PHILADELPHIA — The playoff scenarios could not be any clearer for the Eagles: win and in. If the Eagles beat the Washington Commanders on Saturday, they’ll clinch the NFC East before Christmas and host at least one home playoff game. The hats and T-shirts would come earlier in the schedule than either of the two previous division crowns under Nick Sirianni.

This scenario materialized after the Eagles beat the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday and the Dallas Cowboys lost later that night. Now, a Saturday night game against the four-win Commanders, who shelved starting quarterback Jayden Daniels, is an inviting opportunity for a team and fan base with more reason for optimism than any inflatable bunny could have provided.

It’s a short week — as we’ll get to below — so let’s get to this week’s Eight Eagles Thoughts:

1. Road to the postseason

The Eagles’ season included unexpected hurdles to reach this point, but it’s Week 16, and they have a chance to clinch the NFC East. Eagles fans would have signed up for that before the season. Add in that they’ll likely be the No. 2 or No. 3 seed, and they’re in an enviable position even with the offense’s head-scratching inconsistencies and a three-game losing streak.

It’s common to sanitize memories and remember the Eagles’ Super Bowl seasons as glorious. The reality is that both Super Bowl runs (and the two times they’ve been runners-up in the past two decades) have included December turbulence.

Last season, the passing game was considered a problem, even in the locker room, entering Week 15, and Jalen Hurts suffered a concussion in a division loss in Week 16. In 2017, Carson Wentz tore his ACL in Week 14, and Nick Foles was a major question mark entering the postseason. Even in 2022, Hurts suffered an injury in Week 15, and the Eagles lost back-to-back games before the season finale. In 2004, Terrell Owens was injured in Week 15, and the Eagles barely played their starters in the final two weeks — both losses.

This is all a way of saying that it’s seldom a fairy tale ride to the postseason. What matters is that the team makes the tournament, earns a favorable seed and gets hot at the right time. The seed part will be interesting to monitor if the Eagles clinch on Saturday. There’s an argument to be made for a fresh, healthy team entering the playoffs.

My view is that if the Eagles have a chance to secure the No. 2 seed, they should pursue it. The best way for the Eagles to earn a Super Bowl bid is to force teams to come to Philadelphia. It’s a challenging place to visit in January. If the Eagles land the No. 2 seed, as they did last year, they’d host a second-round game and a potential NFC Championship Game.  With the No. 3 seed, they’d need opening-round upsets to host a second-round game. That incentive could create interesting coaching decisions for Sirianni.

2. Another short week

In Sirianni’s postgame speech on Sunday, he told the team they had another short week. One player was surprised. He didn’t realize that the Eagles, in fact, play a Saturday game.

By this point, the Eagles are used to it. This is their fifth short week of the season, as defined by fewer than six days between games. That’s the most of the Nick Sirianni era and tied for the most in the NFL since at least 2000, joining the 2020 Bills and the 2024 Ravens.

Sirianni is 11-7 in short week games in his career. Here’s the breakdown:

2025: 2-2
2024: 2-0
2023: 3-1
2022: 3-1
2021: 1-3

The Eagles won short-week games with five days’ rest against the Detroit Lions and Las Vegas, and lost to the New York Giants (three days’ rest) and Chicago Bears (four days’ rest).

“That’s life in the NFL, especially for a team that’s had the success that we’ve had. We understand that,” Sirianni said. “Whether you’re on a short week, long week, you have these processes that you go through, and you constantly tweak them …  I love our short week schedule right now. I was just saying that to the coaches. I don’t want to play 30 of these, but you adapt the schedule and you adapt your process to try to get better each time. I know I say that all the time, ‘try to get better,’ but you try to do that every time. There’s always a teachable moment for you to do that. We did something a little different last week, coming off a Monday night game on the West Coast, that we may not have done in the past. We kind of mirrored that a little bit today.

“… I always want the players to get their rest that they need because we can do all the schedule stuff we want. Their bodies are still coming off of a short week. Our strength and conditioning staff, our doctors, our trainers, they do a great job. We’re all in this growth mindset, and that’s something (where) we all have to think that way. That can’t just be me, it can’t just be the players, it can’t just be the coaches. The whole building’s in this growth mindset. I take a lot of pride in that.”

