Philly Front Office

The Bye Week and Trade Deadline are now in the past. Teams should be looking to either make the playoffs or get a higher draft pick. Mabe its wrong, but there shouldn’t be an in between. With the Eagles playing on Monday Night Football, we get to once again sit back and watch everyone else this weekend. Here is what to watch…

Sunday Morning Game

• Atlanta Falcons vs Indianapolis Colts at Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany
  • Atlanta didn’t buy and they didn’t sell, leaving them at 3-5. This is such a poorly run team. It’s not as though they should tank considering they owe their first round pick to the Rams, but getting draft picks for someone like Kyle Pitts or Jessie Bates wouldn’t have been a bad move. They aren’t close to the playoffs considering they are 3 games and a tiebreak behind Tampa for the division.
  • The Colts made the move of the deadline by acquiring Sauce Gardner. Whether anyone else believes it or not, they think they are a contender. Due to scheduling though, they still do not have a stranglehold on their own division. Jacksonville is a game back, and the teams still play twice. With a semi-difficult schedule coming up, they could fall out of their pole position for the #1 seed too.

The Ever-Increasing NFL Salary Cap

1pm Games

• New York Giants at Chicago Bears
  • This is exactly the kind of game both these teams screw up. The Giants are on the road, facing a hot team, and coming off 3 straight demoralizing losses. They should be gunning for the #1 pick but will probably end up winning inexplicably.
  • The Bears are just the opposite but exactly the same. They’ve won 5 of 6, put themselves in the playoff hunt, and are playing at home. Expect a shoot themselves in the foot kind of loss here. It’s what they do. Breaking free of that kind of negativity would be a huge win and change of direction for this franchise.
• Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins
  • The Bills are a good team that looks exactly the same as the good team that keeps losing in the playoffs. They didn’t have much money to spend at the deadline, but they did nothing to improve their team. It feels like a missed opportunity due to contentment after beating KC in the regular season.
  • Miami is slightly less of a disaster than they were a week ago after firing their GM and getting a 3rd for Jaelan Phillips. Why go half way though? You’re telling me that teams weren’t offering for Bradley Chubb and Minkah Fitzpatrick? Their focus should be the #1 pick, not saving face. They botched things big time…but that was expected.
• Baltimore Ravens at Minnesota Vikings
  • Bad idea by anyone counting out the Ravens (PFO would never!). They are only 2 games behind the Steelers (with both head to heads remaining) and get to play 4 of the next 6 against the worst teams in the league. Beat the Vikings and they are cooking.
  • Beating Detroit last week saved the Vikings’ season, but it may be more of a stay of execution. After Baltimore, they have the Bears, Packers, and Seahawks. JJ McCarthy is back, but he is being thrown directly into the fire. So far so good at least.
• Cleveland Browns at New York Jets
  • The Tank Rank Game of the Week! The Browns resisted the urge to trade Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, and Grant Delpit leaving them with a defense that can beat teams like the Jets, but an offense that can’t do much of anything. This should put them in the 6-10 range come draft time instead of 1-5 where they need to be.
  • The Jets on the other hand knew the assignment. They traded out their two best players and brought in 4 top draft picks. Making the picks will be a different story, but at least for now they aren’t flailing like they’ve been for years. They have a direction…the bottom.
• New England Patriots at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  • Win this game and Drake Maye will be MVP and New England may get the #1 seed. Don’t misunderstand me, this not because he should win or the Pats are “back.” It’s because they may only have 1 difficult game left this season after only playing 1 difficult game so far. Both games are against Buffalo. The Patriots may have the easiest schedule ever given. There is a chance they only face 2 playoff teams all year.
  • As much as I do not want the above to happen, we also need the Bucs to lose this game. We may have the tiebreaker, but some breathing room would be nice.
• New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers
  • New Orleans didn’t have much to sell at the deadline but did well getting rid of a WR they were not going to resign. They are also starting Tyler Shough now. Their goal is to get to their week 16 matchup against the Jets still sitting on 1 win and hope for the worst.
  • Teams keep overlooking the Panthers to their own detriment. They might actually have things harder against the bad teams who do not realize that Bryce Young is a walking trap game. At 5-4 they are legitimately hanging around the playoff race even if getting past the top 7 seems like an impossibility.
• Jacksonville Jaguars at Houston Texans
  • The Jags are 5-3 and only a game behind the Colts with two head to heads remaining. They also have a game and a tie break cushion on the final wild card spot. Making the playoffs is very possible and it would likely mean the Chiefs would be out. That win might be the biggest win of the season in the whole league.
  • The Texans are already on life support and 4 of their next 5 are against playoff teams. Losing this game would likely be the nail in the coffin…a week too late to do something about it.

