NEW ORLEANS -- The late-season collapse in 2023 was not fun at the time for anyone connected with the Philadelphia Eagles, and certainly not for coach Nick Sirianni.

But Sirianni said Monday he's happy for it now because it set up the Eagles for the 2024 season's Super Bowl championship run.

"I look back on last year and how last year ended and I'm grateful. As crazy as this sounds, I'm grateful how last year ended because it shaped us to [who] we are today [with] the adversity of the beginning of the year and the adversity through the season, through injuries, through ups and downs, through everything,'' Sirianni said the morning after the Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in Super Bowl LIX.

"I think that when you embrace adversity, it does something to you, right? It does something to you personally, right? Each and every individual on that football team, the adversity does something to you, and it does something to you as a football team as well. So, our guys, I think that could be the biggest attribute. They worked their butts off to connect.''

The 2023 Eagles, after starting the season 10-1, lost six of their last seven games, including a wild-card round playoff matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Sirianni said his pregame message to the Eagles was simple: "Tough, detailed, together.''

"We talked about that all year,'' he said. "My job is not to inspire them. It's just more to just remind them of the things they already know, and I keep it really short. I talk a lot all during the week so before the game, it pretty much is consistent. Week 1, Week 37, whatever, we're on 'tough, detailed, together.' That's our core value. That's what we talk about. And the toughest team wins, usually the most detailed team wins, usually the team the most together wins.''

Complete and utter dominance. On the biggest stage, with the Chiefs dominating the headlines in their attempt to win a third consecutive title, the Eagles comprehensively manhandled them in New Orleans.

The 40-22 final score in Super Bowl LIX seems unfair both to a Philadelphia defense that shut down Kansas City until a couple of garbage-time touchdowns in the fourth quarter and to a Kansas City defense that battled gamely before finally getting overwhelmed by short fields and the sheer volume of snaps it had to play.

Imagine being a Chiefs fan and getting to see pieces of the box score of this game in advance. The Chiefs did the best job any team has done all season against Saquon Barkley, who ran 25 times for 57 yards. The Eagles went 3-for-12 on third downs, failed to convert their only fourth down, turned the ball over in the red zone and averaged 5.1 yards per play -- fewer than the Chiefs. All of that sounds like the sort of game the Chiefs would expect to win given what they're capable of doing on offense.

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All of that is true and the Chiefs still fell behind 34-0 during the third quarter, precisely because of what they couldn't do on offense. This was the worst possible time for Patrick Mahomes to have what will likely go down as his worst big game as a pro. Before saving his numbers with those late fourth-quarter scores, he looked as flummoxed as we've ever seen him.

If you had told that same Chiefs fan that Mahomes was about to go 6-of-14 for 33 yards with two interceptions in the first half of the Super Bowl, that fan could have done more productive things with a free Sunday. Those 33 yards were the fewest Mahomes has ever posted in the first half of any NFL game. His 10.9 passer rating was the third worst from any quarterback in the first half of a game this season. By expected points added (EPA) per dropback, his minus-1.36 mark was the 10th worst by any quarterback in the first half of any game since the start of the 2018 season.

Even with his late scoring drives, Mahomes finished with a Total QBR of 11.4, his second-worst performance in 133 career starts. Let's assign credit appropriately: The Eagles did that. More specifically, the same Philadelphia defensive line that was tormented and torched so badly by Mahomes in Super Bowl LVII two years ago took over this game. While defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and his secondary will rightfully earn credit for a dominant performance, the front seven is the key to understanding why Mahomes & Co. were ground into dust.

Jump to a section:
Four ways in which Philly's D dominated
Five ways in which KC got it terribly wrong
How Hurts and the Eagles got here

How the Eagles took down Patrick Mahomes

They exploited and overpowered Kansas City's tackles. Go back to the last time Fangio coached against an Andy Reid-led offense. It was the wild-card round last season, with Fangio serving as defensive coordinator for the Dolphins. Without his top two edge rushers due to injury -- Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips -- the normally conservative Fangio turned on the heat. The veteran coordinator blitzed Mahomes on more than 51% of the quarterback's dropbacks, his third-highest blitz rate in more than 220 games as a coordinator since 2007. Nobody wants to blitz Mahomes, who has lit up blitzes since entering the league, but Fangio surely felt like the alternative was sitting back and withering away on defense.

On Sunday, the Eagles didn't blitz once on Mahomes' 42 dropbacks. (They had a couple of plays that would technically qualify as blitzes when the Eagles sent Zack Baun, but they dropped a lineman off into coverage as part of the snap.) Fangio rushed four players 39 times and three players three times. The Eagles still managed to pressure Mahomes on nearly 45% of his dropbacks through three quarters before Fangio gave his backups some run in the fourth. They sacked Mahomes six times with a four-man rush, something that has never happened to the future Hall of Famer in his career. He had never been sacked more than four times by a three- or four-man rush in a single game.

When these two teams played in the title game two years ago, the Eagles managed to get pressure on Mahomes, but he wriggled and maneuvered his way out of danger. A dominant Philadelphia defensive line pressured him on 37% of his dropbacks then, but it failed to take him down for a sack on 11 pressures. Those 11 snaps produced just 35 yards, but a lack of negative plays helped keep the Chiefs afloat on offense in a shootout. This time, the Eagles finished the job. They ran a similar pressure rate to that Super Bowl (38%), but they turned six of those 15 pressures into sacks.

Those sacks didn't come from the player most would have expected. Jalen Carter had a solid game, but he didn't singlehandedly wreck opponents the way he had for much of the season. After much discussion about whether the Eagles would move him away from star guard Trey Smith, they decided to keep him there for the majority of his snaps, and the Chiefs double-teamed Carter on only a handful of snaps. Carter forced a holding penalty and had a couple of impressive plays, but he wasn't the most dominant player on the Philly line.

Instead, in their final game before free agency, this was the Josh Sweat and Milton Williams show. The two Eagles draftees combined for 4.5 sacks. Down the rotation, Jalyx Hunt and Moro Ojomo showed up with splash plays and quality snaps. Brandon Graham, a surprise activation during the week after recovering from what was expected to be a season-ending torn triceps, played 18 snaps and nearly bowled over right tackle Jawaan Taylor to draw a holding penalty.

Taylor had a rough game, but it didn't compare to what happened at left tackle. There's no way to sugarcoat it: Joe Thuney looked like a fish out of water on the edge in pass protection. It's one thing for a converted guard playing tackle out of desperation and a lack of better options to get beat by speed around the edge. It's another for Thuney to get driven backward into Mahomes' lap by Hunt, a 251-pound former college safety.

Charting the game through Williams' violent strip-sack of Mahomes in the fourth quarter, I have Thuney down for seven plays that led to pressures of Mahomes, including three that led to sacks. He was beaten straight up by Hunt and Sweat and on twists by Williams. He might have been a victim of unrealistic expectations after holding up for most of the postseason on Mahomes' blind side, but reality came crashing down Sunday.

Thuney wasn't the only one. Taylor was responsible for six pressures, including that play in which he was knocked a yard backward by Graham before being flagged for a desperate hold. Mike Caliendo, filling in at left guard for Thuney, struggled with twists and was steamrolled by Williams for the fourth-quarter strip-sack of Mahomes that took the last of the air out of Kansas City's sails.

The Chiefs never had answers for dealing with the pass rush besides hoping the offensive line played better. They spent most of the game blocking with five linemen before mixing in chips from tight ends and running backs, which didn't necessarily help; a Travis Kelce chip prevented the future Hall of Fame tight end from getting into his route quickly on a play that ended with a Mahomes sack, while a chip from Isiah Pacheco disengaged Sweat from Taylor and allowed him to take down a scrambling Mahomes. They tried moving the launch point for Mahomes by using built-in scrambles, but one of those plays led to the pick-six by Cooper DeJean.

