Eagles news: Playoff schedule; 4 more coaches fired, including ex-Birds coordinator; 2026 opponents and injury updates

Resting the regulars meant Tank Bigsby got the start at running back with Saquon Barkley on the sideline.

Bigsby has flashed in his limited role as a backup, and he showed Sunday why some are clamoring for more of him.

Bigsby rushed 16 times for 75 yards and a touchdown. He also turned a check-down completion into a 31-yard gain, making Washington’s Jordan Magee miss with a nifty cut in the process. Bigsby, however, played just two snaps in the fourth quarter and did not have a touch after the third quarter during the 24-17 loss.

One team had a meaningful game with a lot on the line and a lot of things in their control. The other had a meaningful game with a lot on the line and only some things in their control.

The Eagles, the latter team mentioned above, elected to go the conservative route and rest most of their regulars. The San Francisco 49ers, meanwhile, played a big game in prime time Saturday and lost at least one starter for the playoffs in the process.

Of course, had the Eagles been in situation where a win guaranteed them the No. 2 seed in the NFC, Nick Sirianni would have made a different decision than the one he made for Week 18 vs. Washington.

The Eagles will host the San Francisco 49ers in the wild-card round of the playoffs after they missed out on the No. 2 seed.

The Birds ended the regular season with with a loss to the Commanders, settling for an 11-6 record to go with their NFC East title. Meanwhile, the 49ers finished with a 12-5 record after their recent loss to the Seattle Seahawks, but had to settle for a wild-card spot.

Now, both teams will meet at Lincoln Financial Field as they try to keep their Super Bowl hopes alive, and the Eagles are early favorites over the Niners in their first-round matchup.

Jonathan Gannon is the fourth head coach to lose their job on Black Monday

The Arizona Cardinals announced they have parted ways with Gannon, who they hired away from the Eagles in 2023 under a five-year deal that ran through the 2027 season and drew allegations of tampering resolved by swapping draft picks.

The former Birds defensive coordinator went just 15-36 (.294) in three seasons with the Cardinals, and his team was completely uncompetitive in the NFC West (0-6). In fact, the Cardinals lost more games last season (14) than the rest of the NFC West combined (13).

Three NFL coaches have been fired on Black Monday, and it isn't even noon yet.

Pete Carroll joined the ranks of the unemployed Monday, with the Las Vegas Raiders announcing they parted ways with their 74-year old coach.

"We appreciate and wish him and his family all the best," Raiders owner Mark Davis said in a statement.

Add longtime NFL writer Peter King to the list of pundits who think Nick Sirianni made a mistake by resting his starters with the No. 2 seed on the line.

King, in a weekend newsletter, called the decision a "missed opportunity" for the Eagles and pointed out why the No. 2 seed offers a much easier path to the Super Bowl than the No. 3 seed.

"If you’re the 2 seed and you win the Wild Card game, you’re home for two playoff games," King wrote. "If you’re the 3 seed and the 2 seed wins the Wild Card game, you’re home for only one playoff game."

If Jalyx Hunt looked like a defensive back breaking on Josh Johnson’s sideline throw intended for Deebo Samuel on Sunday evening, you can thank his background as a safety, the position he originally played in college at Cornell before transitioning to the defensive line at Houston Christian.

Hunt’s interception was his third of the season and separated him from what was a four-way tie for the team lead with two interceptions.

It also put him in the Eagles’ history book. For the first time since the Eagles were established in 1933, the same player led the team in interceptions and sacks. Hunt’s two sacks in Buffalo last week gave him a team-high 6½ sacks on the season.

There were varying reasons for who played Sunday and who didn’t, who played sparingly and who played more.

The Eagles, for example, decided to let DeVonta Smith play nine snaps and catch three passes on four targets for 52 yards so he could get the 44 yards he needed to reach 1,000 yards on the season. Nick Sirianni said the Eagles were “safe with him as far as what kind of routes we were running and what he was doing.”

Smith exited the game after his third catch.

There are a lot of opinions about Nick Sirianni's decision to rest the Eagles starters in Sunday's loss, especially after the Chicago Bears' loss opened the door for the Birds to land the No. 2 seed.

But that's all academic now. The Eagles will enter the playoffs as the No. 3 seed, a position that's produced a surprisingly small amount of Super Bowl teams.

Wharton professor Deniz Selman crunched the numbers. Since 1975, when the current playoff seeding began, just five No. 3 seeds have made it through the playoffs and ended up in the Super Bowl. By comparison, 55 No. 1 seeds, 24 No. 2 seeds, and 11 No. 4 seeds have made it to the big game.

The Cleveland Browns fired Kevin Stefanski Monday morning, becoming the fourth NFL team this season to part ways with their head coach.

The former NFL Coach of the Year (an award he won twice) and a Philadelphia native, Stefanski's sixth season with the Browns was a disappointment. While the Browns have a history of burning through head coaches (12 since 2000), Stefanski's three playoff games was the most for the franchise since Marty Schottenheimer's tenure during the mid-1980s.

Overall, Stefanski went 45-56 (.446) with the Browns, the franchise's best winning percentage since Bill Belichick's short tenure in Cleveland in the early 1990s (not counting the eight games Gregg Williams served as the team's interim coach in 2018).

The Eagles enter the playoffs as the NFC’s No. 3 seed. They could have been the No. 2 seed, but things didn’t quite work out that way.

They will open the playoffs at home against a 49ers team that is coming off a sloppy loss on Saturday in its third game in 13 days. San Fran’s offense scored just three points.

The Eagles and 49ers have met twice previously in the postseason. San Fran shut out the Birds, 14-0, in a muddy wild-card game at the old Candlestick Park after the 1996 season. Three years ago, the Eagles thumped San Fran, 31-7, in the conference championship game.

While the 2025 season is still going on for the Eagles, we now know all the Birds' opponents for the 2026 season.

Their final opponent was decided Sunday night. Not only did the Pittsburgh Steelers win the AFC North and punch the final ticket to the playoffs, they'll now face the Eagles at the Linc in 2026.

The Eagles also face the first-place teams in the NFC South (Carolina Panthers) and AFC North (Pittsburgh Steelers), and will play every team in both the AFC South and the NFC West, which sent three teams to the playoffs this season.

Black Monday, the NFL's annual send off of underperforming head coaches, kicked off Sunday night in Atlanta.

The Falcons fired both general manager Terry Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris, despite Atlanta finishing the season on a four-game winning streak and tied for first place in the NFC South with an 8-9 record.

“I have great personal affinity for both Raheem and Terry and appreciate their hard work and dedication to the Falcons, but I believe we need new leadership in these roles moving forward,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank said in a statement.