The Philadelphia Eagles will face arguably their toughest opponent of the season on Sunday so far, when they host the Tennessee Titans at Lincoln Financial Field. As we get closer to the end of the regular season, what happens around the rest of the league will matter to the Eagles, in terms of playoff seeding, how quickly they can rest their starters if they keep winning, and draft positioning. Ideal winners bolded.
The NFC East
Let's first update the NFC East standings:
| NFC East | W | L | GB |
| Eagles | 10 | 1 | - |
| Cowboys | 8 | 3 | 2 |
| Giants | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| Commanders | 7 | 5 | 3.5 |
• Colts at Cowboys (SNF): The Colts and Cowboys will play in front of a national audience on Sunday Night Football, and the Cowboys are favored by 10.5. The Cowboys have a bad run defense and the Colts employ Jonathan Taylor, so there's some hope, but otherwise the Cowboys have matchup advantages across the board.
- MORE EAGLES
- Five college prospects who could interest the Eagles in the 2023 NFL Draft
- Eagles-Titans Week 13 injury report, with analysis
- The Eagles' 2022 special teams gaffes, with gifs and stuff
• Commanders at Giants (1:00 p.m.): Neither of these teams are threats to the Eagles' divisional title hopes at this point. The Commanders have won six of their last seven, while the Giants have lost three of four. The Eagles still have two game left against the Giants, including one next Sunday, and it's probably best if they get a demoralized version.
NFC seeding
• Jets at Vikings (1:00 p.m.): The Vikings only have a +5 point differential this season, but they continue to hang around at the top of the NFC standings at 9-2. It's best for the Eagles if they drop this game.
• Dolphins at 49ers (4:05 p.m.): The Niners could theoretically be a less ideal matchup for the Eagles in the playoffs, but they are pretty much a lock at this point to make the tourney. Still, the harder the road they have to face by the time they would have to play Philly, the better. As such, if the Seahawks could at least overtake the Niners as NFC South champs, then the Niners would have to play a road wildcard game.
• Seahawks at Rams (4:05 p.m.): See above.
Draft positioning
• Saints at Buccaneers (MNF): As we noted in our Week 13 picks, this is an enormous game for the Saints' first-round draft pick, which of course is owned by the Eagles. The Saints are still alive in the NFC South, but only because there isn't a single team in the division with a winning record:
| NFC South | Record |
| Buccaneers | 5-6 |
| Falcons | 5-7 |
| Panthers | 4-8 |
| Saints | 4-8 |
If you play around with the playoff predictor at fivethirtyeight.com, the Saints currently have an 8 percent chance of making the playoffs. If they beat the Buccaneers on Monday night, it shoots way up to 24 percent. If they lose, 0.9 percent. A Bucs win would all but guarantee the Eagles at least a top 18 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
If the season ended right now (it doesn't), the Saints pick would be sixth overall, up from tenth overall a week ago. As always, let's fire up the mock draft simulator each week just for fun:
- Pick No. 6: Jalen Carter, DT, Georgia
- Pick No. 31: Michael Mayer, TE, Notre Dame
- Pick No. 63: Anthony Richardson, QB, Florida
- Pick No. 95: Darnell Wright, OT, Tennessee
- Pick No. 197: Laiatu Latu, Edge, UCLA
- Pick No. 227: Jay Ward, S, LSU
And then there are some other teams with bad records near the top of the draft order who could be jockeying for position with that Saints pick. Here's the current draft order, via Tankathon:
It's better if these teams win:
- Browns at Texans (1:00 p.m.): The Texans are beginning to feel like a lock for the No. 1 overall pick, and they'll probably take a quarterback anyway, so it's better if a team closer to the Saints in the standings (like the Browns) win.
- Broncos at Ravens (1:00 p.m.)
- Chargers at Raiders (4:25 p.m.)
- Packers at Bears (1:00 p.m.): Either outcome is fine.
- Jaguars at Lions (1:00 p.m.): Either outcome is fine.
Update: Actually, this is a point worth considering in the Lions-Jaguars game:
The flipside of that is if a quarterback worth taking in the top 10 is still on the board when the Eagles are on the clock, maybe they can turn that pick into a treasure trove of picks with a trade back.
Irrelevant to the Eagles
- Chiefs at Bengals (4:25 p.m.)
Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed reader