Sirianni is correct: It’s part of the gig for good teams. The worse they are, the more games they’ll have on Sundays at 1 p.m. (Also: More short weeks lead to more long weeks.) What’s unique about this year is how many different combinations of turnarounds they’ve encountered. Forget a Sunday-to-Sunday routine. They might forget the day of the week they’re playing. This weekend’s game is the fifth day of the week that the Eagles have played, filling every day except Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Eagles could clinch the NFC East with a win against Washington on Saturday. (Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)

3. Breaking a two-decade NFC East streak

If the Eagles clinch, they would be the first back-to-back winners of the NFC East in two decades. There has not been a back-to-back division champion since the Eagles won from 2001-04. Since then, all four franchises have won the division title at least twice, but never in back-to-back years.

How remarkable is this? Here are the last times each other division had champions go back-to-back:

NFC North: 2024
NFC West: 2023
NFC South: 2024
AFC East: 2024
AFC North: 2024
AFC West: 2024
AFC South: 2024

That’s evidence of the atypical nature of the division, and part of the NFC East’s appeal. The Eagles and Cowboys have both won division crowns during this period, but there’s never been one team dominating the division. However, this would be three in four years for the Eagles.

“It’s something we’ve got to do first,” Jalen Hurts said, “but it’s something that’s always been in the back of my mind.”

4. Jalen Hurts: Not on injury report, “fine” after Raiders game

Jalen Hurts was slow to rise to his feet after landing awkwardly on a hit at the end of the third quarter. On his next play, he threw a dart to A.J. Brown for a touchdown and celebrated emphatically. The Eagles’ starters did not play again. Hurts suggested there wasn’t an issue after the game, although he has played through injuries before, especially late in the season, so there was curiosity about what this week would bring for the franchise quarterback.

“I’m fine,” Hurts said Tuesday.

In fact, Hurts is not even on the injury report.

The Eagles did not have a full practice on Tuesday. Had they practiced, Hurts would have been a full participant. He is not undergoing treatment for an injury.

That play also should not be used as an argument against Hurts running. What made him so effective on Sunday was, in part, his legs. Yes, he’s been injured while running. It’s a risk, just as getting hit in the pocket exposes a quarterback to risk, but it’s part of what makes him dynamic. With the playoffs approaching, the Eagles need the full Jalen Hurts Experience. Hurts has been described as “clutch” by owner Jeffrey Lurie, and it’s a label he cherishes. Those clutch games often include his legs.

“It’s an opportunity,” Hurts said. “You play September, October — important games, trying to find yourself, it’s a new team, you find your groove. But real things are found in December, January and February. So being built off of perseverance, being built off of learning all of my experiences, you definitely look forward to those moments.”

5. Why there’s so much “under center” talk

Throughout the season, you’ve seen discussion of “under center” often in this space. In public comments, players and coaches tend to think the craze about the Eagles utilizing more under-center plays is overstated.

Yet this could end up being an example of “you told us so” more than “I told you so,” because the effectiveness of under center has been apparent this season.

The Eagles were under center on a season-high 45.5 percent of their snaps on Sunday. They won, 31-0. Trailing the Raiders game was Week 8 against the New York Giants. They won, 38-20. The other game in which the Eagles were under center on more than 40 percent of their snaps? Week 7 against Minnesota. They won, 28-22. These were their three most efficient games based on EPA/play. These were the three games they were under center the most. It’s hard to find that a coincidence.

“Just think you’ve seen us be better at complementing some of the things we’ve been doing in the run game,” Hurts said. “Some of those changes have been to get to the run game going a bit, and the byproduct has been being able to throw it the way we have. … (The play-action) is just a marriage of whatever runs, so you want to try to marry whatever runs you have in that week. And this past week, it seemed we had a lot more runs under center. So it just naturally complemented when we put it together.”

It’s also worth noting that the percentage of under-center plays was not the byproduct of playing with the lead and running late in the game. The Eagles ran 41.2 percent of their plays under center in the first half against the Raiders. The difference in the first half and second half was more evident in the Giants game and the Vikings game.

