Locust lands in Tennessee | Sports Daily Newsletter

Six years ago, Lori Locust attended the NFL Women’s Forum hoping to break into an industry she was passionate about.

Armed with plenty of experience, the Philly native and Temple grad eventually latched on with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and made history with the Super Bowl-winning franchise. That all came to an end this offseason, when Locust was among the Bucs’ staff cuts. She quickly found a home, however, on Mike Vrabel’s Tennessee Titans staff as a defensive quality control coach.

Locust discussed her coaching journey with The Inquirer’s Devin Jackson. Read more here.

— Maria McIlwain, Inquirer Sports Staff, @phillysport, sports.daily@inquirer.com.

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Sean Desai, the Eagles’ new defensive coordinator, was hired to follow Nick Sirianni’s core principles on defense, however, Sirianni was open to tweaks in the defensive scheme. What does that mean for how the Eagles will look in 2023? EJ Smith goes back through Desai’s history and breaks down some Xs and Os so that we can see while some aspects will be similar to Jonathan Gannon’s scheme, Desai’s could feature different pre-snap looks designed to confuse offenses.

Meanwhile at the NFL scouting combine, the Eagles are evaluating players who can help the Desai-led defense, and edge rusher appears to be a position they could add to with a first-round pick. Maybe one day they’ll get to play on a Super Bowl field that isn’t excessively slippery. Not that anyone’s bitter about it. Oh, wait.

On the podium in Indianapolis, former offensive coordinator Shane Steichen was happy to see his successor Brian Johnson be promoted.

Lightning didn’t shoot from Andrew Painter’s right arm against the Twins on Wednesday. He made a fine first impression in the competition for the final spot in the Phillies’ rotation. But when you’ve been crowned by Baseball America as the top pitching prospect in the sport, when the billionaire owner of the team rushes out to a pack of mounds in the remote reaches of the spring training complex to watch your first bullpen session, expectations tend to be ratcheted to impossible levels. But Painter did unveil his new pitch with an impressive result and proved to be “fun to watch” for both teams.

New Phillie Jake Cave is trying to show “everything I can do,” to win a roster spot, and on Wednesday that meant going deep against his former team.

How can Darick Hall win a bench job on the 26-man roster? He showed with one swing of the bat.

Next: Bailey Falter will take his first turn in the fifth-starter competition at 12:05 p.m. Thursday against the Red Sox in Fort Myers, Fla. ESPN will televise the game.

Nick Seeler was an afterthought when he arrived at Flyers training camp ahead of the 2021-22 season. He hadn’t played the season before and was a veteran player brought in at the league minimum to round out the numbers.

Fast forward a year and a half and Seeler is no longer a nobody. Now, he’s a player in demand ahead of the March 3 trade deadline. Giana Han looks at how Seeler has gone from potentially leaving the game forever to an analytical darling.

The Flyers skid reached four Wednesday night with an overtime loss to the New York Rangers.

Next: The Flyers are off until Sunday, when the host the Detroit Red Wings (6 p.m., NBCSP).

Even without Joel Embiid, the Sixers found a way to win, powering past the Miami Heat in Tyrese Maxey’s return to the starting lineup.

James Harden was one of the keys to Wednesday’s win. But how much longer will he be a Sixer?

Sure, the Union want to return to MLS Cup and win it this time, and the team built itself for that purpose in the offseason. But the squad also was retooled by coach Jim Curtin with an eye toward competing effectively in all five of the competitions in which the Union are participating. Extra competitions mean extra games and the crunch of the schedule hits immediately.

Union players and fans, Jonathan Tannenwald explains, will soon find out if the team prepared well enough.

Next: The Union take on Inter Miami on Saturday. (7:30 p.m., Apple TV, free of charge)

Winning Widener: Chris Carideo is leading the Pride to the NCAA Tournament in his 17th season.

‘Just so surreal’: Lansdale Catholic’s Olivia Boccella reflects on the path that led to her game-winning shot.

Sweet success: How sugary excursions sparked camaraderie — and success — for St. Joe’s this season.

Tourney time: The St. Joe’s men snapped their skid just in time for the postseason.

We asked: What would you like to see the Flyers do at the trade deadline? Among your responses:

The Flyers have a completely inept senior management team and nothing will change until they are replaced. Let’s start with Dave Scott. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts hired his cable friend and finance guy to be Governor of the Flyers. Zero hockey experience and almost as bad, very poor communication skills. Next, they bring in Valerie Camillo, another financial and marketing person and recently Daniel Hilferty as CEO with no hockey experience. What could go wrong?

