The Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Washington Commanders on Sunday evening.
They got the help they needed from the Detroit Lions beating the Chicago Bears … but Philly’s backups couldn’t beat Washington’s starters to secure the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoff picture.
The Birds will be the No. 3 seed and host the No. 6 seed San Francisco 49ers in the first round instead of the No. 7 seed Green Bay Packers.
Time to hand out winners, losers, and I don’t knows.
For even more analysis and early thoughts on the Wild Card matchup, check out my appearance on The Ringer’s Philly Special postgame podcast with Sheil Kapadia (and Ace Producer Cliff Augustin).
WINNERS
JALYX HUNT
An edge rusher intercepting a pass near the sideline like this just isn’t a common sight:
This is a player who’s been targeted eight times in coverage this season and he’s produced three picks while allowing just three receptions for eight yards and a 6.2 passer rating allowed (per Pro Football Reference).
Needless to say, Hunt’s made a really strong leap from Year 1 to Year 2.
I mean, to become the first player in franchise history to lead the team in both sacks (6.5) and interceptions (3) in one season is special.
Not to mention he’s also tied for the team lead in tackles for loss (9) with Jordan Davis and forced fumbles (2) with Nakobe Dean.
By Pro Football Focus charting, only six edge rushers have generated more quarterback hits than Hunt’s 17 this season. They are: Josh Hines-Allen, Jihad Ward, Jared Verse, Aidan Hutchinson, Abdul Carter, and Byron Young (of the Los Angeles Rams). And they all played significantly more pass rush snaps than Hunt did.
When the Eagles drafted Hunt, there was thought that he would take some time to develop due to his relatively late transition from safety to edge rusher. He’s already pretty good and there’s no reason to believe the 24-year-old can’t keep getting even better.
DEVONTA SMITH
Smitty only needed nine snaps to log 52 receiving yards to put him at 1,008 on the season. He’s up to three 1K seasons through five years in the NFL thus far.
Smith also moved into 10th place in all-time Eagles receiving yards, climbing ahead of Brent Celek and now just 15 yards behind A.J. Brown.
TANK BIGSBY
I love watching Bigsby play football. He runs with the ball in his hands like his life depends on gaining every single yard possible. He’s electric.
Bigsby tied his season-high in touches in this game with 17 to produce a season-high 106 yards from scrimmage. His 16 carries resulted in 75 rushing yards (4.7 average) and his sole target resulted in an awesome tackle-breaking run-and-catch for 31 yards.
It’s weird that Bigsby’s final touch of the game, which was a 13-yard gain on the ground, came with just a little over two minutes remaining in the third quarter. Why go away from him?
If you’re going to try to tell me that the Eagles decided they’re saving him for the playoffs … I’ll believe it when I see it. If you exclude his garbage time appearances (Week 8, Week 15, Week 17), Bigsby is logging just 2.25 touches per game this season.
It’s really malpractice not to utilize him more often than this. I’m quite aware Saquon Barkley exists and it’s not like the Eagles are going to majorly cut into his playing time. Even so, there has to be a way to get Bigsby at least a little more involved.
JEREMIAH TROTTER JR.
Trot Jr. was the Eagles’ highest-graded defender by Pro Football Focus. Trot Jr. led the team in total tackles (12), stops (5), and quarterback hits (2). He tied for the team-lead in TFLs (1). It was fun to see him break out his old man’s axe celebration.
Trot Jr. still has to prove he can hold up in coverage but he’s really good when he’s firing downhill, either as a run defender or pass rusher. Not saying he’s as good as Nakobe Dean but there’s obviously a similar skill-set there.
Trot Jr.’s presence could contribute to Dean being viewed as expendable this offseason. It would be a bummer to lose him but the Eagles can’t pay everyone and they’d still have a strong trio with Zack Baun, Jihaad Campbell, and Trot Jr. remaining.
JALEN HURTS
If Jalen Hurts is truly THE problem with the offense, why did it still stink without him playing on Sunday?
I don’t think he has to worry about being benched anytime soon.
ADOREE’ JACKSON
The Eagles’ backup cornerbacks are pretty bad! If it wasn’t already clear why Jackson is playing ahead of them, it definitely is now.
Jackson’s played some of his best football lately, by the way. And he’s only allowed a 87.0 passer rating when targeted this season, according to Pro Football Reference. Far from perfect but he’s at least competent.
JAKE ELLIOTT
Not to jinx him but Elliott hasn’t missed a kick since missing three (only two of which counted in the stat sheet) back in Week 16. It’s a small sample size (three field goal, three extra points) but it’s still encouraging to see those misses have snowballed into a bigger problem. Stabilizing.
LOSERS
NICK SIRIANNI
We all know the Eagles aren’t a head coach-centric organization. I doubt Sirianni and Sirianni alone made the decision to rest most starters instead of playing them. But one would think he had a significant voice in the decision. I have a hard time believing he really wanted them to play given the lack of aggression we’ve seen from him all season long.
It feels fitting to me that the Eagles were burned by the hubris of Sirianni’s overly conservative approach. My friend Jimmy Kempski phrased it well earlier this season when highlighting the Eagles’ alarming lack of ambition in end of half scenarios:
Too much focus on what could go wrong and not enough on what could go right.
And what would’ve gone right for the Eagles is that they probably would’ve been the No. 2 seed if they played the starters in Week 18.
To be clear, this isn’t a hindsight take. I stated my preference on December 29:
If I’m the Eagles, I’m asking myself what I’d regret more in this scenario.
