Let’s start with Jalen Hurts. The quarterback was rushed back from his right shoulder sprain when backup Gardner Minshew and the Eagles failed in two tries to hammer down the top seed. Hurts was clearly limited based on how coach Nick Sirianni and offensive coordinator Shane Steichen held off on designed runs, how aggressive he was in the open field, and how he threw the ball. After the game, Sirianni was quite frank about his quarterback’s condition. “He was hurting bad,” the coach said. If he was hurt that bad it stands to reason why his coaches would have him drop to throw on 42 plays. But the Eagles couldn’t put away a Giants team that started its third-string quarterback and rested key players and Hurts had to go the distance. ...

Are the Eagles entering the postseason with momentum? Not quite. But too much can be made of how the season ends vs. the overall picture. This is a good team with a deep roster. The Eagles didn’t win 14 games for the first time in franchise history – with a 17th-game assist – by accident. They didn’t set team records in points (477), touchdowns (59), and sacks (70) because of fill-in-the-blank reasons. The 2017 Eagles limped into the postseason with their backup quarterback and still won the whole dang thing. Yes, streaks are a real thing. You ride them as long as you can. And sometimes teams that just squeak into the postseason run all the way to the championship. Neither top conference seed made the Super Bowl last year. But the two remaining teams in the final game, by and large, have been teams that were good enough to earn a first-round bye. If told before the season that the Eagles would go 14-3, win the NFC East and be the No. 1 seed, there wouldn’t be a single complaint.

» READ MORE: What we learned from Eagles-Giants: Don’t read too much into Jalen Hurts’ performance

— Jeff McLane

» READ MORE: Houston Texans to interview Jonathan Gannon and Shane Steichen for their head coaching vacancy

For the second offseason in a row, Jonathan Gannon will get an interview with the Houston Texans, who already fired Lovie Smith.

As Jeff McLane reported earlier, if Gannon is hired away, it’s worth keeping an eye on Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo as a potential replacement.

— Matt Mullin

Going into the season, Haason Reddick decided 15 sacks would be the mark of a successful season.

“That’s what separates elite from good,” Reddick said Sunday.

In 2022, Reddick was elite. The edge rusher finished the season with 16 sacks, which is tied for second with Cleveland Browns star Myles Garrett and trails only San Francisco 49ers’ edge rusher Nick Bosa. Pro Football Focus, which tracks pass rushing separate from the NFL’s official statkeepers, actually credits Reddick with a league-leading 18 sacks.

Since becoming a full-time rusher in 2020, Reddick has been one of the most productive edge rushers in the league. Reddick has 39.5 sacks over that time, trailing only T.J. Watt and Garrett.

Sacks aren’t always the most reliable metric in measuring a pass rusher — pressures can be a more reliable metric to measure how often a player affects the quarterback because of the fickle nature of sacks — but Reddick’s tendency to finish his rushes is apparent. Not only does he consistently get to the quarterback, he’s also ben adept at pulling off strip sacks. Reddick has 13 forced fumbles since 2020, which is two more than any other defensive player during that time.

— EJ Smith

Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who collapsed on the field after suffering cardiac arrest during his team’s Week 17 game against the Bengals, has been released from the hospital and has returned home to Buffalo, the Bills announced Monday.

An amazing update indeed.

» READ MORE: Bills safety Damar Hamlin released from Cincinnati hospital, back in Buffalo to resume recovery

— Matt Mullin

Albert Breer followed up on the tweet below with a note on Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo, which gave The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane an opening to speculate on where the Eagles might go if Jonathan Gannon, who again appears to be a hot head coaching candidate, should get a job elsewhere this offseason.

— Matt Mullin

Eagles fans hoping to get tickets to the team’s divisional round game, their postseason opener, won’t have to wait very long to try to secure their own.

The team announced on Monday afternoon that tickets for their second-round game will go on sale on Tuesday, January 10 beginning at 10 a.m. and can only be purchased on Ticketmaster. But there are more rules.

“There is a four-ticket limit per household and all tickets will be available on a first come, first served basis,” the team said in a press release. “Due to the high demand, fans are encouraged to visit Ticketmaster as soon as they go on sale.”

Of course, it’s worth noting that season ticket holders get first dibs on purchasing their own seats for the postseason, meaning there may not be as many available as you think.

The Eagles don’t yet know when — or even who — they’ll face in the divisional round, but they do know that game will either take place on Saturday, Jan. 21 or Sunday, Jan. 22. The specifics are expected to be announced in the coming days.

» READ MORE: Eagles announce ticket information for divisional round of playoffs

— Matt Mullin

The Eagles were the right kind of boring Sunday. They came. They saw. They won. They beat the Giants — the Giants’ backups, more accurately — 22-16 at Lincoln Financial Field. They earned a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. Jalen Hurts started. He did not run much. He threw the football without incident, for the most part. You might have been yawning by halftime. That’s fine. It would have taken something unprecedented or terrible for this to have been a genuinely interesting game, and no one wanted that.