They took away Mahomes' escape hatch. In Super Bowl LVII and just about every other big game since, Mahomes has managed to make a difference with his legs. While that has included the occasional designed run, the thing that scares opposing defensive coordinators is what he does as a scrambler. It's tough to spy him when a defense is usually committing so many coverage resources to Kelce, and if the coordinator uses twists and games up front to try to create pressure, any sort of misstep or over-aggression from the line opens up a lane for him to exploit. The Eagles know it all too well, given that Mahomes scrambled for 26 yards to set up the game-winning field goal two years ago.

This time, the big scramble never came. In addition to winning one-on-one, Philadelphia's edge rushers did a great job of walling off the edges and forcing Mahomes to try to escape pressure by stepping up into the pocket as opposed to escaping through the sides and extending plays. And once he stepped up, the Eagles' defensive linemen were simply too big and too fast to run past. There were too many moments in which Mahomes attempted to scramble, changed his mind then did a full turn to try to gain some acceleration and get away, only to be sacked or forced into a wild throw.

Mahomes didn't scramble for a first down all game, the first time that has happened in a playoff game since the loss to the Patriots in the 2018 AFC Championship Game. He didn't have a single scramble attempt until midway through the third quarter and didn't run for more than 8 yards on any of his attempts. Hunt made a nice play with an ankle tackle to stop what could have been a bigger scramble. Taking away those conversions made Mahomes one-dimensional.

They won over and over again on third down against the league's best third-down offense. While the Chiefs struggled on first and second down consistently throughout the season, Mahomes usually bailed them out by converting on third downs. The Chiefs picked up 50% of their third downs during the regular season with Mahomes on the field, the best rate of any offense, and were at 45% during the postseason before this game.

On Sunday, they failed to convert on their first nine attempts on third down through three quarters, before finally picking up a third-and-7 with 1:25 to go trailing 34-0. It's just the fourth time in the Mahomes era the Chiefs have gone an entire first half without converting a third down. (One of the other three was Super Bowl LVII against the Eagles, but that was on only three attempts.) Reid's offense finished 3-of-12 on third and fourth downs.

Through those first nine third-down attempts before the initial conversion on a throw to Kelce, the Eagles won with pressure on six. The three that didn't include pressure were a quick snap in which Mahomes threw low to Kelce, a designed rollout on the pick-six to DeJean and a quick third-and-13 throw to Kelce for 9 yards to set up a manageable fourth down. Six of those nine plays came with 9 or more yards to go, and as good as Mahomes is, the Chiefs didn't want to live in third-and-long against this defense.

Unlike the AFC title game against the Bills two weeks ago, when the Chiefs were able to successfully use picks and crossing routes, Reid never seemed to find short-to-intermediate solutions to attack Philadelphia's zone defense. NFL Next Gen Stats marked the Eagles down for just two snaps of man coverage on 42 dropbacks all night. Mahomes picked up a first down on his opening snap of the game with a triple-option RPO, but the Chiefs didn't find a non-RPO passing solution to consistently create space. They tried flooding the zones with multiple receivers, but Philadelphia did a great job of passing off routes and matching to Kansas City's concepts.

It was clear Mahomes didn't want to test Quinyon Mitchell and Darius Slay. the Eagles' outside cornerbacks. In the first half, he threw outside the numbers three times for a total of 2 yards. The Chiefs wanted to attack the middle of the field, but he went 4-of-11 for 30 yards and two picks throwing there in the first half. He had more success throwing to the sideline in the second half when he had no alternative, but it was too little, too late.

Mahomes didn't play well. It's important to make this distinction. This game will be lumped in with the last time he lost in the Super Bowl, and there's an obvious similarity. In both games, he was seemingly running for his life on every down behind a porous offensive line that wasn't capable of blocking the opposing defense. That Bucs defense under Todd Bowles in Super Bowl LV was dialing up exotic pressures and blitzing defensive backs, while Fangio was rushing three and four linemen all night, but that's not really important in the big picture. Blitz or no blitz, the story seems to be that if defenses can put pressure on Mahomes, he can struggle.

In that Buccaneers loss, Mahomes was phenomenal. He wasn't perfect, but under impossible circumstances, he was extending plays and making unreal throws, only for those passes to be dropped or come up just short. There was a reason clips of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin calling him "unbelievable" and "a magician" during the game went viral.

Even after accounting for the pressure put on by the Eagles in this game, Mahomes simply didn't play well. In the first half, he went 6-of-9 for 33 yards out of clean pockets with a minus-12.1% completion percentage over expectation (CPOE). He threw a painful pick-six to DeJean without pressure on a play in which the two-time MVP simply didn't see DeJean in his throwing lane, the sort of mistake a rookie might be expected to make. His second pick came on a play in which Thuney was deposited in his lap, but he didn't reset and his throw was subsequently short and nowhere near his receiver, a carbon copy of the pick he threw to Roquan Smith against the Ravens in Week 1.

It's fair to suggest the pass rush wore on Mahomes as the game went along, and I would suspect there's some truth to that. Even on the first possession of the game, though, he seemed jittery. On the opening third down of the game for the Chiefs, he scrambled under a modest amount of pressure, ran his way into trouble and then, while scrambling, attempted a dangerous pass that was lucky to not be intercepted. He uncharacteristically missed a fourth-and-4 speed out to DeAndre Hopkins from a clean pocket, leaving the pass too far inside and allowing Avonte Maddox to knock the ball away.

Is there anything the Chiefs could have done? Maybe not, given how dominant the Eagles' front was. But there were likely a few mistakes they would take back or try to approach differently with hindsight.

Where did the Chiefs go wrong?

They let the left tackle problem linger until it was too late. This loss can be traced back to Week 2. The Chiefs entered the season with second-year lineman Wanya Morris and rookie second-round pick Kingsley Suamataia competing for the starting job protecting Mahomes' blind side at left tackle. Suamataia won the camp competition, but after he struggled against Trey Hendrickson and the Bengals, the Chiefs benched him for Morris. Suamataia saw meaningful snaps in only two games the rest of the way, filling in for an injured Morris before spending Week 18 at guard alongside backups in a loss to the Broncos.

The time to find and bring in a veteran tackle was then, because once Reid lost faith in Suamataia, they had to start preparing for a scenario in which they needed one. Morris had been a problem filling in for Donovan Smith as a rookie in 2023, and he had lost the camp battle to Suamataia in August. Smith was still a free agent and never ended up signing anywhere, but the Chiefs elected to hold the line.

It wasn't until late November when the Chiefs finally signed a veteran tackle, inking D.J. Humphries to a one-year deal for $2 million. The former Cardinals starter made his debut three weeks later against the Chargers, only to suffer a hamstring injury and miss the next three games. Reid gave him another trial at left tackle in Week 18, but the coach apparently didn't like what he saw.

Instead, after pushing Thuney out to left tackle, the Chiefs kept him there for the remainder of the season. With Caliendo stepping in at guard, Reid now had subpar starters at two spots as opposed to one. The offense did fine with Thuney during postseason wins over the Texans and Bills, but the three-time Pro Bowler was badly overmatched in the Super Bowl.

With Morris inactive, the only options the Chiefs had at halftime were kicking Thuney back to guard and putting in Suamataia or Humphries at left tackle, both of whom Reid clearly didn't trust. Humphries was active during the postseason but played only on special teams. Neither player got on the field Sunday. It's tough to find a left tackle in-season, but the Chiefs would have had a better shot if they had started seriously looking around before the trade deadline as opposed to waiting until late-November to bring in a veteran.

They completely abandoned the run. When Reid was coaching the Eagles, a common criticism was that he got away from running the ball. Reid's pass rates would look almost quaintly conservative now, but before the 2007 Patriots, his Philadelphia offense leaned more heavily into the pass than just about any other team.

On Sunday, as those same fans were likely celebrating an Eagles victory, I agreed with that criticism. The Chiefs simply didn't run the ball early in a situation in which they desperately needed to take some of the pressure off Mahomes. While they used some RPOs and threw the ball early, they ran the ball just once on their first four possessions. Sure, that's only 13 plays, but a 12-1 pass-run ratio is a little extreme by anybody's standards. Throwing the ball that often is fine if it's working, but they weren't scoring or moving the ball.

