Eagles Week 16 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 after their win over the Carolina Panthers Week 14.

The Eagles can clinch the NFC East Week 16

The Eagles could have clinched the NFC East Week 15 with a win over the Steelers and a Commanders loss to the Saints. The Eagles held up their end of the bargain, but a Saints two-point conversion at the end of regulation failed and the Commanders held on for the win, keeping their slim divisional hopes alive for another week.

With three games to play and a three-game lead over the Commanders, the Eagles' "magic number" to win the division is one, as in, one Eagles win or tie — or one Commanders loss or tie — will clinch the NFC East. The Eagles' Week 16 opponent is… well, the Commanders, so they'll have a chance to clinch the division over the team that is chasing them with a win or tie.

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 the Packers lose to the Saints Week 16.

1-seed watch

The Lions still currently hold the tiebreaker over the Eagles after losing at home to the Bills on Sunday. If you read us regularly, you have probably already seen our Eagles-Lions tiebreaker primer. But if not:

• 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.

• 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 Week 14, they clinched at least a tie in common opponent records.

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• Fourth tiebreaker: Strength of victory in all games: The combined winning percentage of the teams the Lions have beaten is way higher than the combined winning percentage of the teams the Eagles have beaten. The Lions are going to win this tiebreaker.

Heading into Week 15, the Eagles needed the Lions to lose at least two games down the stretch. One down, one to go.

The Eagles also have to worry about the 11-2 Vikings for the 1 seed, even if the Lions falter. The Eagles-Vikings tiebreaker would be decided by strength of victory, which would likely be won by the Vikings, but is not completely out of reach. Deniz Selman already mapped out the strength of victory race with the Vikings:

Basically, wins by the Rams, Saints, Panthers, Giants, Commanders, and Ravens the rest of this season will help the Eagles with this tiebreaker, which again… unlikely.

So the Vikings would ideally lose at least one more game. The Vikings face the Bears on Monday Night Football Week 15.

The Eagles', Lions' and Vikings' remaining schedules:

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