October 16, 2021
In past seasons, Philadelphia Eagles fans generally rooted for their own team, and kept an eye on the rest of the NFC, with a focus on the NFC East. They'll still do that in 2021 (I guess), but there are even more peripheral rooting interests for Birds fans this season because they own 2022 draft picks from other teams.
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. You can also check out the latest Week 6 odds and read all my picks, here. Ideal winners bolded.
Before we get started, let's take our weekly look at Tankathon.com.
Three top-8 picks!
• Dolphins at Jaguars: This is a HUGE game for draft order implications. If the Dolphins lose this game, it will be reasonable to start projecting the Dolphins' pick — owned by the Eagles, of course — to land in the top 5. It should be noted that Tua Tagovailoa was activated from injured reserve and should be good to go again as Miami's starter. This game will be televised at 9:30 a.m. EST, because it's being played in London.
• Rams at Giants: The Giants are pretty much dead and buried already, so it wouldn't be the worst thing if they won some games to (a) prevent a super high pick that a qualified new general manager might actually make good use of, and (b) preserve any hope of Joe Judge and Dave Gettleman sticking around for another year.
• Chiefs at Football Team: Washington has been awful this season, but for now they still have a better record than the Eagles.
• Texans at Colts: The 1-4 Colts have to pick up a few wins just to remain competitive in the AFC South so that they don't bench Carson Wentz to prevent him from hitting playing time benchmarks that would allow them to keep their 2022 first-round pick. It's best if they can take care of business against the awful Texans.
• Bengals at Lions: The Lions are in contention for a very high pick, and they need a quarterback.
• Packers at Bears: The Giants own the Bears' 2022 first-round pick.
• Vikings at Panthers: At least one of these two teams — maybe both — could be in "competition" for draft positioning against one of the Eagles' first-round picks. The Vikings are 2-3, but they're probably a little better than the Panthers. I think a Panthers win is probably more ideal, because the Vikings could still be an 8-9 kind of team even if they fall to 2-4.
• Cowboys at Patri*ts: If the Eagles are to have any hope (delusional or not) of an NFC East title, they need the Cowboys to start losing some games.
• Raiders at Broncos: It will be interesting to see how the Raiders play this weekend after Jon Gruden resigned in disgrace earlier this week. Will they rise up, or fall apart? It would ideal for the Eagles if it's the latter, since they play in Las Vegas next Sunday.
• Seahawks at Steelers: Like with the Vikings-Panthers game above, these two teams could both be in "competition" for draft positioning. For now, just root for the AFC team, in case the Eagles somehow find themselves in an unlikely position for a wildcard.
• Bills at Titans: If the Colts win and the Titans lose, it would narrow the Titans' AFC South lead to a game (plus a head-to-head win) over the Colts. That's probably the best outcome to keep the Colts interested.
Irrelevant to the Eagles
Byes: Falcons, Saints, Jets, 49ers.
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