The challenge is that you’ve also read in this space (including in the above item) about the effectiveness of the quarterback run game and the use of RPR (run-pass-quarterback run) options. Those okays come from the shotgun.  This conversation doesn’t need to be either/or, though. It could be both/and. Still, the Eagles have mostly been a shotgun team in the past. They were under center on 11.4 percent of their offensive snaps in 2022, 7.1 percent of their offensive snaps in 2023, 18 percent of their offensive snaps in 2024, and 23.7 percent of their offensive snaps this season.

Although Hurts’ background is in the shotgun, he’s become more accustomed to taking the snap from under center. The key for the Eagles is to play different ways, and the evidence suggests they should go under center more frequently and blend it with the shotgun game for a more diverse offense.

6. Dallas Goedert’s red zone prowess

For a good chunk of the 2025 offseason, it appeared Dallas Goedert would play elsewhere this season, but neither the Eagles nor Goedert found a more appealing option. It worked for both sides. Goedert is tied for the NFL lead among tight ends with a career-high nine touchdowns, which is more than his past three seasons combined. His production is up from last season, he’s missed only one game after missing at least three in each of the past three seasons and he’s become the Eagles’ go-to option in the red zone. Credit to offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo for creative play designs in the low red zone, where Goedert has not been maximized in the past.

Consider this: Goedert has been targeted six times in the low red zone this season. He was targeted in that area seven times in the past four years combined. They’ve achieved it by getting him into space for yards after the catch. His air yards per target in the low red zone this year is -0.17 yards.

“I think when I get a ball in my hand down there, I’m tough to tackle, ” Goedert said Tuesday. “I can find my way in, fight my way in. Just kind of our red zone philosophy has changed a little bit. We used to run a lot, run the ball, a lot of quarterback sneaks, things like that down there. We’ve tried to find ways to get me the ball, which is really cool.”

Goedert’s also etched his name into the Eagles’ record books. He’s now the fifth player in franchise history with 400-plus catches in his career. The others are Harold Carmichael, Zach Ertz, Pete Retzlaff and Brian Westbrook. Goedert might not yet be thought of in the category of franchise Hall of Famers, but the numbers through eight years have earned him a spot in their company.

7. Another banner year for Zack Baun

It was hard to take your eyes off Zack Baun last season because of the shock value of an Eagles linebacker playing the way he did. He was a revelation, going from a depth signing to a first-team All-Pro and defensive player of the year candidate. It’s why the Eagles paid him more than they’ve ever paid an off-ball linebacker.

This year, Baun’s performance has become the expectation. It shouldn’t be taken for granted. The interception he had last week was outstanding, reading Brock Bowers’ route and making a play on the ball. He’s been used a tick less as a pass rusher this season (11.4 percent of his snaps in 2025 compared to 14.5 percent last year), but his sack rate and pressure rate are both superior. He’s the only player in the NFL this season with 100-plus tackles, three-plus takeaways and three-plus sacks. His volume of tackles and his forced fumbles won’t be as high as last season, but watching Baun reinforces that he’s one of the best linebackers in the NFL. They’re paying for a premium player.

8. DeVonta Smith’s Heisman vote

Each year, I try to catch up with DeVonta Smith for his Heisman Trophy vote. As a Heisman winner, he gets his say in who joins his fraternity. Smith pays attention to college football, and I’m always curious what he’s thinking and why. So, who was Smith’s vote this year?

“Jeremiyah Love,” Smith said on Friday, of the Notre Dame running back. “I think this year for the Heisman … it’s not kind of up to the recent Heismans. … But I’m picking Love. It’s not just a quarterback award. Those other guys, they’re good quarterbacks, but I think the things that he’s doing (deserve the award).”

Despite Smith’s endorsement of Love, the Heisman ended up going to Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.

This was the second consecutive year he has not voted for a quarterback to win the award. Last season, Smith voted for Ashton Jeanty, who came in second. He did get it right when he voted for Jayden Daniels in 2023, though.

Since Smith won the award in 2020, the only non-quarterback to win was Travis Hunter in 2024.