Reid did run the ball twice to start the next drive, but when they gained only 1 yard, the Chiefs went back to passing. Pacheco started the third quarter with a run for 6 yards, but the next four plays were all passes. Kareem Hunt ran for 10 yards on the next drive, but after a holding call, Kansas City then ran for 1 yard on a second-and-14 draw.

The run game wasn't going to win this for the Chiefs, and their backs turned seven carries into only 24 yards, which isn't exactly beautiful football. But the threat of the run might have kept them out of third-and-long in a game in which the Eagles brutalized them in those spots. It could have slowed down the pass rush or given the offensive line a chance to attack the line of scrimmage. Frankly, it couldn't have been much worse than what they did on their dropbacks.

They needed to go bigger. One of the ways the Chiefs could have tried to gain an advantage while running the ball would have been to go with bigger personnel groupings. Since the Tyreek Hill trade, Reid has leaned into 12 (one back, two tight ends) and even 13 (one back, three tight ends) personnel groupings, using Noah Gray alongside Kelce. In addition to adding more blockers on the field for run concepts, the Chiefs use the personnel groupings to try to dictate personnel and create potential mismatches in the passing game.

Instead, they went with 11 personnel (one back, one TE, three receivers) on 74% of their snaps Sunday, using 12 personnel just 26% of the time. There's an argument to be made that's a product of playing from behind, but Reid actually used 12 personnel slightly more in the second half (28%) than the first (25%). The Chiefs weren't great in either personnel grouping, but Mahomes did hit a 50-yard touchdown pass against Philadelphia's backups in the secondary out of 12 personnel late in the game.

They couldn't avoid sloppy mistakes. This isn't where the Chiefs lost this game: The Eagles won it by imposing their will. But it's also fair to mention that the Chiefs made uncharacteristic blunders that might have steered the game closer to becoming a contest.

They extended Eagles drives with penalties. After appearing to get a stop on a third-and-5 throw that Jalen Hurts sailed to Dallas Goedert, the Eagles were given a new set of downs because Trent McDuffie struck Goedert in the head. (Chiefs fans probably didn't love the call, but it felt a little like a makeup whistle after incidental contact to the face mask from A.J. Brown wiped off a fourth-down conversion for the Eagles' offense on the prior drive.) The Eagles scored a touchdown three plays later.

With 2:28 to go in the first half trailing 17-0, the Chiefs appeared well on their way to getting off the field when they sniffed out a second-and-26 screen to Barkley. After the pass fell incomplete, though, Nick Bolton knocked Barkley over. He was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, turning a third-and-26 into a first-and-10. The Eagles didn't score on the drive, but the penalty took time off the clock and shifted field position. Kansas City eventually took over from its own 6-yard line, at which point Mahomes was backed into the end zone under pressure and threw a pick.

And after the Eagles scored, the Chiefs appeared to have a brief glimmer of hope to get some points on the board. Facing a third-and-11, Mahomes stepped out of the pocket, scrambled and found a wide-open Hopkins on a busted coverage. Mahomes' throw was on time, but Hopkins dropped what could have been a massive gain:

Lot of open space for DeAndre Hopkins there. pic.twitter.com/BtTdIRWTqb

Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) February 10, 2025

NFL Next Gen Stats estimates that pass gets completed 82.2% of the time and should generate a whopping 26.6 yards after the catch, which would have given the Chiefs the ball at the Eagles' 26 with one timeout. They would have probably come away from that scenario with at least three points. It didn't swing the game, but it's the sort of opportunity the Chiefs don't often miss. It was that sort of day.

The defense allowed explosives in the passing game. Given how well the Chiefs tackled and slowed down Barkley, they can't be too upset with how they played on defense. Forty points is a lot, but that includes a pick-six, three drives that started on Kansas City's side of the field and two more that started beyond the Philadelphia 40-yard line. The Eagles had two drives with more than 50 yards all game, only the fourth time that happened all season.

As good as they were against the run, though, the Chiefs weren't as effective stopping the Eagles from picking up chunk plays through the air, and it wasn't always from their star receivers. On the second drive, Hurts hit Goedert on a blown coverage for a 20-yard completion, with no defender matching in zone to the tight end's crossing route. Later on the same drive, the Chiefs blitzed on second-and-11 and Jaylen Watson was beaten by little-used third wideout Jahan Dotson, whom Hurts found for what appeared to be the opening touchdown of the game. While Dotson was ruled to be just short of the end zone on review, his 27-yard catch set up the opening score on a Hurts tush push.

Hurts continued to find big plays. On a third-and-7, he went back to Brown against McDuffie on a back-shoulder for 22 yards. McDuffie lined up against Brown on 18 of his 24 routes per NFL Next Gen Stats, and while that was the only big completion the star cornerback allowed, it easily could have been two if a 32-yard gain on fourth-and-2 on the opening drive hadn't been called back on a questionable offensive pass interference penalty.

The dagger came in the third quarter. Most teams will warn their defenders to be ready for a shot play around midfield after a turnover, and after the Chiefs failed on fourth-and-4 from their own 47, the Eagles showed why. With the Eagles in 12 personnel and showing a run look, they feigned a power play and dropped Hurts back to pass. The Chiefs showed a single-high shell and then spun to quarters coverage, giving an ideal opportunity to throw the deep post. With Bolton and Drue Tranquill desperately trying to run back after the play-fake to get in coverage, Justin Reid was occupied by Goedert underneath, which freed up DeVonta Smith over the top on the post. Smith beat Watson at the snap and ran free downfield for a 46-yard score.

JALEN TO DEVONTA DEEP TOUCHDOWN!

: #SBLIX on FOX
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NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025

Jalen Hurts, Super Bowl MVP, and how the Eagles got here

With Barkley quieted for the first time in months, this was the sort of game skeptics of the Eagles (like myself) would have seen as a real concern. While Hurts was excellent in the NFC Championship Game and threw just five interceptions all season, there was a two-month span in which the passing attack wasn't much more than an afterthought. While acknowledging there's no easy way to beat a team that was two drops away from winning 20 of its 21 games this season, the best way seemed to be putting more of the load on Hurts' shoulders and seeing if the 26-year-old was up to the task.

It turns out he was. While Hurts threw an ugly interception against the blitz on a play in which Bolton came untouched through the A-gap, the Eagles did just fine with their quarterback as the focal point of the offense. He went 17-of-22 as a passer for 221 yards and two touchdowns, generating a plus-12.6% CPOE. He added 11 carries for 72 yards and that "tush push" score on the ground.

In the previous Super Bowl matchup between these two teams, one of the few things Hurts wasn't able to do was consistently make the Chiefs pay with downfield throws; he went 2-of-7 for 90 yards on deep pass attempts. He was lights-out Sunday, going 3-of-4 for 95 yards and a touchdown on those throws, with the pick by Bryan Cook as his only blemish. Hurts was 2-of-3 for 42 yards on throws in the intermediate range (10 to 19 yards) as well. In that same area, Mahomes was 0-for-4 with two picks.

While Hurts was only 2-of-5 for 36 yards and that pick on the blitz, I wouldn't put that on him. There was no sight adjustment by Brown on the interception, even though the corner on his side (McDuffie) blitzed from the field, which would typically convert his route to a hitch or something easier than the go route he ran. When the Chiefs ran Cover 0 later in the game and the Eagles had again dialed up four vertical routes, Hurts threw a back-shoulder route to Brown, clearly expecting his star wideout to turn around and break off his route. But Brown continued downfield and the pass fell incomplete, leading to some mild discontent on the sideline for a few moments after the series.

While Mahomes' scrambling in big moments has become legendary, Hurts was the one who made a difference there. He set up a fourth-and-2 (and the big play to Brown that was wiped off) by scrambling for 9 yards on third-and-11 on the opening drive. In the second half, he had scrambles of 14, 16 and 17 yards, all for first downs. The Chiefs tried spying him at times with Leo Chenal, but against four-man rushes and the blitz, Hurts was able to break Kansas City's spirit with his legs.