If I rest the starters in a loss to Washington and the Bears happen to lose, it would be really hard to live with not having tried to get the No. 2 seed.
If I play the starters and someone gets hurt and the Eagles don’t get the No. 2 seed, well, that sucks. But at least I knew I tried to get the No. 2 seed. I can live with that.
The majority of participants in our polling also were in favor of playing the starters:
It’s obviously moot now. The Eagles are the No. 3 seed. Maybe the rest will help them beat the San Francisco 49ers in the Wild Card round. Perhaps they’ll even go on another Super Bowl run. I’m hardly ready to rule it out.
Of course, the Eagles were well-rested coming out of their Week 9 bye and they managed to score two total touchdowns in the two games after that break. A lack of rest is hardly the biggest issue that’s plagued the team this season. A lack of ambition has been a much bigger issue.
Sirianni is one of my biggest concerns with the Eagles entering the playoffs. Which might sound like a crazy thing to say about a Super Bowl-winning head coach who mostly just wins. But I can’t help but feel like he leaves money on the table, so to speak. He contributes to their winning being harder than it has to be. And it could eventually catch up to them, just like effectively passing on playing for the No. 2 seed could.
Beyond the matter of seeding, there’s also the fact that Sirianni’s hand-picked offensive coordinator still isn’t inspiring much confidence. Which brings us to …
KEVIN PATULLO
Different quarterback … and yet a lot of the same issues that have plagued the offense this season. It’s almost like the coaching might be a problem.
TANNER MCKEE
Let’s be clear: McKee didn’t play well. This was a disappointing performance; I expected more from him since he’s looked pretty good in his other limited opportunities. I was discouraged by his poor pocket presence; I thought he bailed too early and right into pressure a number of times. He missed too many throws. He made a really bad decision to force a throw to a tightly covered Darius Cooper instead of running for a wide open first down on 2nd-and-1 on a drive where the Eagles ended up punting. McKee’s final throw of the game went out of bounds … on fourth down.
All of that acknowledged, I hardly think the book on McKee’s career has been written. I’m buying any and all McKee stock if you’re selling. This was just one game. And he looked pretty sharp when he had DeVonta Smith to throw to early on. He was ultimately going up against the Washington Commanders’ starting defense with a backup offense. The Eagles’ starting offense had some struggles against those Washington starters back in Week 16.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, other teams probably aren’t going to be as forgiving as I am about this McKee performance. He had a chance to boost his trade value but I’m not sure that teams will be looking to give up anything worthwhile to get him now. If I’m the Eagles, I’d rather just hold on to McKee for the final year of his rookie deal than take a Day 3 pick for him.
KELEE RINGO
One positive thing I can say about Ringo is that he made a nice special teams tackle as a gunner on punt coverage. So, there’s that.
On defense, however … Ringo was obviously bad. He was flagged twice for a total of 37 yards allowed, including a 32-yard pass interference penalty that sparked Washington’s go-ahead touchdown drive. The final play of that drive resulted in a Josh Johnson rushing touchdown where Ringo just … ran away from the ball-carrier heading uncontested into the end zone?!
Who did Ringo think was going to tackle Johnson if not him?
That’s wild.
Ringo is only 23 years old but it’s hard to feel like things are going to click for him.
JAKORIAN BENNETT
Bennett committed three penalties for 32 yards. There were multiple times where multiple refs threw flags for the same call on him. That’s to say that his violations were egregious, not borderline at all. He’s just way too grabby and it’s now clear why he hasn’t been playing this season.
Perhaps Bennett could benefit from a full offseason in the Eagles’ system but more likely than not he’s just not the answer. Bad job by Howie Roseman to give up Thomas Booker, who could’ve been a useful rotational defensive tackle here, for him.
MAC MCWILLIAMS
McWilliams only got in the game because undrafted rookie defensive back Brandon Johnson got hurt. Not good for McWilliams that Johnson has leapfrogged him. Also not good to see McWilliams commit a 29-yard pass interference penalty to give Washington the ball at the 1-yard line.
The Eagles need to overhaul their cornerback depth this offseason.
DARIUS COOPER
DC is my guy, so this pains me. We can all agree that the NFL’s emphasis on taunting penalties is lame. But Cooper simply can’t spin the ball at a defender to get a 15-yard penalty after making a good catch to knock the Eagles back from 1st-and-goal at the 5-yard line to 1st-and-10 at the 20-yard line. Really bad mistake on a drive that resulted in a McKee interception.
I DON’T KNOWS
JOSHUA UCHE
Uche pressured Johnson into the throw that was picked off by Hunt. PFF credited him with a team-high three hurries on just 11 pass rush snaps. Uche probably benefited from fresh legs; he hadn’t played since Week 12. And he’ll likely be inactive in the playoffs. Unfortunate.
CAMERON WILLIAMS
Williams was the Eagles’ third-highest graded offensive player by PFF, behind DeVonta Smith and Tyler Steen. That feels a bit generous but I do think it’s fair to grade him on a curve (which PFF isn’t doing, to be clear) since this was the rookie’s first-ever NFL regular season action after spending most of the campaign on injured reserve. I don’t know how meaningful this performance was but it’s at least good to see he wasn’t a total disaster out there.
GRANT CALCATERRA
Everyone (except the Eagles’ coaching staff, apparently) knows Calcaterra isn’t a good run blocker but his touchdown catch was a reminder that he can contribute as a pass-catcher. Unfortunately, Calcaterra left this game early after getting taken down by a hip drop tackle. He was listed with knee/ankle injuries. We’ll see if he’s able to practice this week.
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