To play or not to play: Eagles face looming rest decisions; no competition coming for Jake Elliott
The Eagles will have to weigh seeding possibilities against the benefit of rest for certain injured or important players.
To play, or not to play, that is the question that will face Eagles coach Nick Sirianni over the final two weeks of the season.
The No. 2 seed in the NFC is still up for grabs, and will be at the time the Eagles kick off Sunday afternoon in Orchard Park, N.Y., for a marquee matchup with the Buffalo Bills. But the seeding could be decided before the Week 18 finale vs. the Washington Commanders, and we know how the Eagles went about their business last season when they rested almost all of their starters in the season finale.
As it pertains to offensive tackle Lane Johnson and defensive tackle Jalen Carter, though, Sirianni will have to weigh risk vs. reward for two of his best players in the trenches. According to a report from ESPN, both players are in line to be available for Sunday’s game vs. the Bills. Carter has missed the last three games after undergoing procedures to both of his shoulders. Johnson, meanwhile, has been out since the first quarter of Week 11 with a Lisfranc sprain in his left foot.
“Every guy is a little different,” Sirianni said Monday. “Every scenario is a little different.”
Sirianni pointed to last season’s finale vs. the New York Giants. The Eagles rested their starters, but tight end Dallas Goedert had been out for more than a month and the Eagles decided to get him on the field for two series at the beginning of the game and threw six targets his way. “That was good for him,” Sirianni said.
“You do think about your past situations and when you’ve been through those things before,” he said. “But you’re trying to do and make the best decision for each guy and everyone’s just a little bit different.”
Carter and Johnson are certainly different, and the Eagles are likely to weigh getting Carter on the field as a higher priority than Johnson given Carter’s early-season struggles with conditioning.
Still, the Eagles will enter Sunday with plenty to play for. There is a realistic path to the No. 2 seed, a spot that would ensure a second home game with a win in the wild-card round. The simplest math is for the Chicago Bears, the current No. 2 seed, to lose their final two games and the Eagles to win their final two. The Bears play at San Francisco in Week 17 before hosting the Lions, who could be in desperation mode, in Week 18.
What’s the math look like?
According to FTN Fantasy‘s playoff projections, the Eagles are at 10.3% to get the No. 2 seed based on thousands of simulations. They’re at 88.7% to stay in the No. 3 spot and have minuscule chances at the No. 1 seed (0.1%) and No. 4 seed (0.9%).
Time will tell how the Eagles approach the last two weeks of the season.
No competition coming for Jake Elliott
Sirianni reiterated his confidence in Jake Elliott after the kicker missed two field goals and had another miss negated by a penalty during Saturday’s win.
Elliott has missed five field goals over the Eagles’ last five games and also has a missed point-after attempt during that stretch. His 70.8% conversion rate (17-for-24) on field goals this season is the lowest of his nine-year NFL career.
Sirianni said the Eagles will not be bringing in outside competition. He pointed to Elliott’s struggles late in the season last year and how he rebounded in the Super Bowl as something to draw confidence from.
“All I’ve ever seen him do was get up out of that and rise from that,” Sirianni said. “I have no doubt in my mind of the competitor he is and how mentally tough he is to be able to rise from this situation as well.”
Report: No suspension for Tyler Steen
According to a report from ESPN, there will be no suspensions following the kerfuffle near the end of the Eagles-Commanders game after the Eagles’ two-point conversion. The league will review the play for fines.
The skirmish happened after the successful try that bumped the Eagles’ lead to 29-10, a decision Sirianni said was analytics-based and not an attempt to run up the score, though it appeared that Commanders coach Dan Quinn was not pleased with the choice.
In the middle of it all for the Eagles was right guard Tyler Steen, who was ejected for his role in the scuffle.
Sirianni, as he normally does, declined to go into details about his conversations with Steen.
“But we never want anything like that to take place,” he said. “We want to play fast and physical and we want to be able to do that all within the rules of the game. I understand the game gets chippy at times, but we always want to make sure we’re keeping our cool in those scenarios.”