Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni paces the sideline during first half action against the Philadelphia Eagles at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park on Dec. 28, 2025.
Nick Sirianni gave a very direct reason on Friday for choosing rest for his starters versus pursuit of the No. 2 seed.
"At the end of the day, it's not a guarantee that we can get the two seed, but I can guarantee that I can rest the starters," he said. "I just felt that was the best thing for our football team. I feel really good about the guys that are going to go in there and play — obviously you can't rest everybody — we had a good week of practice and we're going in there to try to win the game with some guys who haven't played a ton of snaps on offense and defense but who have contributed.
"I just felt that was the best thing for the football team this week and moving forward."
Nick Sirianni says he decided to rest most of the starters in part because he can “guarantee rest but can’t guarantee the two seed”
Says they will try to win the game and is excited for the players who will be on the field pic.twitter.com/YXa177RiCl
Some fans are mad at this decision — much in the same way they were mad that Sirianni didn't give Saquon Barkley a chance at breaking the single-season rushing record last season when he was rested in Week 18.
How'd that work out?
The point is, this is a no-brainer. I'm not one who usually agrees with Sirianni, but there are two things at play here with his resting of most of his starters that aren't really being considered by those pushing back against this gameplan.
1. The difference between the No. 2 seed and the No. 3 seed is marginal (yes, I know about the possibility of an extra home game).
2. The Eagles can still beat the Washington Commanders with their backups.
Let's consider that second one first.
Tanner McKee is a competent quarterback. Heck, there were people in this town calling for the Eagles to think about playing him instead of Jalen Hurts a few weeks ago.
Commanders aren’t ready to play Tanner McKee in the Kelly Greens 😈🦅 pic.twitter.com/ASa649sf0n
And as Sirianni stated, he can't rest everybody. He's going to rest the guys who need it the most — physically — or guys who he feels he can ill-afford to lose to an injury before the playoffs.
But other guys are going to play. And if you've been a backup all season, you're going to be fired up to get out there and show you belong on the field.
Some guys could be playing for future jobs. This game will matter immensely to those Eagles.
And Sirianni didn't say it, but he's confident his backups can win this game.
And if they do, you get the added bonus of them putting your team in a position to potentially get the No. 2 seed, and you created a bye for your regulars in the process.
That's the best outcome.
The worst outcome?
You are the No. 3 seed, and you created a bye for your regulars in the process.
Neither one sounds like a bad option. And both were created by the decision to rest the players.
It's smart. The Eagles stumbled enough to not get the No. 1 seed and the all-important bye that comes with that, so they are making a bye for themselves, just a week earlier than the winner of Seattle and San Francisco will get.
Now, the difference between No. 2 and No. 3 that I say is not significant enough, but that the detractors are most upset about.
There are a lot of variables to consider here.
First and foremost, the Eagles aren't in a "control their own destiny" situation. They need help from a beat-up and defeated Detroit Lions team that collapsed and missed the playoffs.
They need them to go on the road, against a very good Chicago Bears team, and beat that same team who was going toe-to-toe in an offensive showcase with the 49ers last Sunday night.
It's a very tall task. The odds are long. The Bears are peaking at the end of the season, and you know they're going to go into that game looking to lock up that spot and draw a scuffling Green Bay team as opposed to either a rematch with San Francisco or the dangerous L.A. Rams.
And that's just one piece of it.
Another piece is, you can still end up with a second home game. If Green Bay beats Chicago in the Wild Card Round, then you would host the winner of the No. 4 seed vs. No. 5 seed.
The final piece is this — since the playoffs were expanded to include seven teams in each conference in 2020, the No. 2 seed and the No. 3 seed have met in the Divisional Round six times.
The No. 2 seed won three times and the No. 3 seed won three times. Yes, it's been 50/50 when these seeds meet. There's been no inherent advantage.
Not only that, five of the six games have been incredibly close. Only the first one — a 17-3 win by Buffalo over Baltimore in a mostly empty stadium thanks to Covid — was not nip and tuck the entire way.
You may remember one of them, fondly:
Play of the Day No. 124: Saquon Barkley is off to the races for a 78-yard touchdown in the Divisional Round snow game in Philadelphia (Eagles vs. Rams, 2024-25. Divisional Round). #POTD pic.twitter.com/EgmzF9V8vu
So, where the game is played is mostly meaningless. The odds are you are getting a nailbiter of a game whether it's here, or in Chicago.
Sure, it would be cooler for Eagles fans to have a game they can attend in person, but it isn't Sirianni's job to worry about that. It's his job to win, and the best path to doing that is giving his best players a week off, regardless of where they end up being seeded in the end.
