Get Hype! Your Guide to the 2023 Eagles Season
Eagles at the Linc / Photograph by Jerry Driendl/Getty Images
A nip in the air, the nights getting shorter — it’s autumn, and in Philadelphia, everybody knows what that means: E-A-G-L-E-S! It’s our favorite season of the year, so we’re celebrating with a special package honoring the team. There’s an examination of Howie Roseman’s genius, a timeline of last season’s highlights (and lowlights), a rundown of the best hangouts for watching games, a roundup of Birds bling, and an assessment of whether Philly’s fans deserve their rotten rep. Enjoy it while we all await the opening kickoff!
Psyched Up: Inside the Weird Minds of Eagles Fans
Fans in the stands at last season’s Eagles/Steelers game at the Linc / Photograph via ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo
Are Eagles fans as out of our minds as everybody says we are? You bet — and damn proud of it! So we decided to ask local experts in sports psychology: How’d we get this way? Keep reading.
Timeline of a Magical Year
Photography via Getty Images
While you wait for this season, here’s everything we loved, hated and lived through last year on our way to the Super Bowl — and a peek at what’s to come.
2022
- March 4th: Linebacker Haason Reddick, a native of Camden and graduate of Temple, signs a three-year contract with the Eagles. He’s coming home.
- August 12th: The Eagles fall to the Jets in their first preseason game, 24-21, after leading 14-0 at the close of the first quarter — an inauspicious start.
- August 27th: Our guys lose to the Dolphins in the third preseason game, 48-10. Jesus help us.
- September 11th: In the first regular-season game, vs. the Lions, newly acquired receiver A.J. Brown sets a franchise record for most receiving yards in a player debut. He’ll go on to set the franchise record for receiving yards in a single season.
- September 19th: Jalen Hurts has a breakout game in a 24-7 win over the Vikings, going 26 of 31(!) for 333 yards and three touchdowns.
- September 25th: In their first game against former teammate Carson Wentz since his trade, the Eagles rack up nine sacks and hold the Commanders to 47 total offensive yards in a 24-8 win.
- October 16th: A still-unidentified fan runs out onto Lincoln Financial Field with the team for the game against the Cowboys and is hustled away by security.
- October 30th: Leanne Smith and Alex Miller are shotgunning while tailgating at the Linc before the Cowboys game when he drops to one knee and proposes. She drops her Twisted Tea, then accepts, naturally.
- November 3rd: Pandemonium erupts as Philly realizes that because of a rainout, the 7-0 Eagles’ Thursday Night Football game against the Texans and Game 5 of the tied-up Phillies-Astros World Series are on the same night — at the same time.
- November 14th: The Commanders under Taylor Heinicke get revenge, winning 32-21 to end an eight-game Birds win streak.
- December 2nd: “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” the first single from A Philly Special Christmas, starring Jason Kelce, Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson, drops.
- December 4th: Rookie punt returner Britain Covey has three 20-yard-plus returns and 105 total yards in the Birds’ 35-10 win over the Titans.
- December 24th: The Eagles lose 40-34 to the Cowboys in a Christmas Eve game in which Gardner Minshew subs at QB for Hurts, who’d sprained his shoulder the prior week against the Bears. It’s the team’s first and eventual only road loss of the season.
2023
- January 1st: They lose again on New Year’s Day, to the Saints, 20-10. Everybody’s New Year’s resolution: no more holiday games!
- January 8th: Ace kicker Jake Elliott goes five-for-five on field goals in the regular-season finale as we beat the Giants, 22-16, and win the NFC East for the first time since 2019.
- January 27th: Asked by reporters how much moolah he’ll spend on a Super Bowl parade if the Eagles win, Mayor Jim Kenney laughs and says, “I’m on my way out, so I’ll spend whatever they want.”
- January 29th: We decimate the 49ers, 31-7, in the NFL Conference Championship, with two TDs from Miles Sanders and one each by Hurts and Scott. New Yorkers piss their pants when they see the Empire State Building lit up in Iggles green after the game.
- February 12th: Super Bowl LVII. We all know how that ended. What, you need reminders? Andy Reid’s Chiefs beat us, 38-35, despite Hurts’s 304 throwing yards, the fact we were up 24-14 at halftime, and our having the most points ever scored by a losing team in the Big One. You asked for it.
- March 10th: Jason Kelce signs on for one more year.
- March 15th: Fletcher Cox signs on for one more year.
- April 6th: The half-and-half outfit Donna Kelce wore to watch son Jason face off against his brother Travis in Super Bowl 23 — the first time two brothers have ever done so — is enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame.
- April 29th: The Eagles trade a 2025 fourth-round draft pick with Detroit for a Philly native and St. Joe’s Prep product, running back D’Andre Swift. He’s coming home, too.
- September 10th: First regular-season game, away against the Patriots, 4:25 p.m.
Howie Roseman’s Unlikely Journey to Becoming the Best Exec in the NFL
Howie Roseman and proud Eagles with the Conference Championship trophy in January / Photograph by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
The architect of the 2023 Eagles is perhaps the most unlikely, unexpected story in sports. Keep reading.
Eagles Jewelry for the Philly Fan Who Has Everything
Photograph by Andre Rucker; Styling by Emilie Fosnocht
Some game days, even an elusive kelly green jersey isn’t enough of a sartorial flex. These are the days you need to sparkle — to make your friends stop and register that, yes, you dropped hundreds to proclaim your fandom in silver and gold. Understated need not apply; elevate your style with these Birds baubles. Keep reading.
Screen Plays: Where to Watch the Eagles
Mifflin Tavern / Photograph by Joseph M. Kitchen
Where to catch the Birds this fall, in Philly and beyond. Keep reading.
Published as “Welcome to Birdland” in the September 2023 issue of Philadelphia magazine.