PHILADELPHIA − Clinching the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs, which the Eagles did Sunday in their 22-16 win over the Giants, was important for two reasons.
The first is that the Eagles are the only NFC team with a first-round bye, and thus will have to win two home playoff games in order to reach the Super Bowl instead of three games with at least one on the road.
“I think it’s important to definitely take the shortest route to the Super Bowl,” said defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, who has played in two Super Bowls during his 12 NFL seasons. “I’ve done it both ways, whether it was in LA (Rams in 2018) when we got a first-round bye, or with Tampa (in 2020) when we had to go through the wildcard.”
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The second is that the bye can certainly help a team like the Eagles with a few star players dealing with injuries. That includes quarterback Jalen Hurts, who admitted after the game that his sprained shoulder hasn’t really healed.
The Eagles would play their first playoff game during the weekend of Jan. 21-22 against the worst team remaining among these four − No. 7 seed Seattle Seahawks, No. 6 New York Giants, No. 5 Dallas Cowboys and No. 4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The extra week will also help right tackle Lane Johnson and nickel corner Avonte Maddox, who each missed the last two games with a groin and toe injury, respectively. Defensive end Josh Sweat missed the season finale against the Giants with a neck injury.
The Eagles aren’t taking this week off, however. In addition to practicing Thursday and Friday, the Eagles will start looking at their potential opponents, then dive in once their opponent is known after the wildcard games from this Saturday through Monday night.
“That will be a big part of it,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said about scouting potential opponents. “You look at some of your old plans and stuff like that … So you (also) spend a lot of time with self-scout this week. We have a good staff, and we have guys that we can devote (to each team), so you can get some of the tough, hard work, little minutiae things out of the way.”
Here, then, is a look at each of the Eagles’ potential opponents ranked from the team they’d most want to face to the team they’d least like to face. It should be noted that the Eagles can’t play the No. 2 San Francisco 49ers or No. 3 Minnesota Vikings in the divisional round.
No. 4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-9)
Isn’t this the team that embarrassed the Eagles in the playoffs last season, taking a 31-0 lead before cruising to a 31-15 win? And isn’t this the team that had the Eagles questioning whether Hurts should be in their long-term plans after he flopped by throwing two interceptions?
And isn’t this the team with the GOAT, Tom Brady at quarterback?
Yes and no.
Both the Eagles and Hurts are much better this season than they were back then. Hurts is an MVP candidate who went 14-1 this season, leading the Eagles to a franchise-record 477 points. And he had plenty of help from offseason trade acquisition A.J. Brown, who set the franchise record for receiving yards in a season.
Also, Brady is 45 years old, playing behind an injury-decimated offensive line. The Eagles came 2 sacks away from tying the NFL all-time record for sacks in a season set by the 1984 Chicago Bears with 72.
And the potential rematch would be in Philadelphia, not in balmy Tampa. No doubt, Hurts and the Eagles would love some payback.
No. 7 Seattle Seahawks (9-8)
The Seahawks had a remarkable season after trading Russell Wilson and making the playoffs behind a career journeyman in Geno Smith. Smith finished fifth in passer rating at 100.6, throwing for 4,282 yards and 30 TDs.
And Eagles fans are certainly familiar with Seahawks wide receiver D.K. Metcalf, who has tormented the Eagles for bypassing him for J.J. Arcega-Whiteside in the second round of the 2019 draft.
But the Seahawks have slumped, going 2-5 before needing an overtime win over the 5-12 Rams and an unlikely Detroit Lions win in Green Bay in order to make the playoffs.
Sure, a first-round upset over the 49ers might make the Seahawks seem like a team of destiny. More likely, they’re delaying the inevitable.
No. 5 Dallas Cowboys (12-5)
Sure, it would be tempting to look at the Cowboys’ clunker in Washington as a sign that the Cowboys will be no match for the Eagles.
But who knows which Cowboys team will show up? The Eagles saw the Cowboys at their best just 2 weeks ago in Dallas’ 40-34 win. Then again, the Cowboys haven’t had much success in the playoffs since last reaching the NFC Championship game in 1996.
Why tempt fate? As bad as Dak Prescott was against Washington on Sunday, was as good as he was against the Eagles on Dec. 24.
The interesting thing is the Eagles won the first matchup this season while Prescott was injured, and the Cowboys won the second while Hurts was injured.
If you’re an Eagles fan, you might want to wait until next season to see that matchup.
No. 6 New York Giants (9-7-1)
The logical reaction would be that the Giants are the Eagles’ toughest potential opponent because the Eagles starters, including Hurts, didn’t look impressive Sunday against the Giants’ reserves.
But that’s not the reason the Eagles should want to avoid the Giants. After all, the Eagles buried the Giants and their stars 48-22 barely one month ago.
This is why: It’s hard to beat a team three times in a season. And the Giants have a lot more confidence lately. The Giants won a must-win game over Washington, lost at Minnesota on a last-second 61-yard field goal, then buried the Colts to clinch a playoff spot.
If they beat the Vikings in Minnesota on Sunday, they’ll have even more confidence playing the Eagles for the second time in two weeks − this time with Saquon Barkley, Daniel Jones and defensive linemen Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams among others.
The Eagles would need the Hurts from the first Giants meeting (217 yards passing, 77 yards rushing) and not the hobbled Hurts from Sunday (229 yards passing, 13 yards rushing) in order to beat the Giants.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
