unCovering the Birds with Jeff McLane

Hope can be fickle in football, but right now, following an impressive Week 8 victory vs. the Cincinnati Bengals, the Philadelphia Eagles have built modest momentum. What’s been responsible for the turnaround during the team's three-game winning streak? For starters, the head coach tweaked his approach, and his quarterback has responded with improved play. Are Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts sold on...

Saquon Barkley was a stud, the defense was dominant, and all seems well in Eagles Land, at least for now, following a blowout win over the New York Giants. But beyond the breakout runs and bevy of sacks, there were other noteworthy developments from the victory - some encouraging, others indicators of just how much more work the Eagles have to do as they near the halfway point of the season. The P...

The consensus within the Philadelphia Eagles was virtually unanimous: it wasn’t pretty, but they got what they needed against the lowly Cleveland Browns - a win. The result nudged the 3-2 Eagles back above .500, and brought them within a half-game of first place in the NFC East. All good things, right? Yes, but the seemingly impulsive actions of head coach Nick Sirianni overshadowed the Eagles’ su...

All it took was a confident, affirming answer. But once again, instead of seizing an opportunity to diffuse speculation, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts added fuel to the fire surrounding the stability of his relationship with head coach Nick Sirianni. The question posed to Hurts after the Eagles’ lopsided loss in Tampa: given their respective leadership duties with the team, would he...

The Philadelphia Eagles were angry. And on the heels of a painful loss in their home opener, they played like it. From the dominance of the defensive line, to Jalen Hurts' poised, game-winning drive with time running out, the Eagles notched a resilient Week 3 win in New Orleans. Listen as The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane takes you on a tour around the victorious winners’ locker room at the...

The Eagles’ home opener on Monday Night Football was there for the taking, and the Atlanta Falcons obliged, pulling off a stunning upset in the final minutes. There were multiple factors that led to the 22-21 loss, which dropped the Eagles to 1-1. But two weeks into the season, one problem has proven more glaring and costly than the rest: the Eagles’ defensive line, a group loaded with blue-chip t...

The Eagles went to Brazil and came back with what they were looking for - a win to open the 2024 season. From Saquon Barkley’s breakout debut to a sturdy showing from the revamped offensive line, there were encouraging signs in the team's 34-29 victory over the Green Bay Packers. But there was also plenty of room for improvement; issues the Eagles will have to address if they want to become a Supe...

Nick Sirianni survived the Eagles’ disastrous collapse last season - barely. At the heart of criticism surrounding the fourth-year head coach was a sideline temperament that, at times, crossed the line from passionate to problematic. Did he suffer from a lack of composure? Were his antics undermining how the team was treated by referees? Was his enthusiasm endearing to players, or perceived as chi...

After beating up on mostly themselves the first two weeks of training camp, the Philadelphia Eagles welcomed a fresh challenge: a trip to New England for a joint practice with the Patriots, followed by a preseason game between the two teams.  The Philadelphia Inquirer' s Jeff McLane traveled to Foxboro, MA to take in the action, and explains why the joint practice might have been the singular, mos...

C.J. Gardner-Johnson is back with the Philadelphia Eagles, and has brought the big chip on his shoulder with him. That much was clear during his unfiltered first press conference of training camp. What makes the veteran safety tick? How did his second stint with the Eagles come together? Could he be injury prone? The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane examines Gardner-Johnson’s place on the Eagle...

The first week of Philadelphia Eagles training camp is in the books. What key storylines are taking shape? The Philadelphia Inquirer ’s Jeff McLane has been embedded at the NovaCare Complex, and checks in with his first impressions of a group eager to embrace a clean slate following a stinging finish last season. Plus, on the cusp of receiving his profession’s highest honor, legendary Eagles radio...

Are you ready? It's time for training camp. All the speculation, hypotheticals, and "what if's" from the past six months since the Philadelphia Eagles' brutal end to the 2023 season are gone. Finally, we're on the cusp of getting answers, and The Philadelphia Inquirer 's Jeff McLane is here to give them to you.  For Season 4 of unCovering the Birds , Jeff plans to react to what's happening in the...

Evidence of a disconnect, or perhaps a difference in perspective resulting from changing dynamics? For Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni, the answer wasn’t clear after the Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback and head coach sounded like they were on separate pages when asked about changes to the team's offense heading into the 2024 season. What’s really happening? On the Season Three finale of unCovering...