The title win and Hurts' MVP performance is the final bit of vindication for one of the most controversial draft decisions in recent memory. The Eagles choosing Hurts with their second-round pick in 2020 seemed to send the organization into an immediate tailspin. Quarterback Carson Wentz collapsed the following season and fell out with then-coach Doug Pederson. They essentially fired both their head coach and quarterback, trading Wentz to Indianapolis, while retaining the guy who drafted Hurts, general manager Howie Roseman.

Roseman, coming off a disastrous 2020 draft in which he chose Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson at wide receiver, moved down from No. 6 to No. 12 in the 2021 draft before jumping back up to select DeVonta Smith. The extra first-rounder they got for moving down allowed the Eagles to be flexible the following season, when they basically extracted a premium for swapping their 2022 first-rounder with the Saints' first-rounder in 2023. All of those maneuverings eventually landed them Carter, their cornerstone defender.

If there's a lesson we can take away from the Eagles and their title run, it might be one that's hard to follow in the modern NFL: Be patient and don't get overwhelmed by recency bias. Philadelphia ownership didn't fire Roseman when Chip Kelly pushed him out of power in 2015 or when the fans were chanting "Fire Howie" in 2021. He has proceeded to build what has to be considered the league's best roster over the past three seasons.

Hurts was a mess in 2020, completing 52% of his passes and posting a 38.5% success rate as a passer. He was also playing with Reagor and Greg Ward as his top receivers and stuck behind a disastrous offensive line. The Eagles gave him a clear path to the starting job in 2021 with more auspicious surroundings, and he has rewarded them for doing so ever since.

This even extends to the Eagles' fateful 2024 free agent class, and the two coordinators they added. Fangio was all but run out of Miami by his own players, who were celebrating his departure on social media. Kellen Moore had essentially been let go by the Cowboys and Chargers in back-to-back seasons amid concerns that he was more focused on "lighting up the scoreboard" and throwing the ball than producing winning offenses. Moore is now expected to become the Saints' new coach, while Fangio is never going to buy a drink in Philadelphia again.

Barkley just finished what was probably the best season by a running back in league history. Advanced metrics were more optimistic about him than traditional numbers, but he averaged 3.9 yards per carry last season, and the Giants spent the past two years indicating they didn't want to give their own star back a multiyear guaranteed contract. Mekhi Becton was a bust as an offensive tackle who was cast off by the Jets before Philly offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland turned him into a mauling guard. Baun, who was involved with his fifth turnover of the postseason by picking off Mahomes, was a backup edge rusher for the 2023 Saints. The Eagles put each of these players in the right spots to succeed and won Super Bowl LIX.

And then there's the guy Eagles fans have grown to love to hate. This time last year, Nick Sirianni's job was genuinely in question. Even one year removed from a Super Bowl appearance and weeks removed from a 10-1 start, the team had fallen so quickly and so precipitously during the second half of 2023 that it seemed to raise questions about Sirianni's competence. Sirianni essentially fired defensive coordinator Sean Desai during the season, replaced him with Matt Patricia and got only worse on defense. After an embarrassing 32-9 loss to the Bucs in the postseason, it almost felt like a surprise that Sirianni returned to the job in 2024, albeit with new coordinators on both sides of the ball.

And now, 21 games later, Sirianni's Eagles have won 18 of their 21 games. They've lost one game in four months, and that required a drop from Smith and a last-minute touchdown drive from Jayden Daniels. They have routinely been the better-prepared and better-coached team week in and week out, and there are veterans on both sides of the ball who have leveled up and massively improved upon the players they were in prior stops. Roseman, Moore and Fangio all deserve credit for their efforts in making that happen, but it seems impossible and unrealistic to deny Sirianni his fair share of those plaudits.

Sirianni is now 54-23 in his career as an NFL coach. He has more playoff wins (six) than any coach in franchise history besides Reid. And now, he has the one thing on his mantle that Reid failed to achieve during the legendary coach's 14-season run in Philadelphia: the Lombardi Trophy.

Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young is headed to the NBA All-Star Game after all.

Commissioner Adam Silver announced Monday that he has added Young to the All-Star roster as an injury replacement for Milwaukee forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who will not be able to play because of a calf injury.

Young was originally displeased when he was not picked for the game through the balloting for the starters or the coaches' selections of reserve players. "It's getting 'Traed' at this point," he wrote on social media, coining a new word in reaction to being snubbed.

Young is the NBA's assist leader this season and now a four-time All-Star selection. The All-Star Game -- now a mini-tournament of three games -- is Sunday in San Francisco.

Young will replace Antetokounmpo on Team Chuck, the eight-man squad drafted last week by TNT analyst Charles Barkley. Antetokounmpo was the fourth of the 24 players drafted by Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith to the All-Star rosters.

Young joins a roster with a decidedly international feel. He'll play alongside Denver's Nikola Jokic (Serbia), Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada), San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama (France), Indiana's Pascal Siakam (Cameroon), Houston's Alperen Sengun (Turkey), New York's Karl-Anthony Towns (whose mother is Dominican) and Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell (whose mother is from Panama).

Young leads the NBA in assists per game by a significant margin; he entered Monday averaging 11.4, well ahead of Jokic's 10.3 per game.

This is the second consecutive year Young was added to the roster as an injury replacement. He also made All-Star appearances in 2020 and 2022.

It's expected that at least one more injury replacement pick will be made by Silver. Forward Anthony Davis left his debut with the Mavericks with an injury on Saturday, and sources told ESPN's Shams Charania that he's expected to sit out multiple weeks.

Davis is set to play on Team Shaq, which also features Davis' former Los Angeles Lakers teammate LeBron James, Golden State's Stephen Curry, Boston teammates Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Phoenix's Kevin Durant, Milwaukee's Damian Lillard and the Los Angeles Clippers' James Harden.

The other All-Stars selected to the game are on Team Kenny: Minnesota's Anthony Edwards, New York's Jalen Brunson, Memphis' Jaren Jackson Jr., Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams, Cleveland teammates Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, Detroit's Cade Cunningham and Miami's Tyler Herro.

THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS stunned the basketball world by dealing for franchise cornerstone Luka Doncic five days before the NBA trade deadline, and then stunned everyone all over again two days after it when they rescinded their swap for 7-foot center Mark Williams.

For 48 hours, at least, the Lakers existed in the rare competitive territory of improving in the present, for LeBron James, while also fortifying the future of the franchise. It's the state of operation that can make an organization's championship standard a reality.

Just as soon as the transformation set in, the Lakers shifted gears to a different present reality.

At 9:01 p.m. ET Saturday, nearly a week after the Doncic deal was agreed on -- costing Anthony Davis, Max Christie and the Lakers' 2029 first-round pick -- the Williams trade was nixed. Williams was to join the Lakers in exchange for rookie Dalton Knecht and Cam Reddish in a trade with the Charlotte Hornets that was agreed to Wednesday night. But Williams failed L.A.'s physical exam, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania. Williams failed not because of the back injury that sidelined him most of last season, but because of multiple other issues of concern, sources said.

Beyond the awkward reunion when Knecht and Reddish report back to the Lakers (team sources expect both to return in the coming days), the roster's present construction, to quote vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka, "has continued work to do to become complete."

The problem is that the trade deadline has passed. The window is closed. And the situations for James and Doncic suddenly aren't as congruent.

Rather than Pelinka having results to show after his first extended meeting with Doncic at the team's practice facility Feb. 3, when Doncic handpicked Williams for the GM to attempt to land, a source familiar with the matter said, the first transaction of their partnership defaulted.

The team is left with Jaxson Hayes, a springy yet green career backup, as its starting center. The only other big men on the roster are Christian Wood, who has been sidelined all season because of left knee surgery, and two-way contract players Christian Koloko and Trey Jemison III.

Williams, 23, was targeted to not only grow alongside the 25-year-old Doncic, but provide a lob threat and physical presence this postseason to steel L.A.'s frontline against the likes of the Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder, team sources said.

