After One-Year Absence, Eagles Will Return to Playoffs

Their playoff picture became clearer after they beat Washington, 20-16, then got help from the 49ers and Packers, and they will host Cowboys on Saturday night in Week 18

The Eagles are back in the playoffs following a one-year absence after all the dominoes fell in their direction on Sunday.

The first step to reaching the postseason was to win. They did that, coming from behind to beat Washington for the second time in 12 days, this time 20-16 at FedEx Field.

They needed the 49ers or Panthers to win. San Francisco did, beating the Texans, 23-7.

Finally, they needed the Green Bay Packers to win in the national-televised night game. Aaron Rodgers and company did, beating the Vikings, 37-10.

The Eagles Week 18 game against the Dallas Cowboys has been flexed to Saturday night at 8:15, though there isn't much meaning to that game.

There is a chance the Eagles could move up to the No. 6 seed in the playoffs, from their current No. 7 spot, but will that be worth head coach Nick Sirianni playing all his starters for all four quarters?

Chances are, he rests some of his players or maybe just gives many of them a quarter or two before pulling them out, especially Hurts, so expect to see plenty of Gardner Minshew next week,

The Cowboys could rest starters, too, after losing to the Cardinals and missing out on a chance at being the No. 1 seed. That honor goes to the Packers, who will have a bye.

So, the Eagles are in, completing a remarkable turnaround from not just a 2-5 start to this season, but from a 4-11-1 record in 2020 that helped get Doug Pederson fired.

The offseason was full of skeptics.

Pro Football Focus ranked the Eagles with the third-worst roster in all of football.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts wasn’t even ranked in the top 32 of all quarterbacks by analyst Chris Simms.

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“It means a lot, but more importantly, it shows that everybody in this locker room believed,” said veteran safety Rodney McLeod, whose end-zone interception with 24 seconds left sealed the Eagles’ win over Washington. “When everybody

else wrote us off when we were 2-5, we continued to believe in ourselves, we trusted the process. We

continued to prepare the same way, have that same level of focus.

“We got better and we’re seeing the results of that now. If feels good you got to give credit to everybody on this team from the front office to the coaches to starters, to practice squad everybody has played a role and it allowed us to be here (Sunday).”

Look at Hurts.

The quarterback not everybody is sold on has grown each week. He has now thrown for 3,144 yards this season, with 16 touchdowns passing and 10 rushing. On Sunday, he became just the fifth NFL player with at least 3,000 passing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns in a season, joining Kyler Murray, Cam Newton, who did it twice, Daunte Culpepper, and Kordell Stewart.

“I talk about our process and the importance of that,” said Hurts. “I talk about the core values that Coach (Sirianni) brought in here and how he has kind of kept consistent with preaching those things. 

"We’ve connected, we’ve communicated, we’ve grown, we’ve put the work in and we’ve just grown one percent better every day. That has been our goal. That has been our true identity.

“That has been who we are. With all the youth, with all the inexperience from coaching to players. We just bought into who we are, bought into what we could be, and trusted in the grind in approaching every day the way we do. In a game like this to be able to persevere and show straight grit in tough moments in the football game, we found a way to win (Sunday). I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”

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Look at Sirianni and his staff.

They adjusted their offense to take advantage of their powerful offensive line, growing into the league’s top rushing attack.

So, who will the Eagles play in the NFC wildcard game?

That is still to be determined.

It will most likely be the Los Angeles Rams or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and it will be on the road no matter who it is.

The wildcard weekend is Jan. 15-17. Jan. 17 is Monday, and, for the first time, the NFL has decided to hold one of its playoff games on Monday night. It could be the Eagles.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.