4 ways the Eagles can prepare for the playoffs in Week 18 against the Giants

There are 60 minutes of football separating the Philadelphia Eagles from the postseason. That’s 60 minutes to get on and off the field without anything bad happening. 

That being said, those 60 minutes could potentially be beneficial. Just because we’re not going to see A.J. Brown, Saquon Barkley, and Jalen Carter doesn’t mean other players could use some work and schemes that could be developed. 

Week 18 doesn’t have to be completely meaningless

The table has been set for the Eagles' postseason run, and now the starters are getting the benefit of an off-week, or as close to an off-week as they can get. It’s a good spot to be in, but there are a handful of things the Eagles can do in a low-stress game to give them a little boost going into Wild Card weekend.

Get Jake Elliott some work

Jake Elliott isn’t having a great year which is a huge bummer. He’s been one of the most reliable kickers in the league and seeing him be (to put it kindly) shaky, inaccurate, and even lacking-of-leg, is very tough to watch. It’s been a minute since Eagles fans have had to dog-cuss their kicker.  

Luckily, he has an opportunity to turn things around because the Eagles offense isn’t going to be as dangerous as it can be in the red zone and on fourth downs because the real playmakers won’t be on the field. That means it’s time for Jake to get right.

The forecast for this game isn’t great, which is great. Accuweather says it’ll be 35 degrees but it will feel like 25 degrees, with winds at 13 miles per hour and gusts up to 28 miles per hour. 

If Jake can kick through that, it’ll make everyone feel a lot better going into the postseason. Which, by the way, is the stretch of games where Jake has been remarkably good. He’s 16-of-16 in his postseason field goals and 23-of-25 in extra points. 

In a game without starters, let’s see one who is guaranteed to play the entire game do well.

Tanner McKee for QB2

It’s looking a lot like Tanner McKee is going to be the starting quarterback on Sunday because of Kenny Pickett and his whole bashed-up rib situation. This is a good thing.

It was limited to just four throws, but you could see what McKee was capable of last week. He completed three of them for two touchdowns, and the incomplete one was still an amazing throw. Tanner has a chance to earn the QB2 spot in this game. 

It felt like Kenny had that spot because the Eagles traded for him and his play style is more similar to Jalen Hurts’ than Tanners’ is. The thought behind that is the offense wouldn’t have to throw out pages of the playbook when Kenny is in the game. We saw in Week 16 that’s just not the case because defenses don’t respect Kenny’s arm or his legs. 

Tanner isn’t any more of a threat in the run game than Pickett, so it would come down to who has the better arm, and that’s clearly McKee.

The point here is that we really want McKee to go off. We saw him wheel and deal with A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Saquon Barkley. If he can do that with the backup and reserve playmakers, it’ll go a long way in getting him to that QB2 spot. An Eagles team with Tanner McKee at QB2 is better than an Eagles team with Kenny Pickett at QB2, and QB2s matter in the postseason. 

Trick plays

The Eagles don’t really do trick plays. Sure, there are variations of the Brotherly Shove, but those don’t really count. There’s only one that really comes to mind this season, and that was in the first game against the Commanders where they tried some kind of double-reverse thing that didn’t stand a chance.

It would be cool to see Kellen Moore drop a few in this game. If playoff teams see that kind of stuff on film, it means that they’ll have to waste time preparing for them, even though there’s a wildly small chance that the Eagles actually use them in the next four games. On top of that, there’s a possibility the Eagles could use a trick play formation or scheme to fake out defenses in the playoffs. It’d be funny and very Nick Sirianni to make a team think a play is some sort of tomfoolery, but it’s actually just a real DeVonta Smith end-around for 15 yards. Call it, ‘Strategic Misdirection’ if you will. 

Also, trick plays rock. A Tanner McKee, to Will Shipley, to Tanner McKee, to Johnny Wilson flea flicker would be euphoric.

Make “business decisions”

This isn’t necessarily about being prepared for the playoffs. This is about not being unprepared for the playoffs.

It’s impossible to rest every single starter, which unfortunately means meaningful players have to play meaningless football. A good rule in life is to avoid every activity where there’s a big risk and no reward.

These guys are professional athletes so they are going to play hard… but maybe, just maybe… take a note from Cam Newton and make a business decision.

Edge rusher Jalyx Hunt is going to get snaps in this game. Maybe if the Giants’ quarterback Drew Lock is already getting sacked, he doesn’t need to join in on the fun and risk some friendly fire.

Isaiah Rodgers comes in when Darius Slay gets hurt (which is uncomfortably often) and is going to play in this game. Maybe he doesn’t necessarily need to be a heat-seeking missile and be the third tackler when the guy is already tackled.

Sure, they can play fast and hard, but let’s maybe kind of chill a little bit. Someone should set the tone early with a pregame speech: ‘It’s okay to leave a little bit on the field because no one cares about this game. If we lose, that’s a good thing the Giants will hurt themselves even more in the draft. It’ll actually make our lives easier in the future. Cool? Cool. Alright, everybody chill on three. One. Two. Three. Everybody Chill.’

If everyone can play smart and not put themselves in bad positions, this game can be over in two hours and with no injury timeouts.