A wild week for the franchise, with one team source describing the Lakers' approach as "aggressive," became more of a half measure. The culmination of perhaps the most chaotic, transformational trade deadline in Lakers history has left the team failing in its first attempt to satisfy Doncic -- ever aware that he will become a free agent in 2026 and that L.A. wants to make his decision to sign a contract extension a foregone conclusion -- and failing to maximize James' 22nd season by ultimately not obtaining a big that Pelinka admitted the roster was lacking.

The team's ability to pivot from Williams will be critical for this group's chances, and limiting the fallout will allow L.A. to restore the momentum it has been building in the short term. As for the long term, without Williams but with Knecht and the 2031 first-round pick? "That was a lot [to give up]," a team source said. "We kind of dodged a bullet."

BEFORE THE WILLIAMS trade was agreed to Wednesday night, there was debate inside the Lakers organization about whether he was worth the haul it would take to acquire him -- especially considering his injury history.

Williams has missed nearly two-thirds of the Hornets' games with various back, ankle, knee and foot injuries since being drafted in 2022.

L.A. revamped its medical staff in the offseason, hiring Dr. Leroy Sims as its director of player performance and health after he previously worked for the NBA as the head of the league's medical operations. "We fully vetted [Williams'] health stuff," Pelinka said Thursday. "He's had no surgeries. So these are just parts of, he's still growing into his body. We vetted the injuries he's had, and we're not concerned about those."

Sims' presence, plus coach JJ Redick's confidence in Williams' character after developing a rapport through their alma mater, Duke University, gave the Lakers a belief that they could maximize the big man's talents, team sources said. Kurt Rambis, the Lakers' senior basketball adviser, supported the move as well, pointing out that guys that size don't really come into their bodies until they reach their mid-to-late twenties. "I got to give some credit to Rambo," Pelinka said. "He thinks the upside is very real."

When Williams reported for his physical, however, the team identified additional concerns, sources said, causing the Lakers to reassess the risk of the deal.

Though parting with Knecht and a first-rounder was considered a steep price compared with other deadline deals around the league, Pelinka made the trade, sources said, to establish goodwill with Doncic and improve the current roster. It was, team sources said, an "all-in" deadline. Even if the Williams trade fell apart, "it wasn't for lack of trying," one source said. There was also some internal calculus on the real value of that 2031 pick, sources said. Plus, Williams' fit was a necessity, one Lakers source said; Knecht's was a luxury.

The Lakers considered adding bruising 6-10 center Jericho Sims, sources said, before he was moved from New York to Milwaukee on Wednesday for Delon Wright as an addition to the Kyle Kuzma-for-Khris Middleton deal. Sims would have fit the "stuff around the margins" category that Pelinka vowed the team would explore during Doncic's introductory news conference Tuesday because, the GM said, "the market for bigs right now ... is very dry. There's just not a lot available."

Hornets executive vice president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson presented Williams as an option to the Lakers following that news conference, Pelinka said. "This opportunity came to us," Pelinka said Thursday. "Maybe it's in some sense like the L.A. housing market. Not every house is listed. And sometimes you become aware of something that's available that's not on the market. And when you see the perfect house, you're willing to go get it, even if you have to be aggressive to do it. I think that's how we looked at the Mark Williams opportunity when we opened up discussions with Charlotte."

The Hornets, in a statement issued after the trade was rescinded, framed the communication differently. "After the other team aggressively pursued Mark, we made the difficult decision to move him," the statement read.

Even if the Lakers avoided a potential pitfall with Williams' health, the immediate aftermath of reversing the trade has consequences. The team will need to repair its relationship with Knecht, for one. His agents, Anthony Coleman and Mike Lindeman of Excel Sports Management, had no comment on the rescinded deal when reached by ESPN on Saturday. And then there is the perception of fumbled execution by the front office.

"Nobody did the research prior?" a league source said. "Why would [Williams] be available that young?" And the market for big men is now even drier.

Center Alex Len, who was waived by the Washington Wizards, intends to sign with the Indiana Pacers, sources told Charania on Saturday. Len is one player L.A. could have pursued, sources said.

The Lakers can still waive someone -- Wood or Reddish would be the top candidates, team sources said -- to create a roster vacancy to bring in another center. L.A. still has enough room under the second apron to sign a buyout player, someone making less than $12.8 million with his previous team, for the rest of the season. "We will find another center path," a team source said. "The path is always there. We just got to put in the work to find it."

In the interim, Hayes has been a bright spot. During the Lakers' five-game winning streak since Davis left the Philadelphia loss early with an abdominal injury, Hayes has averaged 8.0 points on 77.3% shooting, 6.6 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.0 steals.

It's a major role for him, and one that James had privately wondered whether the 24-year-old Hayes was experienced enough to occupy in a playoff run next to Davis before Davis was traded, sources said. Without Davis, the responsibilities multiply.

Hayes will have Doncic's support, however. He was the first of Doncic's new Lakers teammates to go to dinner with him once he arrived in Los Angeles, as Hayes, Doncic and their mutual agent, Bill Duffy of WME, dined together at Ocean Prime in Beverly Hills.

"When he was in Dallas and I was in New Orleans my first few years, they kept trying to trade for me," Hayes told ESPN on Saturday after posting 9 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks in a win over Indiana with Doncic and James watching on the bench. "New Orleans never allowed it. He was like, 'Do you remember when we couldn't trade for you?' I was like, 'Do you remember what I told you after every game I played against you?' After every game I would be like, 'If you ever need a big, I would love to play with you.' Just because of the way he moves the ball."

How Doncic's and James' opinions align on Hayes will be the first test of their partnership that could last months or go on for years, depending on how the rest of this season pans out.

What is clear is that Doncic will have a say. And it wasn't lost on James' camp, sources said, that Pelinka prioritized Doncic's involvement upon his arrival and immediately engaged in the Williams trade that he'd asked for, when James had for years wanted the team to trade its picks to improve its roster.

SITTING AT THE end of the bench Thursday night, Doncic sprung from his seat with 9:07 left in the second quarter, spreading his arms wide with three fingers on each hand pointing upward, mimicking James' exact pose at center court.

James had just drilled his third straight 3-pointer in under a minute, prompting the Warriors to call timeout to stop the bleeding. The Luka-less Lakers were already up 22.

By the end of the night, after becoming the second player in NBA history to top 40 points after his 40th birthday, James sat back in his chair in the locker room, beaming with excitement.

The Lakers had just finished their 10th win in 12 games, with an average margin of victory of 15.6 points. James was asked what concerns he might have integrating what would have eventually been two new starters.

"I don't really see a challenge," he said. "Everybody get in the right spots. Hold each other accountable. Play basketball the right way. Share the ball. The ball is going to be in Luka's hands. It's going to be in [Austin Reaves'] hands. Two great decision-makers. It's going to be in my hands a little bit as well. Another great decision-maker. And then our guys are going to feast off of it. I mean, that's a beautiful thing."

Sitting to his left was Markieff Morris, who had joined the Lakers as part of the Dallas deal, at Davis' former locker.

It was a stark reminder. These moves don't come without risk.

By keeping his negotiations with Mavericks GM Nico Harrison closed, and parting with someone so close to James without his signoff, Pelinka's move could have easily caused James to want out, too. Instead, James understood the business decision and accepted that it was a deal they had to make, sources close to the veteran said.

Beyond their own belief in Doncic as a franchise cornerstone, Pelinka was aware of James' affinity for Doncic. James had praised Doncic publicly in his "Mind the Game" podcast co-hosted with Redick last spring. The GM figured James would see the move as a basketball fit, sources said.

Though Pelinka said Tuesday that "the urgency is ever-present" for the Lakers to win championships, urgency can come in degrees. For James, in his 22nd season, every postseason he plays in is his last best chance to win a fifth ring. For Doncic, there is natural urgency to avenge last year's NBA Finals loss to Boston with a title this season, but L.A. hopes to present the 25-year-old many more championship opportunities than just this spring.