“There were parts of today that weren’t up to our standard,” coach Nick Sirianni said. “But we wanted to set our identity of who we are and just keep plugging away at it. Winning in this league is hard to do, and we won’t apologize for that.”

There will be a compulsion, among some Eagles fans and observers, to draw some kind of conclusion, grand or small, from this game. They should resist that compulsion. All that mattered for the Eagles was that A) they won, and B) they emerged without Hurts or anyone else suffering a serious injury. You are welcome to complain about Hurts’ end-zone interception in the third quarter or about the two Jack Driscoll penalties that precipitated it or about Jonathan Gannon — because someone has to complain about Jonathan Gannon every week, regardless of how well the Eagles defense played. Just understand that your words are a waste.

» READ MORE: The Eagles did what they had to do in beating the Giants. Don’t read anything else into it.

— Mike Sielski

According to multiple reports, the Arizona Cardinals (4-13) have fired head coach Kliff Kingsbury, the second victim of the NFL’s “Black Monday” after the Texans already fired Lovie Smith.

— Matt Mullin

Courtesy of long snapper Rick Lovato’s wife, Jordan Britt Lovato, on TikTok, we got a look at how the wives of some Eagles players were celebrating the team’s NFC East title — and No. 1 overall seed.

The best part? Several of them, like us, had to get up for work this morning.

» READ MORE: Tame celebration for No. 1 seed Eagles knowing the ‘job isn’t done’

— Matt Mullin

The biggest question with Jalen Hurts heading into the postseason might be his rhythm. By the time he takes the field in the postseason, he’ll have gone more than a month without facing a first-string NFL defense. The interception that he threw in the second half was a bad one — in the end zone, into a crowd of Giants, the kind of throw he can’t afford to make in the playoffs. He was notably ineffective as a runner. Part of that had to do with the disconcerting amount of pressure that he faced. As for the other part, it’s really hard to tell.

You can certainly wonder if Hurts was protecting himself, whether consciously or subconsciously. He finished with just 13 yards on nine carries, giving himself up with a slide on three different occasions. Designed runs were nonexistent.

At the same time, Hurts and the Eagles played exactly as the situation called for. This was a Giants team that had nothing to play for and wasn’t going to bother pretending. Their inactive list included defensive starters Julian Love (safety), Adoree’ Jackson (cornerback), and Azeez Ojulari (linebacker). None of the remaining eight first-teamers were on the field for the Eagles’ game-opening field goal drive. As long as Hurts executed his handoffs and stayed out of harm’s way, the Eagles were an overwhelming favorite to not only win but win easily.

That’s not to say there was any conscious effort on the part of Hurts or offensive coordinator Shane Steichen to play conservatively. The Eagles had a lot riding on this game. I’m sure the coaching staff went out of its way this week to guard against even the whiff of preordination. When you have a chance to make yourself the only NFC team that does not need to win three games to make the Super Bowl, your only focus is playing your best game. For all intents and purposes, beating the Giants was the same as winning a first-round playoff game. The simple fact is that they didn’t need to do much to beat the Giants.

» READ MORE: 5 thoughts on Jalen Hurts and the top-seeded Eagles after a weird win over the Giants

— David Murphy

We’ve got a wholesome content update from the Eagles single-season receiving yards leader, A.J. Brown, who tweeted on Monday to explain why he was wearing those bright, highlighter green sneakers in Sunday’s win over the Giants.

— Matt Mullin

Apparently, there is no end to Damar Hamlin’s strength, or his power of inspiration.

He was still on his back Sunday, recovering in hospital from his collapse and cardiac arrest on Monday Night Football. But he knew that C.J. Gardner-Johnson had missed the Eagles’ last five games with a lacerated kidney. He knew the fears Gardner-Johnson might be feeling before Sunday’s finale. He knew the attention his condition would get before games resumed Saturday and Sunday. He wanted Gardner-Johnson to play without fear, and told him so Sunday morning.

“Damar texted me, actually,” Gardner-Johnson told me Sunday night, pointing at one of the smartphones on the bench in his locker. It was opened to a text message, and, as he put the phone in his duffel bag, he nodded to it. “Basically, he just told me, ‘Don’t go out there being fearful. That [stuff] can happen to anybody. It’s football. You know how that goes.’”

The two don’t have any real connection, Gardner-Johnson said. Still, he wanted to send his best to Hamlin, so he sent him a direct message on Instagram. ...

» READ MORE: Damar Hamlin texts ‘Don’t go out there being fearful’ to the Eagles’ C.J. Gardner-Johnson

— Marcus Hayes

Derek Carr was shown the bench this season in Las Vegas and is likely headed elsewhere this offseason. And unless the Raiders think Jared Stidham is their long-term answer at the quarterback position, then they might have to look elsewhere this offseason.

The draft could be one avenue. But Albert Breer thinks Vegas has their sights set on someone a little older. Like, old enough to be a draft pick’s dad.

