Power ranking possible postseason opponents for the Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles are at the top of the NFC East after their Week 11 win over the Washington Commanders, and despite how October went, they are second in the NFC behind the Detroit Lions.

This means Eagles fans are in one of the most unfortunate situations: to get the top seed in the conference, we have to root against the Lions. That stinks because Detroit is not only a great team, but they are extremely likable and have major ‘team of destiny’ vibes. It’s not a good spot to be in.

Maybe things go our way or maybe they don’t, regardless, the Eagles have a 97 percent chance to make it to the postseason. This begs the question: When it comes to winning in January, who are the best and worst matchups for the Eagles?

The Eagles size up well against almost all of their potential postseason opponents

Listen, this isn’t a, ‘counting your chickens before they hatch’ thing. The Eagles were 9-1 at this point last year and everything went down the drain very quickly. This is about riding the wave of a six-game win streak, feeling good about an offense that breaks teams in the second half of games, and rejoicing in watching one of the best defenses in the NFL. 

If the season ended right now, the NFC playoff picture would look like this:

The other teams that are realistically farting around to be “In The Hunt” for playoff spots are the Rams, the Seahawks, the 49ers, and the Buccaneers. So let’s use these 10 other teams and power rank them from best to worst teams for the Eagles to play in the postseason.

10. Los Angeles Rams

This is more about Matt Stafford and the Rams' offensive line than anything else. They have a good running back and good receivers, but if Stafford is getting absolutely zero help from the meat in front of him, then his weapons won’t really matter. 

This could all change based on what we see from the Rams when the Eagles play them in Week 12, but they don’t look all that threatening. Their defense is all pretty young and they leave a lot to be desired, other than their defensive line. Those guys are pretty good.

Also, Sean McVay isn’t a coach who strikes fear in your heart when it comes to the playoffs. Hell, in Week 10 he decided to kick only field goals in a predictable losing effort against the Dolphins. He even chose to kick one of them on third down. Maybe that’s analytically correct, but that’s not something you should live and die by. He’s just too pretty (both mentally and physically).

The point is, when the Rams are good, they’re good. They’re just not consistently good and when they’re not consistently good, they're pretty bad. 

9. Minnesota Vikings

The biggest problem with this matchup would be the Vikings’ defense against the Eagles’ offense. Under defensive coordinator Brian Flores, the Vikings’ defense has been ‘really good’ to ‘pretty good’ all season long. They throw really bizarre and efficient pressures at quarterbacks and generally make them go through 60 minutes of hell. 

Offensively, the Vikings have fallen off a little bit of a cliff and it’s largely due to quarterback Sam Darnold turning back into the pumpkin that he’s been for his whole career. Sure, Justin Jefferson is the best wide receiver in the NFL, but based on what the Eagles’ defensive backs have been doing it’s probably safe to say he would either be neutered production-wise, or just straight-up neutralized completely. 

8. Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals have not had any real success for almost a decade. The last time they won a playoff game was in the 2015 season. Their quarterback was Carson Palmer, their leading rusher for the season was Chris Johnson, and their leading pass catcher was Larry Fitzgerald. It’s been a long, long time.

By no means is this a great team. Sure, they’re good, but they’re not a real threat. On top of that, Jonathon Gannon is their head coach. When his defenses come up against a good quarterback, they crumble … and that’s especially (and unfortunately) true in the playoffs. 

7. Seattle Seahawks

Seattle is on the verge of being a ‘not serious’ team. During their Week 10 bye week, they waived linebacker Tyrel Dodson who, per Next Gen Stats, had played 98.5 percent of their defensive snaps. They also traded linebacker Jerome Baker who was one of their free-agency acquisitions. 

To be fair, their defense was/is terrible so changes needed to be made, but if the Eagles did something like this, you would hate the process and Howie Would get flamed pretty aggressively. 

On offense, the Seahawks are just fine. They don’t run the ball nearly as much as they should and force Geno Smith to throw the ball entirely too much. The Eagles' defense would match up really well against that kind of team.

