Eagles news: Updated NFC playoff picture; Commanders shut down Jayden Daniels; Micah Parsons to miss rest of season

Micah Parsons is the Packers’ best defensive player. He entered Sunday’s game with 12½ sacks and a league-high 60 QB pressures, a brilliant return on the Packers’ investment. He cost the Pack two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark in a blockbuster trade with Dallas, then signed a four-year, $188 million contract extension.

Then, Sunday. Parsons left the game with a knee injury in the third quarter just before the Broncos took the lead for good in their 34-26 win. Reports indicate that he has a torn ACL.

The loss dropped the Packers to 9-4-1, a half-game in the NFC North standings behind the 10-4 Bears — the team they visit Saturday night — but Green Bay leads the 9-5 Eagles, in case that matters. Parsons’ absence might matter more than anything. It would be like the Browns losing Myles Garrett, or maybe even like the Chiefs losing Patrick Mahomes.

For a second straight week, the Eagles are set to face off against one of their former backups. This time, it will be Marcus Mariota at the helm of the Commanders’ offense on Saturday.

Jayden Daniels, the NFL’s 2024 offensive rookie of the year, has missed seven games this year due to a litany of injuries, including a knee sprain, a hamstring strain, and now an elbow issue. He initially dislocated his elbow injury in their Week 9 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, and while he returned to action a month later, he aggravated the injury in his first game back against the Minnesota Vikings.

After the second-year quarterback missed the Week 15 win over the New York Giants, Commanders head coach Dan Quinn announced on Monday afternoon that he is being shut down for the rest of the season.

They say age is only a number. But for the Washington Commanders, it’s a number that helps explain how a trip to the NFC championship game last year can be followed up by a 4-10 record through 14 games.

The easiest thing to point to is that young quarterback Jayden Daniels has only been available for seven games. But the Commanders are just 2-5 in the games Daniels has played.

Back to the age issue. The Commanders were a prime candidate for regression — this writer had them missing the playoffs in 2025 — in part because of their age, but also because they were abnormally lucky in 2024. The luck also included a low number of injuries. But the age may have caught up in 2025.

Micah Parsons suffered a torn ACL during the Green Bay Packers' loss to the Denver Broncos Sunday and will miss the rest of the season, according to multiple reports. Parsons confirmed the injury on social media.

"I may be sidelined, but I am not defeated," Parsons wrote, calling the injury his "greatest test."

Parsons, the former Dallas Cowboys All-Pro and Harrisburg native, was traded to Green Bay before the start of the season and is tied for third in the NFL with 12.5 sacks.

While it remains mathematically possible for the Eagles (9-5) to still end the season as the NFC's No. 1 playoff seed, it remans a very, very improbable outcome for the season.

But what about the No. 2 seed? That's how the Eagles entered the playoffs last season, and their postseason run ended with a Super Bowl victory.

The Eagles will enter Week 16 in the NFC's No. 3 spot, which means if the season were over they'd be hosting the San Francisco 49ers (10-4) at the Linc in a wild card game.

Micah Parsons is the Packers’ best defensive player. He entered Sunday’s game with 12½ sacks and a league-high 60 QB pressures, a brilliant return on the Packers’ investment. He cost the Pack two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark in a blockbuster trade with Dallas, then signed a four-year, $188 million contract extension.

Then, Sunday. Parsons left the game with a knee injury in the third quarter just before the Broncos took the lead for good in their 34-26 win. Reports indicate that he has a torn ACL.

The loss dropped the Packers to 9-4-1, a half-game in the NFC North standings behind the 10-4 Bears — the team they visit Saturday night — but Green Bay leads the 9-5 Eagles, in case that matters. Parsons’ absence might matter more than anything. It would be like the Browns losing Myles Garrett, or maybe even like the Chiefs losing Patrick Mahomes.

What’s in it for the Eagles to rush Jalen Carter back to the field? Not much. Their magic number dropped to one Sunday with their 31-0 victory over the Raiders being coupled with a Cowboys loss.

The Eagles are in the driver’s seat, and, according to ESPN analytics, are at 99% to become NFC East champions for the second consecutive season — a win that would break a 20-season streak of no repeat champions.

Further, their likely playoff seeding is taking shape. The Eagles remain two games back of the Rams and Seahawks (who are vying for the No. 1 seed at 11-3) and a game behind second-seeded Chicago (10-4). The Eagles are sitting comfortably in the third seed in the NFC, two games ahead of the NFC South-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

When Jalen Hurts and the first-unit offense took their well-earned rest early in the fourth quarter of an eventual 31-0 blowout over the Las Vegas Raiders, the Eagles had a run-pass ratio of 32 to 17.

There were myriad reasons for a ground-heavy attack on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field: from wintry weather conditions and schematic improvements to situational play-calling with a lead and rebuilding Hurts after a disastrous performance vs. the Chargers.

But mostly the Eagles ran the ball because it’s what they need to establish if they want to repeat as Super Bowl champions. Coach Nick Sirianni would never cop to looking that far ahead, nor should he, but the hapless Raiders offered the opportunity to give his directionless offense a compass for the future.

While there were no pundits that directly called for Jalen Hurts to be benched, a lot of talking heads on 94.1 WIP and elsewhere got close following the Eagles' three-game losing streak.

"I do think he's earned the right to start Sunday," WIP host Joe Giglio said of Hurts leading up to the game. "But that's the end of where I go with earned, deserve, and all those kind of words. ... I would pull the plug if he keeps playing the way he has the last month."

Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes also echoed those remarks, writing the Eagles would've been right to bench Hurts if he struggled against the Raiders Sunday, which thankfully he didn't.

Live, from Merril Reese's least-favorite stadium, it's Saturday night!

The Eagles will take on the Washington Commanders in Week 16 in a Saturday night matchup at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md. Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m, and the Eagles opened as 5½-point favorites at most sportsbooks.

It's a rematch of last-year's NFC Championship game, but a lot has happened between then and now.