.

Miller made his season debut in Clearwooder and ripped a double in his first at-bat. Good for the kid. Maybe we will see him in Arizona Fall League now?

🎣 Ben Simmons, back in the NBA: From what it seems like, on a guaranteed contract and everything.

Simmons is signing a one-year, $3.5 million contract in Sacramento… which appears to be right around the veteran’s minimum for a player with his service time. Honestly? Good for him, I am surprised he even got that.

On NBA Twitter over the years, people took to calling the Kings “the Kangzzz.” It was an affectionate nickname, for a small-market team that has been equal parts poorly run and comically unlucky. Anyway, it is a very Kangzy move to sign Ben Simmons in the Year of Our Lord 2026. But looking at their relatively sad depth chart? Why not, give it a whirl. If Ben stinks — which he probably will —the opportunity cost is minimal. It is just one minimum contract and roster spot.

Speaking of the Sixers….

⚽ Union 2, CF Montréal 0: The hottest team in Philadelphia just keeps on keepin’ on.

16-year-old Cavan Sullivan scored AGAIN — Young Cavan now has eight “goal contributions” (goals and assists) in six games — and then someone gave him the chalk so he could do the LeBron celebration.

That someone was social media manager Kim Ahrens. Said the young phenom: “I had Kim, our photographer, holding the chalk for multiple games. I just kept missing out on it! Tonight, great crowd, I figured it was the perfect time.”

It was an excellent crowd, which I got to be part of for the first time. And in the stands, I found that there were two types of vocal fans:

Anyway, do not be that second guy.

I am not even sure that know-it-all is right, by the way! Cavan has an agreement that he will join Man City once he turns 18… which is September 2027, one year from now. I would love to be wrong, but that reads like one more full MLS season to me. On the ride home, we batted around “Jerk Store” style comebacks in the small chance that we ever encounter that gentleman again. But what if he was just wrong? If so, Brendan should be legally mandated to wiggle one finger in his face.

The rest of the fans were delightful, by the way. Not a bad seat in the house. And Union Yards is a great pre-game spot, with an excellent beer selection. It was packed on Saturday, as it should have been. After all, the hottest team in Philadelphia was playing.

🏈 Temple 38, Rhode Island 14: A nice afternoon on the ground for sophomore running back Keveun Mason (20 carries, 158 yards, two touchdowns).

Next up for the Owls: Penn State at The Linc on Saturday! The grounds crew is gonna be working overtime in South Philly this weekend.

For the real college hoops sickos… This will appeal to maybe five percent of my readers, but I like what the Atlantic 10 did in granting YouTuber Ryan Hammer a ton of offseason access to all of their programs. He produced a video for every member school, talking to the coach and players and touring the campus/facilities.

Well, St. Joe’s and La Salle are both in the A-10. If you are a fan of either of those schools, you will probably like those videos.

🏈 Penn State 45, Marshall 0: A nice blowout to begin The Matt Campbell Era. Rocco Becht threw for 271 yards and four touchdowns. By the fourth quarter, Rocco’s attention was fully on his lone class that he is yet to decide on.

The Nittany Lions sured fared better against their Group of Six opponent than…

Wild ending in Ann Arbor.

A byproduct of the current Wild West that is college sports: Bryce Underwood was a massive high school recruit who is now getting paid eight figures in NIL, and he might just stink. Before that last Hail Mary, Underwood was 12-21 for 124 passing yards with no touchdowns and one interception against Western Michigan of all teams.

Of course, that last Hail Mary was pretty, pretty controversial. Not the catch by Michigan’s JJ Buchanan, that was sick. But there is real doubt that the play should have happened at all: On the NBC broadcast, it sure appeared that the clocks had hit zero on the previous Hail Mary. When I first saw it, this looked to be the screwjob of all screwjobs (outside of The Montreal Screwjob, that is).

After the game, the Big 10 tried to explain the ruling and even gave audio of the replay booth. The crux of their argument: The television clocks are not synced up to the clocks used for replay review. My response to that? It is 2026, let’s figure out how to make that happen.

The Houston Astros are leading the stinky AL West, but they are not very good as we sit here on September 8th. Yordan Alvarez is amazing, but the rest of the team? Not so much, as they even fired general manager Dana Brown a few weeks ago.

The Astros are in town for three (6:40 p.m., NBC Sports Philly and TBS). Andrew Painter against Hayden Wesneski.

Let’s make it a good one.