Eagles Week 15 playoff clinching and seeding scenarios

Each week we'll track the Philadelphia Eagles' playoff clinching scenarios and seeding possibilities as they continue to progress throughout the rest of the regular season. They already clinched at least the 7 seed on Sunday.

The Eagles can clinch the NFC East Week 15

With their win over the Panthers on Sunday, the Eagles now have a three-game lead over the Commanders with four games to go, plus a perfect 3-0 record in the division and a head-to-head win over Washington already in the bank. They can clinch the NFC East with a win over the Steelers Week 15 and a Commanders loss to the Saints.

Should they clinch the division on Sunday, the Eagles would also clinch at least the 3 seed. They would clinch the 2 seed if the Seahawks also lose to the Packers.

Other playoff-clinching scenarios

Let's first look at the NFC standings:

As noted above, the Eagles already clinched at least the 7 seed. They would clinch at least the 6 seed if they beat the Steelers and the Packers lose to the Seahawks. (In this scenario, the Commanders would have beaten the Saints, because an Eagles win and Commanders loss would give the Eagles at least the 3 seed.)

1-seed watch

The Lions beat the Packers Week 14, which put a dent in the Eagles' chances of overtaking the Lions for the 1 seed. An updated Eagles-Lions tiebreaker primer:

• First tiebreaker: Head-to-head matchup: Not applicable.

• Second tiebreaker: Better conference record: Both of the Eagles' losses were to NFC teams, so they cannot win this tiebreaker if they and the Lions both finish 15-2. They can win it if they both teams finish 14-3, AND the Eagles' final loss is to the Steelers, AND all three of the Lions' losses are to NFC teams.

• Third tiebreaker: Record against common opponents (minimum of four): The Eagles and Lions have five common opponent this year, shown below:

As you can see, the Lions are 5-1 against their common opponents. With their win over the Packers Thursday night, they clinched at least a tie in common opponent records.

• Fourth tiebreaker: Strength of victory in all games: The combined record of the teams the Lions have beaten so far is 79-76. The combined record of the teams the Eagles have beaten is 57-84. It's safe to say the Lions are going to win this tiebreaker.

Basically, the Eagles need the Lions to lose two more games. Detroit's remaining schedule:

• Week 15: Bills (10-3)
• Week 16: At Bears (4-9)
• Week 17: At 49ers (6-7)
• Week 18: Vikings (11-2)

It's certainly possible that the Lions can lose two of their four remaining games, but the Eagles would also have to win out, or again, only lose one game, specifically to the Steelers. Inpredictable gives the Eagles a 16 percent chance of earning the 1 seed.

• MORE EAGLES
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• Game ball, three stars, and snap count analysis: Week 14, Eagles vs. Panthers

The Eagles also have to worry about the Vikings for the 1 seed, even if the Lions falter. The Eagles-Vikings tiebreakers are a little more complicated, but the short-short version is that the Vikings pretty much have to lose at least one more game, even if the Eagles win out. The Eagles would hold a tiebreaker over the Vikings if the Vikings and Eagles both lost one more game and the Eagles' loss was to the Steelers.

As far as the 1 seed is concerned, the Eagles' game this Sunday against the Steelers isn't super meaningful.

(Clinching scenarios collected with help from playoffstatus.com.)

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