September 25, 2022
In past seasons, Philadelphia Eagles fans generally rooted for their own team, and kept an eye on the rest of the NFC East. Now that they might be contenders in a bad NFC, it's probably worth paying attention to rest of the conference as well. There are also peripheral rooting interests for Birds fans this season, as they own an extra first-round draft pick in 2023.
And so, each week we'll lay out a rooting guide for non-Eagles games on the NFL schedule, and yes, I'm aware that most of the below is obvious. Ideal winners bolded.
• Cowboys at Giants (Monday, 8:15 p.m.): If the Giants win, they'll be 3-0, so it's better if the Cowboys win and both teams are at 2-1, right? God no. This Giants team is still very bad, their 2-0 record notwithstanding. The better outcome is for the Cowboys to be buried in as big a hole as possible while Dak Prescott recovers from his thumb injury. Dallas still has a very good defense and they remain the most dangerous threat among the Eagles' NFC East rivals.
Also, so what if the Giants start out 3-0? They do not have a roster capable of making any sort of postseason run, and the more games they win, the more they hurt their 2023 draft positioning in a year that they will very likely be shopping for a new quarterback.
• Saints at Panthers (1:00 p.m.): As you know, the Eagles own the Saints' first-round pick, so the more games they lose, the better. The Saints almost lost to the Falcons Week 1 and Jameis Winston has four fractures in his back, so this is a game they are capable of losing, even if the Panthers are trash. They're only 2.5-point favorites.
• Bills at Dolphins (1:00 p.m.): A reader pointed out that the Dolphins lost their first-round pick as a result of their tampering infractions, so if that pick lands before either of the Eagles' two first-round picks, it's one extra prospect that will be available to the Eagles when they pick.
• Houston at Chicago (1:00 p.m.): Typically, anytime an NFC team plays an AFC team, it's best if the AFC team wins, for now. But I think in this case, the more games the Bears win, the better. If they somehow got into the playoffs as, say, the 7 seed, and the Eagles were, saaaayyy, the 2 seed, that's an easy wildcard round opponent.
• 49ers at Broncos (8:20 p.m.): Easy call here.
• Lions at Vikings (1:00 p.m.): Ah, the Eagles' first two opponents will now play each other. The Eagles will have a head-to-head tie-breaker over either one, so I don't think it matters much which one wins.
• Rams at Cardinals (4:25 p.m.): The Rams are certainly capable of making a postseason run as they showed last year, so it's best if they lose games.
• Falcons at Seahawks (4:25 p.m.): Meh. Who cares?
• Packers at Buccaneers (4:25 p.m.): Aside from the Eagles and Giants, the Bucs are the only other 2-0 team in the NFC. But also, of these two teams, the Bucs under Todd Bowles feel like the worse of the two matchups for the Eagles, should the Eagles have to play either one in the playoffs. The Birds may have to get through both of them to get to the Super Bowl. Better to get the Bucs at home than in Tampa, so the more games they lose, the better.
The Eagles will play some of these teams later this season. I don't think it matters much who wins these matchups, but they're worth paying some attention to for future reference. Teams that the Eagles play later this year in italics:
The Jaguars are probably the game to pay the most attention to among this group of games. The Eagles play then Week 4, and they're the No. 2 ranked team in the NFL, by DVOA.
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