As much as the praise for one another that James and Doncic have shared seems genuine, their differing timelines create a natural tension -- one the franchise tried, but ultimately failed, to reconcile this deadline.

IN THE HIGH-STAKES game of attempting to perpetuate the Lakers' status as the league's glamour franchise, while the NBA continues to ratify new rules to promote parity, every move executed -- or rescinded -- counts even more. If Harrison had never approached Pelinka, a transformative deadline might have been for naught.

The Lakers would have listened to Davis' request to play alongside another big to spend more time at power forward -- and tried to trade for one.

If L.A. had done so, teaming Davis with another center as he was in 2020 with Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee, perhaps the Lakers would have found similar success. If it didn't work though, the Lakers would have fewer assets to find their next star, with no guarantee that Davis, who will be 32 this summer, would want to stay in L.A. for what's left of his prime. Davis, sources said, was concerned about being left with a roster that was fitted for James, with few options to change it when James retires.

As painful as it was for many in the organization to bid farewell to Davis -- he was universally well-liked -- he joined a contender with capable centers who will allow him to play at the 4, a coach in Jason Kidd who was an assistant on the Lakers' 2020 championship team, and a GM in Harrison who worked closely with him as his brand manager when Harrison was at Nike. Plus, being on the same timeline as the 31-year-old Irving, Davis believes he will be there long enough to put down roots and sign a contract extension, sources said.

Instead, the Lakers believe they found their next face of the franchise in Doncic, but his arrival brings with it a directive to appease him to secure a contract extension in 2026, or risk being stuck in the same predicament as they were in 2013, when Dwight Howard left L.A. in the lurch because he didn't want to team with an aging Kobe Bryant.

The characters have changed, but the drama remains. And maybe that's part of what it takes to perpetuate what the Lakers are actually selling.

"I mean, this is the Lakers. This is a larger-than-life, legacy franchise," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Saturday. "This is an amazing opportunity for Luka. And I think certainly LeBron and him have an affinity for each other that goes back to really Luka's first year in the league. The whole thing is an amazing string of events."

MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers have unveiled a patch they will wear on their uniform this season to honor longtime broadcaster Bob Uecker, who died last month.

The patch will appear on the sleeve of the Brewers' uniforms. It features Uecker's signature over a gold-and-navy plaid print to honor the various sportscoats he occasionally wore.

The patch was introduced Monday and will make its debut when the Brewers open their preseason schedule Feb. 22 by facing the Cincinnati Reds in Phoenix.

For Ueck pic.twitter.com/gvyQSAriwx

Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) February 10, 2025

Uecker died Jan. 16 at the age of 90. He had completed his 54th season of broadcasting Brewers games last year even as he battled small cell lung cancer.

The Milwaukee native continued broadcasting Brewers games even as his comedic skills earned him regular commercial appearances and starring roles in the movie "Major League" and the long-running television series "Mr. Belvedere." Uecker was honored by the Hall of Fame with the Ford C. Frick Award in 2003.

Fans showed their appreciation for Uecker after his death by putting baseballs, flowers, cans of the Miller Lite beer he endorsed and various other mementos at the base of a statue honoring him outside Milwaukee's American Family Field.

"We miss Bob every day, and all the more as we approach our first season without him at our side," Brewers president of business operations Rick Schlesinger said in a statement. "Ueck was a great friend to all of us. He was a fixture at the ballpark and in our lives. We cannot fill the hole that his absence has created, but the jersey patch will be a way to honor his memory whenever we take the field."

The Brewers plan to hold a public celebration of life honoring Uecker sometime this year. Details will be announced later.

Meanwhile full-back Furbank is recovering from fracturing his arm in Northampton's Champions Cup win over the Bulls in December.

"He is going well," said Borthwick of Furbank. "He had [another] X-ray on his arm last week and we are waiting on the specialist to give his view on that.

"Hopefully he might be available at the end of the tournament but we are still waiting for the specialist's report."

England will attempt to end Scotland's four-match winning streak in rugby's oldest international fixture when the two teams meet at Twickenham on 22 February.

Borthwick's side continue their campaign at home against Italy on 9 March before travelling to Wales on 15 March in the final round.

Ollie Sleightholme and Cadan Murley have deputised for Feyi-Waboso so far in the tournament.

Freddie Steward played 15 in the defeat by Ireland, before Marcus Smith shifted from his usual fly-half role to play full-back in Saturday's win over France.

Townsend will get heat for this latest loss, not just because they were beaten - most people predicted an away win - but because they were beaten playing the same brand of rugby that always sees them beaten by Ireland.

On Townsend's watch, Scotland have won five out of seven against England, with one draw. They've beaten France five times and have beaten Wales twice in a row - with historic away victories against both.

They are four wins from five against the Wallabies and, in two Tests against the All Blacks, they were there until the end, losing one by five and the other by eight. But Ireland? It's a recurring nightmare.

There was a list of things that Scotland had to do, and could not do, that was as long as the Corstorphine Road and they barely ticked a box. Stifled, again. Unable to handle Ireland's pressure, again. Error-ridden, again.

Blair Kinghorn might play for the greatest club in the world, but he had no great protectors here as he does at Toulouse. The full-back had one of his worst days in a Scotland jersey. A talented athlete, the green shirt is his kryptonite and he is not alone in that.

Scotland needed more aggression, more belligerence, more directness, but they cannot live with Ireland in those areas. They don't have enough heavies. There is only a certain level of nasty in this team - and that's part of the problem.

Scotland can win, or at least be competitive, against most nations these days because their backs can have a devastating impact, but against the unrelenting Ireland machine, it's a different story.

Townsend badly missed captain Sione Tuipulotu's dominant presence in the midfield and you sense that, if some of his other second rows were not injured right now, he would not have started with the two he started with.

When they are back on their feet, the present, and future, in the second row are Scott Cummings and Max Williamson along with Gregor Brown and Cameron Henderson.

Scotland need more thunder, more brutes. To get to another level, they need monsters to meet the likes of Ireland on the gainline and hammer them backwards.

They don't have anything like the carries or the force from their locks when it is Grant Gilchrist and Jonny Gray, fine players though they are.

You can add Andy Onyeama-Christie into the mix of sadly absent warriors. Whether from the start or off the bench, the back row is part of the solution.

In Dublin last year, in a game that went to the wire with only four points between them at the end, the Saracens forward had a fantastic edge to him and made 31 tackles. So, there is a cavalry, but it's stricken right now.

We won't see them this Six Nations, which is painful, because it's England away next and the odds are against Scotland making it five in a row.

England are not Ireland, though. So the psychology is different and the hope is real.

Scotland will not be beaten before the first whistle at Twickenham. That was the suspicion on Sunday.

Outplayed, yes. Overpowered, undoubtedly. But you got a sense, too - and not for the first time - that it was over almost before it began.

Savinho has said Manchester City will have no fear when they line up against Real Madrid and revealed there was "calm" in the dressing room when they found out they were facing a blockbuster tie against the Spanish giants.

The Champions League playoff, which kicks-off at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, will be the fifth time the two teams have been drawn against each other in the last five years.

City will start as underdogs as they continue to battle through a tough season. But Savinho said there is a quiet confidence within the squad because Pep Guardiola's team are so used to big games.

"These are the games that I came to Manchester City to play in and every big player wants to play in them, so not just me, but many experienced players who are in the dressing room," he told ESPN.

"These are the games for the big players, the big managers. They are great games to watch, great games to play in and hopefully Manchester City can come out with two victories over these two legs.

"It was a calm atmosphere [when the draw was made]. We're used to it, we played them a lot over recent seasons. It's such a beautiful tie.

"We stayed calm, of course we had no choice. We couldn't choose who our opponents would be, but we're just waiting to get out onto the pitch."

Real Madrid travel to Manchester still top of LaLiga despite their 1-1 draw with neighbours Atlético Madrid on Sunday.

Savinho said he knows what to expect from Madrid after spending last season in Spain with Girona. He also knows two of their stars, Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo, from the Brazil national team.

