Philadelphia Eagles outlook, odds, and chances of making the playoffs

The Philadelphia Eagles are heading into their bye week with a win over the New York Jets in their last game, also having won three of their last five games to claim a 6-7 record. They’re just one game behind the sixth and seventh-placed Washington Football Team and Francisco 49ers, who are both 6-6 and 2.5 games behind the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC East.

They’re within a shot of making the playoffs and the playoff model from The New York Times has them down with a 31 percent chance of getting past the regular season and they’ve been given a three percent chance to win the NFC East by fivethirtyeight.com.

Of course, the Super Bowl odds are pretty long on the Eagles but the Philly faithful are still hopeful as you just never know with sports. The Eagles are currently 80/1 with the bookmakers on that front and are 14/1 to win the aforementioned division.

For Philly to win the NFC East, they would have to win all of their remaining four games. They have Washington after their break and will go on to play the New York Giants before playing Washington again and then the Cowboys.

If the Cowboys win any three games or any two of their three games against the Giants and Football Team, the Eagles will be unable to catch them.

There is another scenario that would see the Eagles win the division even if they lose to the Cowboys, specifically, but it wouldn’t do fans any good to hope for it. They would need a total capitulation from Dallas, which is unlikely as the Cowboys will also be playing Washington, as well as the Giants.

Philadelphia was assisted by the wildcard this past weekend as the Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers, Atlanta Falcons, and New Orleans Saints all lost. They won’t be doing anything to affect the way things pan out and would have been in seventh in Las Vegas Raiders safety Trevon Morehrig had held on to an interception against Washington’s Taylor Heinicke.

While they would love to, Eagles fans can’t complain about dropped interceptions as they won the Super Bowl with the help of one, with Keanu Neal dropping an INT in 2018. In any case, the Football Team kicked a game-winner to remain a half-game ahead of Philadelphia.

The Cowboys, Arizona Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers are all ahead in their divisions so they shouldn’t be considered in the wildcard race. San Francisco owns a head-to-head tiebreaker against the Eagles while Washington and Philly still have two games to play against each other, which will make things very interesting.

As it happens, the Eagles’ next game vs. the Football Team will be of great importance.

As Twitter user Deniz Selman points out:

If #Eagles finish 10-7:

• • • will win NFC East if DAL loses at least 2 of the next 3.

will clinch a playoff spot if ANY ONE of the following 5 things happen:

• • • MIN loses at least once
    • SF loses at least 2 times
    • SF loses at least 2 times
    • LAR loses at least 3 times
    • GB loses at least 4 times
    • ARI loses all 5

If #Eagles finish 9-8, will clinch WC if at least 7 of these 10 things happen:

• • • CAR loses 1x
    • ATL loses 1x
    • NO loses 1x
    • NYG loses 1x
    • CHI loses 1x
    • WAS swept by Eagles OR loses at least 2 of their other 3
    • MIN loses 2x
    • SF loses 3x
    • LAR loses 4x
    • GB loses 5x

Meanwhile, Philadelphia has been tipped to draft a quarterback in the first round by a prominent insider. The Eagles already have three young QBs on their roster in Jalen Hurts, Reid Sinett, and Gardner Minshew.

NBC Sports’ Peter King voiced as much while speaking on the team’s draft circumstances on the Football Morning in America column on Monday.

“Barring something really weird, the Eagles now will have their own first-round pick, and those from the Dolphins and Colts, and all could be in the top 20 of the round,” he wrote.

“In all, the Eagles will have nine picks in the first five rounds: three in the first, single picks in the second, third and fourth rounds, and three in the fifth. With quarterbacks not projected to be super-high in round one, the Eagles would likely be able to sit or maneuver slightly to draft one … or package three attractive picks to get a Deshaun Watson or to chase a Russell Wilson.”

Of course, this shouldn’t be taken as a report, King only relayed what makes sense to him given the circumstances yet it’s still worth noting and it will be interesting to see what happens next year in the draft.

For now, though, the Eagles should be focused on winning their next four games and giving themselves the best chance of going to the playoffs.