The Philadelphia Eagles have been in control of the NFC from the get go this season, and assuming they don't completely fall apart over the final two games of the season, they will enter the postseason as the number one seed in their conference. That gives them a serious leg up on their competition, which they may not even need given how good they have been this season.
All the Eagles have to do is win one of their final two games of the season in order to lock themselves into the top seed in the NFC. Considering they play the New Orleans Saints in Week 17 and the New York Giants in Week 18, it seems like a safe bet to say that they will end up with the top seed, even if Jalen Hurts is forced to miss both of those contests.
Ending up in the top seed is a very good position to be in, particularly because you are guaranteed a bye week in the wild card round, and will play the lowest seed remaining in the divisional round. But this could end up quickly becoming a nightmare scenario for the Eagles, and let's see why that is the case.
Eagles nightmare playoff scenario
As previously mentioned, the Eagles are in a really good position to be the top seed in the NFC. Even if they lose both of their final two games, they would need either the Minnesota Vikings to win their final two games (the Eagles hold the tiebreaker over them) or the Dallas Cowboys to win their final two games, as they hold the divisional record tiebreaker currently, and that would remain the same if they won out and the Eagles lost their final two games.
Simply put, a lot would have to go wrong for the Eagles to not end up with the top seed in their conference this season. For the sake of this argument, we will assume that's where they end up. On the surface, that seems like it presents the Eagles with a great opportunity to make a deep playoff run this season, but it may actually end up coming back to bite them.
Right now, the Eagles would get a first round bye in the wild card round. In the divisional round, the Eagles would play the lowest remaining seed from that advances through the wild card round, which seems like a pretty big advantage. The problem is that it may end up resulting in the Eagles playing the Cowboys in the divisional round, and the Cowboys may just be their toughest competitor in the playoffs.
The NFC East currently has all four of their teams making the playoffs, with the Cowboys holding the five seed as the top wild card team due to the fact that they play in the same division as the Eagles. That would give the Cowboys a very favorable wild card matchup against the NFC South winner, which is currently the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Chances are Dallas would beat whoever ends up winning the NFC South.
Assuming the Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers could beat the six and seven seeds (currently the New York Giants and Washington Commanders, respectively) they would end up playing each other in the divisional round. That would leave the Cowboys, or the NFC South champion, for the Eagles in the divisional round.
Of course, the Eagles would much rather play the winner of the NFC South, as every team in that division currently has a record under .500. But the likelihood of that happening is understandably low. If things go like they are expected to go, the Eagles would have a date with the Cowboys in the divisional round to open up their playoff run.
That doesn't bode well for Philly, as Dallas could end up being the second best team in the NFC despite the fact they are the five seed. The Cowboys just beat the Eagles in Week 16, and while Hurts obviously wasn't playing, that doesn't explain why the Cowboys just dropped 40 points on their defense. Playing the Cowboys in the divisional round is the worst possible scenario for the Eagles.
Unfortunately, it seems increasingly likely to happen. The Eagles could still technically end up as the second or fifth seed, but that's also not ideal because it would potentially force Hurts to return to the field sooner than expected. It seems like Philly and Dallas are on a collision course in the divisional round, and while the Eagles would be favored to win, that would be a nightmare scenario for them considering how the rest of the NFC playoff bracket shakes out.
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