January 04, 2026
POSTGAME – The Eagles had a chance.
The Bears lost to the Lions, and the Philly reserves had the runway to steal the 2-seed in the playoffs, but Tanner McKee and the offense had a shaky day, and then the defensive back reserves just had a brutal one.
The Eagles lost to the Commanders, 24-17, in the Week 18 finale. The Birds are locked in as the No. 3 seed in the NFC, and will face the 49ers in the Wild Card round next weekend back here at Lincoln Financial Field.
Until then, here's the immediate coverage from Sunday's loss...
• Eagles are NFC's 3-seed, will host Niners in Wild Card round (Evan Macy)
And as always, you can run back through the conversation of Sunday's game, as it happened, down below.
PREGAME...
The 11-5 Philadelphia Eagles will host the 4-12 Washington Commanders in a game where the Birds will be their resting starters, while many Commanders players probably can't wait to put it in the rearview mirror. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:25 p.m. EST.
For the Eagles, there's potentially playoff seeding on the line, as a win over the Commanders and a Bears loss to the Lions would bump the Eagles up from the 3 seed to the 2 seed.
On Friday, the Eagles ruled out RT Lane Johnson, LB Nakobe Dean, iDL Jalen Carter, EDGE Jaelan Phillips, TE Dallas Goedert, and S Marcus Epps. The Commanders will be without QB1 Jayden Daniels, QB2 Marcus Mariota and LT Laremy Tunsil, plus a whole slew of other starters on injured reserve. You can find the Eagles' and Commanders' inactives here.
As noted in our five things to watch, the Commanders have had a disastrous 2025 season after getting to the NFC Championship Game a year ago. They have nothing to play for except draft positioning, which they can improve with a loss. Eagles QB2 Tanner McKee will get the start in place of Jalen Hurts. He'll have a chance to improve his value around the NFL, and maybe land a starting job in 2026 via trade. It will also be fun to get a look at some of the Eagles' other young reserves in this matchup.
Despite playing their backups, the Eagles are still 4-point favorites. Feel free to discuss the game in the comments section below.
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