NFC East Trade Deadline Recap: WTF Washington and Dallas?

4pm Games

• Arizona Cardinals at Seattle Seahawks
  • The Cards are not nearly as bad as their 3-5 record indicates. Their 5 losses are by a combined 13 points. That’s it. Their next 5 games are against playoff teams. Even though losing would be in their best interests, they will be playing possible spoiler in all these games. Trapizona?
  • Seattle needs to avoid a let down against the sneaky Cards in order to keep their goodwill going. They have high level weapons all over the field and need to keep Sam Darnold believing in Sam Darnold. He is everything. For us, we need the great northern Seahawks to fly south against their bird rivals in Arizona and fall victim to the trap.
• Los Angeles Rams at San Francisco 49ers
  • Probably the best game of the weekend (Monday ain’t the weekend). The Rams lost earlier in the year to the 49ers in OT after deciding to go for the win instead of a tie. Losing here would be a back breaker as they would be behind the 49ers in the division with both Seattle games coming.
  • The 49ers have been the second most surprising team this year for me behind only Indy. This looked like it would be a gap year from a finaincial standpoint and the injuries haven’t helped, but here they are. Their schedule is pretty light coming up and could some how win their division if the Seahawks and Rams split and they obviously win this game. They’ve already beaten Seattle once themselves. This game should be as hard fought a regular season game as there is.
• Detroit Lions at Washington Commanders
  • Any time I think the Lions are good, they fall flat. Anytime I am ready to stick a fork in them, they get a big win. It seems like they are just unmotivated and fall victim to traps in the schedule. That’s what good teams who haven’t won anything and believe their own hype do. This weekend is neither though. Washington is the biggest joke in the league and the Lions should be fine.
  • Most predictable fall to Earth since Icarus. Don’t let the Jayden Daniels injuries fool you, this was never going to be a good team in 2025. They thought they were only a player or two away and doubled down on being old. After being essentially eliminated and definitely humiliated on MNF, they completely panicked at the trade deadline and did nothing. After a failed plan to contend this past offseason fell apart, they could have traded away some of their vets and embraced a proper “build” rather than rebuild. They didn’t. Next year will not be much better.

Sunday Night Football

• Pittsburgh Steelers at Los Angeles Chargers
  • The Steelers are not a good team. They are not a bad team. Instead, they are the litmus test for the rest of the league. Beat the Steelers and you are pretty good. Lose and you aren’t sniffing contention. That’s why I’m not buying Indy and I’m not buying New England. As for the Steelers themselves, would anyone be surprised if they ended up blowing their lead to the Ravens and missing the playoffs?
  • The Chargers need this win desperately. They have quality wins over KC and Denver and terrible losses to the Giants and Commanders. At 6-3 they might be the team that stands between the Chiefs and the playoffs, this game will go far in showing how real they are.

Monday Night Football

• Philadelphia Eagles at Green Bay Packers
  • Our game? My game! I am headed to Green Bay tomorrow to see this one live. If anyone is going, let me know in the comments.
  • Unfortunately, my friend Danny is going. He is notoriously AWFUL luck when it comes to the Eagles. He has seen roughly ten straight Eagles losses. He was at the Carolina game last year and left right before halftime for the good of the team. The other 3 on this trip will not hesitate to remove him from Lambeau if need be. He understands this.
  • This is a huge game on both sides as the top seed in the NFC might be in the balance come the end of the season. This tie break might be everything.
  • The Eagles are likely getting lots of reinforcements this week in Nolan Smith, Brandon Graham, Jakorian Bennett, and newest Eagles Michael Carter and Jaelan Phillips. This game will have ALL the juice.

Eagles at Packers: Getting to Know Reggie White

Bye Week: Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys, Tennessee Titans, and Kansas City Chiefs