"It's a team I know a lot," he said. "They have great players. Real Madrid are among the best teams in the world, so we hope to put on a great show. It's going to be a great tie to watch, a great tie to play in. Hopefully luck is on our side and Manchester City can progress."

City bounced back from the 5-1 defeat to Arsenal with a narrow 2-1 win over League One side Leyton Orient in the FA Cup on Saturday. They're slowly starting to rebuild their campaign, with two defeats from their last 11 games following a run of nine defeats in 12 games before Christmas.

"It's been a difficult season, especially compared to the recent ones that we've had," Savinho admitted. "This is a team that's won four Premier Leagues in a row, so of course it's very different. The supporters who come here, they're used to seeing us win the treble, win four in a row and this is something else for them.

"But in football it's not all sunshine and flowers. We have to focus and we've really got to focus on how we can improve."

After a wild baseball winter, spring training is in the air.

The Mets inked Juan Soto to the largest contract in MLB history -- and also brought back fan favorite Pete Alonso this week. The Dodgers had another busy offseason, including the addition of prized Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki. And the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros and New York Yankees were among the most active teams in a scorching hot trade market.

Now, with pitchers and catchers reporting across Arizona and Florida this week, we'll start seeing how those moves translate to the diamond. We've asked our ESPN MLB experts to get us ready for spring training with the stars and storylines they're most excited to see as baseball returns for the 2025 season.

What is the one thing you are most excited about as spring training begins?

Buster Olney: The Mets are a must-see stop in spring training, and will be must-watch all year. The Dodgers are baseball's Evil Empire in many fans' eyes and will be aiming to be the majors' first back-to-back champion since the 1998-2000 Yankees. But in many ways, the Mets will be the team under the most pressure this year, given their success last October, the record-setting signing of Juan Soto and that they have such a difficult challenge in the loaded National League East.

The major competitive question the Mets face is this: In the face of another rotation makeover, can they replicate the starters' production of 2024, when they ranked fifth in innings and 12th in ERA?

Jorge Castillo: Can the Mets reproduce some of their magic? The lineup is undoubtedly better than a year ago with the addition of Juan Soto, Mark Vientos coming off a breakout season and Pete Alonso back after a long winter for the slugger. The bullpen has been upgraded. The rotation has questions but so did last year's.

Beyond the talent, however, the 2024 Mets ran on vibes en route from a 22-33 start to reaching the National League Championship Series. Jose Iglesias, the infielder and part-time singer who helped establish the good energy upon joining the team in late May, is not around anymore. A few other key cogs in the vibes machine are gone, too. Asking the 2025 Mets to replicate the 2024 OMG, Grimace-powered Mets is unrealistic. Teams like that are rare. But vibes matter, and the Mets will need to generate some good ones as they head into a season with higher expectations.

Jeff Passan: Trying to figure out who in the American League is good. The Yankees lost Juan Soto - and gained Max Fried, Cody Bellinger, Devin Williams and Paul Goldschmidt. Their predecessor as AL champion, Texas, added Joc Pederson and Jake Burger, re-signed Nathan Eovaldi, refashioned its bullpen and has a healthy Jacob deGrom. Other playoff teams from last year - Cleveland, Houston, Kansas City, Baltimore, Detroit - still have playoff aspirations. As do the other four AL East teams, Seattle and Minnesota. It's a wide-open league -- again -- and spring training often gives little clues that when the standings have sorted themselves out make more sense.

Alden Gonzalez: Getting an up-close look at Roki Sasaki. We've been hearing so much about him for years, and he is finally in the major leagues, getting set to face the best hitters in the world. Though they'll monitor him closely, the Los Angeles Dodgers won't place any restrictions on Sasaki in his first season in the U.S. I want to see how one of the most lauded pitching development programs goes about extracting the greatness Sasaki clearly possesses. And I want to see how major league hitters react to his absurd splitter.

Jesse Rogers: Excited might be too strong, but I'm definitely interested in the use of automatic balls and strikes this spring. Barring a major breakdown in the system, we're probably a year away from robot umps -- at least for some calls -- becoming a permanent part of the game.

On the field, it's cool to see some of the sport's most well-known grizzled veterans changing teams while trying to drink from the fountain of youth. Can Justin Verlander help lead the Giants out of .500 hell? Same goes for Max Scherzer in Toronto. Their Hall of Fame-worthy stories are down to the final chapters. And please don't ask me for Dodgers spring training tickets. That's going to be a scene all spring.

Other than Juan Soto, which player who changed teams this winter are you most interested in seeing in his new uniform?

Olney: Alex Bregman, who seemingly is likely to land with the Red Sox, Cubs or Tigers soon, with sources in the Astros organization skeptical he'll return to Houston. If he goes to Fenway Park, he could pepper the Green Monster while relearning the nuances of playing in the middle infield. If he goes to Chicago -- likely on a short-term, Cody Bellinger-type deal -- he will have pressure to produce. And if he signs with the Tigers, it would be Detroit's de facto announcement that with Tarik Skubal two years from free agency, the team's window to win is now, and the expensive signing of Bregman would be an all-in move.

Passan: Corbin Burnes, who was the Diamondbacks' rejoinder to everything the Dodgers are trying to do. Arizona is a dangerous, dangerous team. It's easy to forget they swept Los Angeles in the postseason two years ago and reached the World Series without Burnes, who has the best ERA in baseball over the last five seasons. He joins Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt in one of baseball's best rotations -- one that complements an offense that scored the most runs in baseball last year. The offseason after the signing of Jordan Montgomery went bad, Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick didn't allow the sour taste to keep him from trying to win, which is more than can be said for many of his contemporaries. If Burnes is his normal self, the Diamondbacks will be the best competition for the Dodgers in the cutthroat NL West.

Castillo: Four years ago, Walker Buehler, who signed a one-year, $21.5 million deal with Boston this offseason, was one of the best pitchers in the majors. The brash right-hander went 16-4 with a 2.47 ERA in 33 starts, tossing over 200 innings, for the Dodgers. Then, he got hurt, underwent a second Tommy John surgery, missed the 2023 season and struggled upon returning in 2024 before giving a gutsy postseason effort culminating with recording the final three outs of the World Series.

Buehler is talented, confident and a proven big-game performer. A return to his previous form could be the difference in the Red Sox vaulting from missing the playoffs to becoming a legitimate contender -- and result in Buehler receiving the payday expected during his peak next winter.

Gonzalez: Kyle Tucker, because I still don't think enough people realize how good he is. Only 14 players accumulated more FanGraphs wins above replacement from 2021 to 2023 than Tucker. He was on track to be even better -- much better -- in his age-27 season in 2024, He had an OPS of 1.175 by June 3 before suffering a shin fracture that kept him out for three months. Tucker has since been traded from the Houston Astros to the Chicago Cubs. Free agency is nine months away with a massive payday approaching. And Tucker might be my pick for NL MVP.

Rogers: It's a tie between Max Fried and Tucker. The former got paid, the latter is hoping for the same. Fried is venturing out from a comfortable situation in Atlanta where players aren't subjected to the same East Coast intensity that New York, Boston or Philadelphia brings. He'll feel that with the Yankees. Will he thrive under the bright lights?

Meanwhile, Tucker is leaving the only league, team and city he has known in his big league career -- just in time for his platform year in a place that is notoriously volatile for left-handed hitters because of weather patterns that vary from season to season. Wrigley Field is due for a good summer, which could turn Tucker into the next $300 million (or more) man next offseason.

Other than Roki Sasaki, who is one player from our top 100 prospects list you are most looking forward to seeing this spring?

Olney: After being dormant for a few years, the Red Sox appear to be on the verge of a breakout, fueled by some high-end prospects -- maybe none better than Roman Anthony, who will presumably make his debut this year. Folks in the Boston organization rave about his work ethic and focus, and for all the talk in recent seasons about fellow prospect Marcelo Mayer, Anthony could have an immediate impact once he lands in the big leagues. His slash line in the minors last year: .291/.396/.498. And he dominated in Triple-A after a second-half promotion, accumulating as many walks (31) as strikeouts (31).

