November 01, 2026

Week 8 non-Eagles rooting guide

A Cowboys loss to the Cardinals could convince the Eagles that they should still be all in on winning the NFC East. That would be bad.

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Jerome Miron/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Dak Prescott and the Cowboys will face the 2-5 Arizona Cardinals.

After dropping five straight games, the Philadelphia Eagles are 2-5 and they are six-point underdogs to an awful Washington Commanders team this Sunday. Let's just be honest. They're cooked. Here we'll look at what would be ideal results around the rest of the NFL.

NFC East

The NFC East standings:

• Giants: 4-2-1
• Cowboys: 3-4
• Eagles: 2-5
• Commanders: 1-4-1

• Cardinals at Cowboys: Can the Eagles still win the NFC East? I suppose some kind of miraculous turnaround is possible, but that doesn't feel super likely, and wouldn't necessarily even be a good thing if they did.

The NFL trade deadline is Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, at 4 p.m. EST. The Eagles' clear best path between now and then is to punt on the rest of the 2026 season by trading still-valuable players who are not in the team's long-term plans and maximizing future assets.

I know that a lot of you can't stomach rooting for divisional rivals, but the further the Giants and Cowboys separate from the Eagles after Week 8, the more likely Howie Roseman will be to sell. If the Cowboys were to lose to the wretched Cardinals, the Eagles might have false hope that they still go to the playoffs. Therefore, it's better if the other NFC East teams win their games this week. (The Giants have their bye.)

Side note: If the Cardinals beat the Cowboys, the Eagles will at least benefit from the Cardinals messing up their draft positioning.

Draft positioning

Heading into Week 7, the Eagles were in the 7th draft spot. After losses by the Colts, Jets, Saints, Texans, and Cardinals last Sunday, the Eagles got bumped back to the 12th spot. But after their loss to the Cowboys on Monday night, they jumped way back up to the 6th spot. Via Tankathon:

We're not suggesting that you root against the Eagles if you're a diehard fan. But, if they are going to lose a lot of games, it's ideal if they at least get a high pick in the 2027 draft. The following bolded teams are more ideal winners. The games with stars next to them would be particularly helpful results:

Ravens at Bills
Titans at Bengals ⭐
Vikings at Lions
Raiders at Jets ⭐
Browns at Steelers
Falcons at Buccaneers ⭐
Colts at Jaguars ⭐
Chargers at Rams ⭐
Chiefs at Broncos
Patriots at Dolphins ⭐
Bears at Seahawks

Injuries

We're not advocating that anyone root for injuries, but it will be worth paying attention to teams that suffer injuries at the following positions, because they then might be inclined to check in on Eagles players who could be on the trade block:

• Tight end (Dallas Goedert)
• Guard (Landon Dickerson, Tyler Steen)
• Tackle (Fred Johnson)
• Edge (Nolan Smith)
• Defensive tackle (Moro Ojomo, Jalen Carter)
• Cornerback (Riq Woolen)

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