The Eagles bye week coming in Week 10 feels like one of those classic Sixers moments where Brett Brown waited 3 possessions too long to call a timeout and a 9-point lead ballooned to 17. At 2-7, the Eagles 2026 season is over. Had the bye week come earlier, maybe they would have been able to plan and adjust better following Jalen Hurts being lost for the season. Instead, all we can do is try to find a way to get through the next 8 weeks to get to next season.
Schedule
CLICK FOR SCHEDULE DROP DOWN
| Week 11 | Nov. 22 | vs Pittsburgh Steelers | 4:25p | CBS |
| Week 12 | Nov. 26 (Th) | at Dallas Cowboys | 4:30p | Fox |
| Week 13 | Dec. 6 | at Arizona Cardinals | 4:05p | Fox |
| Week 14 | Dec. 13 | at Indianapolis Colts | 1:00p | Fox |
| Week 15 | Dec. 19 (Sa) | vs Seattle Seahawks | 5:00p | Fox |
| Week 16 | Dec. 24 (Th) | vs Houston Texans | 8:15p | Prime Video |
| Week 17 | Jan. 3 | at San Francisco 49ers | 8:20p | NBC |
| Week 18 | TBD Flex | at New York Giants | TBD |
While the goal is to not win another game in hopes for the #1 pick in the draft, realistically the team is not going to lose 15 straight games and we probably don’t want them to either. While it probably won’t ruin Christmas to have the Texans win the night before, Thanksgiving will absolutely taste better with the Birds beating the Cowboys. Can we all agree that if we have to win 1 game, it’s that one?
The real tricky games are going to be in the Cardinals and Colts to start December. At least they are both on the road. The Cardinals played their part as a dumb organization by holding on to their best trade chips in Josh Sweat and Budda Baker. However, they are now down to Carson Beck starting at QB. He’s going to be dead meat against our defense. Losing that one will be tough. The Colts are a different story. They did sell at the deadline, but because they do not own their 1st round pick, they won’t be actively sitting players to try to lose this game. Daniel Jones and Jonathan Taylor should make things easier for the L.
The Giants should be right around .500 and still fighting for the NFC East on the last week of the season. Personally, I don’t care about ruining their day again (like in 2020). Draft position is most important at that point.
What to Watch For
Tanner McKee is not a part of the future in Philadelphia. In retrospect, that should have been pretty clear when they brought in Andy Dalton (what a fool I was to believe!). Does that mean Joe Milton is??? Probably not. You can see why he hasn’t had a chance with another team, he can’t hit a barn from 5 yards. Still, he will get every chance to play his way into the backup QB conversation for next season. Should he not show anything, there is a real chance we see Cole Payton at some point, even if it is just the last week of the season. Milton is a restricted free agent at the end of the season.
Tyler Steen and Moro Ojomo are playing for their next contracts. While some vets might hit IR with light injuries, that will not be the case with these two. While the Eagles are reportedly hopeful for an extension with Ojomo, there hasn’t been anything mentioned about Steen.
Eli Stowers needs to be on the field. Everyone wants to call him a bust, but he needs reps, plain and simple. He was recruited in college as a QB and only became a full-time tight end over his last 3 seasons. He is still very athletic and needs to get more familiar with what he needs to do. In a lost season, we should all want him seeing more action than just his 16% snap count over his last 3 games since being activated from IR.
The other young players need to be given their trials by fire as well. I want to see more Willie Lampkin regardless of whether Landon Dickerson is healthy enough to play. Ty Robinson needs more reps now that Jordan Davis is in Jacksonville. Markel Bell and Drew Kendall need to have very long ropes. I’ll take Micah Morris if I can get him.
Normally, coming up would be the time of year for veterans to start hitting IR with even non-severe injuries in order to get other players more playing time. The problem is, the Eagles don’t have more players. They are currently playing with 2 open roster spots and using practice squad players as much as possible to save money. They do this because every dollar not used is flipped to next year’s cap. Other than the guys above, there is no one itching to get on the field.
Job Security
It’s incorrect to say that Nick Sirianni is coaching for his job. With the amount of injuries and bad luck to happen this season, winning games from here on out is not a barometer of success. In a vacuum, the Eagles have probably already decided whether they will bring him back next year one way or another. However, losing makes people do strange things (remember Joe Judge with the Giants?). Should frustration finally boil over in these last two months, you can see Howie Roseman and Jeff Lurie changing their mind from keeping him around another year to pulling the plug. Personally, I think Nick is gone regardless.
The situation with Sean Mannion is much stickier. Over the last 4 seasons, the Eagles OC position has either led to a HC job or the unemployment line. For Mannion, it’s pretty hard to say with a straight face that he’s done a good job this year. While the offense looks the part of being modern, in practice it certainly isn’t performing like it. Of course, last year’s team was more talented and this year’s team is more hurt, but the product is terrible. Guys aren’t open, blitzing is like picking your opponent’s play in Tecmo Bowl, and there has been ZERO in terms of in game adjustments to exploit a defense. It sure as anything seems like he’s in over his head. Will the Eagles cut bait again though on an outside hire that they liked? Sirianni was in position to pick his OC last year, but Mannion was an outside hire. Should there be a new head coach, Mannion is probably gone, but I can see him staying if Sirianni stays.
This is probably the last year for Vic Fangio in the NFL. That isn’t a knock on his defense this year either. Reports were that he almost retired in the offseason but was convinced to stay. I can’t see that happening again. The good news here is that it raises the possibility of a defensive hire for head coach. Someone like Brian Flores of Minnesota would be in the running whereas he would otherwise not be a candidate with Vic around.
As for the assistants, it’s hard to say any of them deserve to stay. Chris Kuper is the one in the headlines this season for the Eagles’ offensive line being such a disaster, but his unit is just one of many that is underperforming. The defensive line isn’t getting to the QB, the secondary has been a mess other than Quinyon Mitchell, and recent draft picks have not panned out the way they were expected all over the field.
After writing all this out, it sure seems like a full house cleaning is coming.
Photo: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license and was originally uploaded to Wikimedia by Betp. (edited)
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