Passan: Even before he reaches the big leagues, Chandler Simpson is already one of the most exciting players in baseball. A 5-foot-11, 170-pound outfielder chosen by the Tampa Bay Rays in the competitive-balance round of the 2022 draft out of Georgia Tech, Simpson is the best base-stealing prospect since Billy Hamilton. In his first full minor league season in 2023, Simpson stole 94 bases in 109 attempts. Last year, at High-A and Double-A, Simpson stole 104 bases in 121 attempts over 110 games. Most interesting is how Simpson hit last year. He very rarely strikes out, his left-handed swing devised for contact. At High-A, he batted .364 in nearly 150 plate appearances. He continued in Double-A, batting .351/.401/.407 and walking 29 times against 27 strikeouts in 358 plate appearances. It's a lot of singles. But it's also a lot of times on base that are near-automatic to wind up at second. Hitting to a .377 wOBA and 141 wRC+ means you're very good. And so while Simpson isn't nearly as lauded as some of the others here, he is a throwback, the sort who's impossibly fun to watch. Baseball will take all of that it can get.

Castillo: The Martian has landed in left field at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Jasson Dominguez, one of the most hyped prospects in recent memory, is slated to make the Yankees' Opening Day roster for the first time as the team's everyday left fielder. You're probably thinking, "It's about time!" But know this: Dominguez turned 22 on Friday. The shine might have dimmed from when he signed as a 16-year-old marvel out of the Dominican Republic, but he's younger than Travis Bazzana, last year's No. 1 pick. Last season, despite dealing with injuries, Dominguez slashed .314/.376/.504 with 11 home runs and 16 stolen bases in 58 games across three minor league levels before getting called up to the Bronx in September. He looked uncomfortable in the outfield and didn't produce enough at the plate for the Yankees to give him playing time in October, but his power-speed combo and getting leeway to find his rhythm should give New York an upgrade in left field over Alex Verdugo.

Gonzalez: Jackson Jobe, a 22-year-old right-hander who debuted with the Detroit Tigers late last season, got a taste of playoff baseball and might lock down a rotation spot this year. He's a great athlete who can easily access velocity, displays an excellent changeup and flashes a cool-looking sweeper. If Jobe makes the proper adjustments, he and Tarik Skubal in the same rotation could win the Tigers the American League Central.

Rogers: I'll go with Matt Shaw of the Cubs. How many teams rid themselves of every player who played a position during the previous season? That's what the Cubs did at third base this winter when they jettisoned seven players who saw time at the hot corner. Barring an Alex Bregman sighting, this has left the door open for Shaw to win the job. That's some serious faith in a guy who has shot up ESPN's Kiley McDaniel's prospect rankings, landing at No. 23 to begin the season, but has only 35 Triple-A games under his belt.

Which team are you far more interested in today than you were a year ago at this time?

Olney: The Reds. The oddsmakers have set the early over/under for Cincinnati's team win total at 78.5, just above the team's 77-85 record last season and that makes no sense. The Reds had easily the worst record in one-run decisions last year (15-29) meaning that if they played last season again with the same group, they'd probably improve by four or five wins -- and they should be better this season after bolstering their rotation and lineup. And new manager Terry Francona has demonstrated over and over in his Hall of Fame-caliber career that he is difference-making. In his first year as the Guardians' manager, Cleveland improved from 68-94 to 92-70.

Passan: The A's. As eye roll-inducing as it was to see A's owner John Fisher named to the league's executive committee (inviting the person most responsible for killing baseball in Oakland to the most powerful group in the game said all it needed to about the lack of regret for that decision) the team spending this season in Sacramento is better than the one that made a 19-game improvement to 69-93 last year. The A's spent $67 million on Luis Severino and traded for Jeffrey Springs to shore up their rotation. They added Jose Leclerc to their bullpen and Gio Urshela to their infield. They locked up slugger Brent Rooker long-term. A full year of Lawrence Butler and Jacob Wilson, a bounce back from Zack Gelof, improvement from JJ Bleday, the arrival of Nick Kurtz -- squint and you can see a pretty good core and a team that if everything breaks right could have October aspirations.

Castillo: The Red Sox. Fans in Boston aren't satisfied with the organization's offseason, but the Red Sox upgraded their biggest weakness (pitching) and might not be done. Acquiring Nolan Arenado or signing Alex Bregman would be quite the finish for a club that will have three top-25 prospects, including the consensus No. 2 prospect behind Roki Sasaki (Roman Anthony), waiting in Triple-A Worcester.

Garrett Crochet looked like an ace in 2024. Walker Buehler was one before his second Tommy John surgery. Patrick Sandoval might help down the stretch. The Red Sox finished 81-81 with a plus-four run differential last season despite a slew of injuries and a pitching dropoff in the second half. Triston Casas is healthy after playing in just 63 games. Trevor Story is healthy after playing in 26 games last season. Rafael Devers, plagued by shoulder injuries last year, should be healthier. Jarren Duran registered a breakout All-Star 2024 season. Wilyer Abreu had a great rookie year. The Red Sox have the talent to return to contention.

Gonzalez: The Giants. I don't know if they'll make the playoffs -- I see three National League East teams as near-locks, so it will be tough -- but Buster Posey has at least made them seem more exciting in his first year running baseball operations. I don't know how Willy Adames will age, but pairing him at the top of the order with a healthy Jung Hoo Lee should be fun. I don't know how much Justin Verlander has left, but inserting him in a group headlined by Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, who is expected to pitch his first full season in three years, is intriguing.

Rogers: Year-to-year, definitely the Mets. We knew nothing of what they would become last season when they opened camp in 2024. Carlos Mendoza was a first-time manager who proved his worth throughout a magical run in New York. After adding Juan Soto and re-signing fan favorite Pete Alonso, the sky seems the limit. But this time, they won't be just a fun story -- they'll have tons of added pressure. If they can keep it fun and loose like they did last year, the Mets will be a force again. That lineup could be scary.

Malaysias Sivasangari Subramaniam earned her first title of the 2024/25 PSA Squash Tour season after defeating No.2 seed Amanda Sobhy in a five-game thriller at the 2025 Cincinnati Gaynor Cup.

The Malaysian came into the match having taken out top seed and defending champion Olivia Weaver in the semi-finals, while US No.2 Sobhy claimed victory over Englands Jasmine Hutton.

She had gone close to winning titles on the Asian swing this season, but this proved the first time she had held aloft a trophy since triumphing in London last season.

Sivasangari was the more aggressive of the two players as the match began, forcing the American onto her backhand and stopping Sobhy from having control of the tempo of the rallies, which was rewarded with an 11-7 win.

The US No.2 came onto the court for the second game with a point to prove, making less errors and forcing her opponent around the court, ultimately storming to an 8-1 lead. The No.3 seed rallied, but it wasnt enough to overcome Sobhys early advantage as she claimed the game 11-6.

In a closely-contested third game, Sobhy held a narrow lead from 6-6 to take the lead for the first time in the match. Sivasangari regrouped in the fourth game, taking the game to the American in a similar manner than in the first game and forcing the match to a fifth game, the first in a Gaynor Cup final since 2017.

From 4-4 in game five, Sivasangari took control, scoring seven successive point to claim her first Silver-level title.

Speaking after the match, Sivasangari said: I feel great. Its a first title for this year and then my last title was London [Classic] and now to be winning this is a great feeling.

I think I had a tough couple of months. Being 2-0 up an losing matches, losing close matches and I think that was all the learning process that I had to go through to win today. It came from the experience that I had over the last couple of months.

Yesterday [beating top seed Olivia Weaver in the semi-finals] was a big win for me. Id never beaten Olivia and that was my first win. I kind of put that aside. Yesterday I told myself that the jobs still not done, I still have one more match. I dont put any pressure on myself, I know Amanda [Sobhy] is a good player I just tried to play point-by-point, focus on what I need to out there and that outcome will come with it and its great that it went my way.