To Comcast, the Flyers are an asset and nothing more. The corporation appears clueless about the passion of the fans. They appear not to care about the negative impact of losing on the city of Philadelphia. Comcast has accepted a losing culture that defies logic since they wouldn’t tolerate it in their core business. There is no accountability for on ice results. Any hockey franchise in the universe would have replaced Chuck Fletcher. I feel sorry for John Tortorella, the only person who cares.

Until Comcast CEO Brian Roberts has the courage to fire or retire his friend Dave Scott again, the Flyers franchise is doomed. I’m over 80 years old and I’ll never feel the euphoria of a Stanley Cup in my lifetime. It’s sad that Comcast is allowing almost a half century to pass by without the ultimate prize. — Bob B.

Before my job was transferred to the northern region of New Jersey, I had Flyers season’s tickets along with my spouse. General Managers like Bud Poile and Keith Allen had a balanced approach to rosters. Build a strong minor league affiliate through the draft and cherry pick veterans to form the skeleton of the parent team. Result - a consistent contender. The Flyers then altered this approach after the Cup. Years by adopting the New York Rangers futile strategy insisting that “We are the Flyers, we DON’T rebuild!” Paradoxically, the Rangers decided to rebuild through the offloading of veterans and developing a roster through the draft. Seems to be working just find. Ron Hextall had begun implementing that measured strategy until Synder became impatient. It’s a tried-and-true approach that only long view organizations implement! — Frank P.

Chuck Fletcher was a Bad hire by this organization from day one. He did an underwhelming job in Minnesota before coming here. He has locked this franchise in cap hell with his deals and now he finally admits that they are in a rebuild, not a retool as he said last season, This clearly proves that he is incapable of the position. I am surprised that Tortorella wanted to come here with this organization having no real direction. Fletcher is not the only one to blame however, I also think Dave Scott is another problem hire. The organization needs to fire both and bring in some serious hockey minds. They really should have tried to hire Jeff Gorton, the man responsible for the rebuild of the Rangers. Unfortunately he is now in Montreal as VP of Hockey Operations. I’ve been calling for Fletcher’s firing for two years now. Do Not let him make any more deals! He will only bury this team further into the ground. — John G.

First and foremost: van Riemsdyk. As a pending unrestricted free agent later this year, it is mandatory that he be moved for something of value for the future, whether picks and/or prospects (preferably the latter, since what passes for a scouting department seems incapable of developing players). My biggest fear is that Fletcher will do nothing, and van Riemsdyk will walk as a free agent, leaving the Flyers with nothing to show. Given Fletcher’s incompetence, that doesn’t seem unlikely at all.

Second: unload DeAngelo. His contributions have been pedestrian at best, and the Flyers don’t need his baggage while a rebuild is in progress. He’s easily a bad influence on younger players, on and off the ice.

Third: Hayes. Retain salary if you must but send him on his way. He’s an overpaid underachiever who’s constantly in and out of Tortorella’s doghouse, and won’t flourish here.

Fourth: Farabee. Something of a surprise, perhaps, but he’s clearly unhappy here--and as usual, the organization has done little or nothing to help him develop. Let him go elsewhere, where he’ll undoubtedly blossom and come back to haunt the Flyers.

Fifth: Provorov. He’s stalled (or even regressed) in his development, and is apparently something of a divisive force in the locker room. Maybe those problems can get fixed with a change of scenery.

Sixth: Ristolainen. Arguably Fletcher’s biggest blunder in a series of epic blunders, he’s little better than a traffic pylon. Any sort of offer for him that doesn’t involve giving one or more picks ought to be entertained, just to get rid of him.

Utter heresy: if the right deal were offered for Carter Hart, it’s incumbent upon the Flyers to listen. He’s wasting some of the best years of his career in an organization that’s going nowhere soon, and is not likely to be going anywhere any time soon. But such a deal would have to be an out-of-the-blue blockbuster, and I don’t see it happening.

All that said, I don’t trust Chuck Fletcher to get any, never mind all, of the potential deadline moves right. His five years as GM can most charitably be described as disastrous. He’s the incarnation of Murphy’s Law: whatever he can get wrong, he does, and usually rather spectacularly. His incompetence is compounded by his stubbornness and his dishonesty (refusing to say “rebuild”? really?), and abetted by the equally incompetent Dave Scott. Once the season is over, I for one would like to see a merciless purge of the front office from the top down, as well as--yes--a change in coaching. Tortorella appears to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors, brought in to get something from nothing, distracting the fans with a few wins now and then while Fletcher continues to draw a paycheck for tripping over his own feet.

Prepare for near-complete disappointment by the time the deadline rolls around. — John B.

We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Devin Jackson, EJ Smith, Isabella DiAmore, Josh Tolentino, Scott Lauber, Giana Han, Olivia Reiner, Gina Mizell, Keith Pompey, Jonathan Tannenwald, Mike Jensen, and Aaron Tully.