Todd Herremans and Brent Celek were more than just teammates. They were friends and later business partners. As the two former Philadelphia Eagles get farther away from their playing days, they’ve found similar and different ways to heal from the physical and mental punishment of such a violent sport. From cannabis to dietary changes, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane investigates how these...

Death threats. Job threats. Uncertainty about the future, both short- and long-term. The consequences of taking a stand for racial justice hit Steven Means almost immediately. It was the outset of the 2016 season, and he, along with a wave of players across the NFL, felt compelled to protest multiple police killings of Black men earlier in the summer. Even though Means knew raising a fist with Mal...

One former Eagle blacked out. Another had to check himself into a mental health therapy center. Both played in the NFL during the era right before the league overhauled its concussion protocols following the release of alarming findings linking football and brain trauma. What concerns do these ex-players have now about their long-term health? What about current members of the Eagles’ roster? Given...

Stewart Bradley tried to get up. He made it to his feet, took about six steps, wobbled, then crumbled to the turf. The reaction from the sold-out crowd at Lincoln Financial Field was one of collective shock. The broadcasters announcing the game were shaken by what they saw. Did Bradley really get his bell rung that badly? How could such a freakish athlete just collapse like that? The situation loo...

Reed Blankenship could feel it - the tingling, the puncture. He couldn’t bring himself to look, but he knew it wasn’t good. Immediately, he called out for help. He was hurt - badly. In a snap second, Blankenship's trajectory changed. All of a sudden, the persistent, hard-working kid from northern Alabama farm country wasn’t so sure what the future held. Would he be able to attain his NFL dreams? F...

It didn’t seem right. It didn’t feel fair. Jason Kelce’s iconic career as a Philadelphia Eagle came to an end in crash and burn fashion. After a promising start to the year that had experts pegging them as Super Bowl favorites, the team fell apart. There would be no repeat trip to the Super Bowl, or second championship ring. A storybook finish wasn’t in the cards. But as the pain of the Eagles’ de...

Jeff McLane had a hunch. He covered every moment of Jason Kelce’s tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles, from the day the team drafted him to Kelce's iconic Super Bowl victory speech on the Philadelphia Art Museum steps. The two had gotten to know each other well. Kelce wasn’t tipping his hand much heading into the 2023 season, but as far back as last summer, there were signs: the veteran offensive...

When did a legend realize it was time? What convinced a star’s teammate to join him in taking a bold, yet controversial, stance? Why did a mainstay turn to cannabis to cope? How did one player escape from the cumulative effects of head trauma, while another suffered from them? These are just some of the questions nationally-recognized reporter Jeff McLane sets out to tackle on Season 3 of unCoveri...

Rare is it that a reporter on the Philadelphia Eagles beat gets an off night, but such was the case February 21st, 2024. So how did unCovering the Birds host Jeff McLane spend it? Dishing about the Eagles, of course, with fellow veteran reporters Zach Berman , from All City PHLY, and Jimmy Kempski , from PhillyVoice.com. In a round table Q&A recorded live at Fitler Club in Philadelphia, the tr...

It took more than a week after a disastrous end to the season for the Eagles to finally signal their plan, but Nick Sirianni is coming back for a fourth year as the team’s head coach. Whether he can clean up the mess from the Eagles’ 1-6 finish will likely determine his staying power beyond 2024, if he even lasts that long. Why would the Eagles spare Sirianni his job? What direction will he head i...

Welp. This certainly isn’t how the Eagles drew it up. When was the last time you can remember a team that clinched a postseason berth so early heading into the playoffs engulfed in so much turmoil? Such is the Eagles’ lot after losing five of their last six games in the regular season, including back-to-back clunkers to the lowly Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants. You can blame the coordinator...

It’s 12 hours after the Philadelphia Eagles’ latest loss, their third in a row. A promising start to the season is now a distant honeymoon, a repeat run to the Super Bowl couldn’t feel further away. It’s time to turn on the mic, and get to the bottom of what’s wrong with the Eagles. Before leaving Seattle, the scene of the latest defeat, Philadelphia Inquirer Eagles beat reporter Jeff McLane combi...