That would certainly be interesting, but we’re not even 24 hours removed from the end of the NFL’s regular season, so get ready for all kinds of rumors to start flying.

— Matt Mullin

The Eagles earned their week off, and so did the Kansas City Chiefs, but the 12 other playoff teams get their postseasons started next weekend during the NFL’s Wild Card Weekend.

It took until late Sunday night, when Aaron Rodgers and the Packers couldn’t beat the eliminated Detroit Lions in a win-and-get-in spot in prime time. The final NFC playoff seed went to the Seattle Seahawks, whose reward is a road playoff game Saturday afternoon in northern California vs. the San Francisco 49ers.

The 49ers are 10-point favorites, just behind Buffalo (-10.5 over Miami) for the largest favorite of opening weekend.

» READ MORE: Bills, Bengals big early favorites for NFL’s Wild Card Weekend

— Jeff Neiburg

Now that the regular season is over and we know that the Eagles are NFC East Champions — that matters more to scheduling than being the No. 1 overall seed — we can accurately lay out the full list of teams the Eagles will play next season.

In addition to playing the NFC West and the AFC East, the Eagles, because of their first-place division finish, will also play the first-place finishers from the NFC North (the Vikings), the NFC South (the Buccaneers), and the AFC West (the Chiefs). It’s also worth noting that with the 17-game schedule, the extra game will be played on the road this year, after the Eagles got an extra home game in 2022.

So, we might not know the order yet, but we know the locations, and the opponents are as follows:

Eagles 2023 home games

Eagles 2023 away games

For those keeping score at home, 12 of their 17 games next season will be against teams that made the playoffs this year — including each of the other six NFC playoff teams.

» READ MORE: Who do the Eagles play in 2023? A look at their opponents next season

— Matt Mullin

Black Monday came earlier this season

The Texans fired head coach Lovie Smith after just one season, both ESPN and the NFL Network reported Sunday night.

Houston ended the season with the NFL’s second-worst record, securing just two wins. Smith is the third straight Texans coach fired after their first season, and didn’t expect to be out of a job when speaking to reporters Sunday afternoon following the game.

“Do I expect to be back? Yeah, I expect to be back. Absolutely,” Smith told reporters.

Three head coaches were fired during the season: Matt Rhule of the Panthers, Frank Reich of the Colts and Nathaniel Hackett of the Broncos.

— Rob Tornoe

Jalen Hurts was asked several times in various ways how he felt upon his expedited return from the right shoulder injury that sidelined him for the previous two games.

“Good enough” was often the quarterback’s reply, which could have also described his performance and that of the Eagles’ seemingly timid 22-16 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.

“I’ve really been pushing myself beyond measures to try and be available,” said Hurts, who wore an “I’m Back” Michael Jordan coming-out-of-retirement shirt to the podium. “The risk-reward of playing today, whatever that was, we did what we had to do. We’re the No. 1 seed and we’re NFC [East] champs and that’s the goal we set out to do.

“Now I can continue to recover and be ready for the playoffs,” Hurts said.

“It’s not like he was perfect out there as far as what he felt like,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “We didn’t feel there was more risk, but I know he was hurting and he was hurting bad. That’s the kind of competitor he is.”

Sirianni added: “He’s still sore.”

» READ MORE: Ailing Jalen Hurts was ‘good enough’ in an Eagles win over the Giants. Can he be great enough in the playoffs?

— Jeff McLane

The Eagles have reached the Super Bowl three times.

In 1980, they lost three of their final four regular-season games, including one to the Dallas Cowboys, whom they handled three weeks later in the NFC championship game. In 2004, they lost their last two after Andy Reid sat his starters. In 2017, Nick Foles closed the regular season with a pair of performances so ugly that it was fair to wonder whether Doug Pederson might be forced to bench him during the playoffs.

That history is instructive, or should be. The postseason is a new and different beast, and the Eagles will advance or fall independently of what happened here Sunday. There was no momentum for them to gain or lose. There was only the task of beating a team that they probably could have beaten in their sleep. And pretty much did.

» READ MORE: The Eagles did what they had to do in beating the Giants. Don’t read anything else into it.

— Mike Sielski

Despite clinching the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed, the Eagles will also have a top ten pick in this year’s NFL Draft.

Thanks to a savvy trade of future draft picks made in April, the Eagles ended up with the New Orleans Saints’ first round pick in this year’s draft. They also have the Saints’ second round pick in next year’s draft.

Here’s the 2023 draft order that we know:

— Rob Tornoe

The first round of the playoffs begin this weekend. Fox and NBC will each broadcast two games, while CBS and ESPN will get one game each.

The Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs both earned first round byes, and won’t be in action until the divisional round the following week.

Saturday, Jan. 14

Sunday, Jan. 15

Monday, Jan. 16

Divisional round: Jan. 21-22

Championship round: Jan. 28-29

Super Bowl LVII: Feb. 12, State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Ariz.

— Rob Tornoe