December 14, 2025

Week 15 non-Eagles rooting guide

Cowboys-Vikings in primetime will carry a lot of weight for the Eagles in the NFC East race.

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Jeffrey Becker/Imagn Images

The Eagles will hope the Vikings beat Dak Prescott and the Cowboys.

If the NFL season ended today (it doesn't), the Philadelphia Eagles would be the 3 seed in the NFC at 8-5. They have lost three straight games, and will look to end their slide against an atrocious Raiders team on Sunday. The Eagles aside, there are games on the NFL schedule that are meaningful to the Birds both in terms of just making the playoffs, as well as seeding if indeed they are able to close out the NFC East.

Here we'll lay out a rooting guide for non-Eagles games on the NFL schedule for those of you on the fence while watching the other action around the league. And yes, I'm aware that most of the below is obvious. Ideal winners bolded.

NFC East

• Vikings at Cowboys: Heading into Week 12, the Eagles needed a combination of four Eagles wins or Cowboys losses the rest of the season to win the division. Here are the Eagles' and Cowboys' schedules mashed together, from Week 12 on. The results have overwhelmingly favored the Cowboys.

Week	Matchup	Good Eagles result?
12	Eagles at Cowboys	❌❌
13	Chiefs at Cowboys	❌
13	Bears at Eagles, Black Friday	❌
14	Cowboys at Lions, TNF	✅
14	Eagles at Chargers, MNF	❌
15	Raiders at Eagles, Sun, 1:00
15	Vikings at Cowboys, SNF
16	Eagles at Commanders, Saturday
16	Chargers at Cowboys, Sun, 1:00
17	Cowboys at Commanders, Thurs (Christmas)
17	Eagles at Bills, Sun, 4:25
18	Cowboys at Giants, TBD
18	Commanders at Eagles, TBD

The NFC East standings now look like this:

NFC East	Record
Eagles	8-5
Cowboys	6-6-1
Commanders	3-10
Giants	2-11

Inpredictable.com now has the Eagles as 90 percent likely to win the division, when they were over 99 percent a few weeks ago.

• Commanders at Giants: A Giants win is the better result, for two reasons:

1) The Eagles play the Commanders next Saturday, and also in Week 18. The more the Commanders lose, the more they'll be apt to mentally check out from the season.

2) If the season ended today, the Giants would have the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 draft. Via Tankathon:

The Giants are probably content to roll with Jaxson Dart going forward, and would be unlikely to draft a quarterback. BUT... they could certainly benefit from a trade back with another team that does need a quarterback. It would not be ideal for the Eagles if the Giants scored a bounty of picks by trading out of the top spot. It's more ideal if the classy Giants do the classy thing by not tanking down the stretch.

Other NFC contenders

First, a visual of the NFC standings/seeding:

Seed	Team	Record
1	Rams	10-3
2	Packers	9-3-1
3	Eagles	8-5
4	Panthers	7-6
5	Seahawks	10-3
6	49ers	9-4
7	Bears	9-4
8	Lions	8-5
9	Buccaneers	7-7
10	Cowboys	6-6-1
11	Vikings ☠️	5-8
12	Falcons ☠️	5-9
13	Cardinals ☠️	3-10
14	Saints ☠️	3-10
15	Commanders ☠️	3-10
16	Giants ☠️	2-11

☠️ = Graveyard

• Lions at Rams: The Eagles are highly unlikely to catch whoever wins the NFC West, whether that's the Rams or Seahawks. But, a scenario exists in which the Eagles win two of their final four games, Dallas wins out (and wins the division), and the Eagles get in the playoffs as a wildcard. That scenario could be possible if the Lions also lose at least two of their final four games. (Disclaimer: The Eagles' season would basically already over if it plays out that way, but whatever.)

• Packers at Broncos: I suppose the Eagles do still have a reasonable shot at the 2 seed, which, you know, they were last year.

• Browns at Bears: The 2 seed would require Bears losses in addition to Packers losses.

• Colts at Seahawks: Again, the Eagles almost certainly aren't catching whoever wins the NFC West, but maybe a Seahawks loss at home to a 44-year-old Philip Rivers would make them seem very beatable.

• Titans at 49ers: As long as the Eagles hold on for the division, (and the 3 seed), the Niners are looking like the Eagles' most likely first-round opponent. Among all the possible options, that's probably an ideal scenario for them.

• Panthers at Saints: My first instinct was to say that the Panthers are the more ideal NFC South winner than the Bucs, and that a Panthers win is better. But really, both teams aren't good, so it doesn't really matter who gets in, in my opinion. What does matter is playoff seeding. Whichever of the Rams or Seahawks doesn't win the NFC West will likely be the 5 seed in the NFC. The 5 seed will play the 4 seed. As such, the Eagles don't want to be the 4 seed and have to play one of the two best teams in the NFC in the Wildcard round. A Panthers loss would provide a bigger cushion between the 3 and 4 seeds.