6. Atlanta Falcons

So, the Falcons are 6-5. Four of those wins came from teams in the NFC South, one was against the pathetic Cowboys, and one was in Week 2 against the Eagles. They’ve lost to the Steelers, the Chiefs, the Seahawks, the Saints, and the Broncos. If it feels like it’s hard to figure out if the Falcons are good, that’s because it is. Kirk Cousins will pick apart a defense one week, and then he’ll get pressured into oblivion the week after that.

The Eagles were one Saquon drop away from beating the Falcons, and the issues that they had on defense in that game look like they’ve been solved — more or less. If it comes to a rematch with the Falcons, it sure feels like the Eagles would come out on top.

5. Washington Commanders

If the Eagles beat the Commanders in Week 16, this would jump up to be the most favorable matchup because it’s tough to beat a team twice, but it’s really easy to be a team three times. 

This simply comes down to Jayden Daniels being a rookie quarterback. Any time a veteran defense, with a veteran play caller, can match up against a rookie quarterback in January, you’ll take the vets.

There is zero proof of this, but when you watch Jayden Daniels run the ball, it doesn’t look like he’ll be a good runner in January football. Josh Allen is huge and he blasts defenders into a thousand pieces. Jayden is pretty slight and it seems like he would get shattered if he gets hit.

Again, there’s zero proof of that, but that’s just how it feels … especially since he’s still dealing with some kind of rib injury.

4. San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers are a weird case: It would be awesome for the Eagles to play them in the playoffs because it’d be very funny if the 49ers got embarrassed in Philadelphia again.

On the other hand, there’s a reason that San Fran has made it to the NFC championship game four out of the last five years, and it’s because they’re always feisty in January. No matter how good we’re feeling about the Eagles in the postseason, a matchup against the 49ers would put some level of uneasiness in the back of your brain.

3. Green Bay Packers

One of the more fun matchups for the Eagles in the postseason would be the Packers. Going from playing them in a weird Week 1 game on a soccer field in Brazil to playing on a real football field in a ‘win or die’ game would be tremendous.

That being said, the Packers are good. They have a good QB, (what feels like) 15 good receivers, a good running back, and a safety who is addicted to picking off Jalen Hurts (Xavier McKinney). 

Sure, there’s a chance that Jordan Love would end up throwing a really bad ball that would get intercepted and completely ruin their season … but the Packers are a cold-weather team. 

We haven’t seen what the 2024 Packers look like in real cold weather, but if it’s anything like the 2023 Packers, they’re a scary team to see in the postseason.

2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Buccaneers and their head coach Todd Bowles have owned Jalen Hurts and the Eagles in the postseason. On top of that, they have been the only team this season to embarrass the defense.

Yeah, that game was in 100-degree heat and Cooper DeJean wasn’t playing yet, but if the Eagles can avoid a matchup that has been historically bad in January, they would be smart to do that.

1. Detroit Lions

The Lions are gross. A week after Jared Goff went 15-of-30 for 240 yards and five interceptions, he went out and went 24-of-29 for 412 yards and four touchdowns.

Not only is this team able to win games that they should lose, but they’re able to bounce back in disgustingly unfair ways. Normal human beings would throw five picks then go home and smoke so many cigarettes that they couldn’t get out of bed for a week. Goff threw five and played a game a week later like those interceptions were touchdowns. It’s simply not fair.

2024 is the year of the Lion (probably) and everything looks like it’s going Detroit’s way. 

That being said, Goff is an indoor cat. One of the biggest boons for their season was that 14 of the Lions games have been/are/will be indoors this season. If the Eagles can get the top seed in the NFC, it means the Lions will have an outdoor game, in Philadelphia, in January. That would be tremendously helpful, especially since the alternative is going to Detroit and playing in front of 65,000 Lions fans who would sacrifice themselves to a burning effigy of their head coach at a moment’s notice.