Week 6 non-Eagles rooting guide

One of the best NFL viewing experiences is when your favorite team has already won their game that week, and you get to watch a full slate on Sunday games, stress-free. Eagles fans will not get to enjoy that experience this weekend after watching the Birds get stomped by a bad Giants team that was missing their best player on offense. Instead, the Week 6 slate of Sunday games will be more of a "misery loves company" situation.

Here we'll lay out a rooting guide for non-Eagles games on the NFL schedule for those of you on the fence while watching the other action around the league. And yes, I'm aware that most of the below is obvious. Ideal winners bolded.

NFC East

First, the NFC East standings:

NFC East	Record	Division	GB
Eagles	4-2	1-1	–
Commanders	3-2	1-0	0.5
Cowboys	2-2-1	1-1	1.5
Giants	2-4	1-2	2

Inpredictable.com has the Eagles as 56 percent likely to win the division.

• Cowboys at Panthers: While not legitimate contenders, the Cowboys have been better this season than I expected, and they're a bigger threat to the Eagles at the moment given the Eagles' struggles. It's best if they drop a few games.

• Bears at Commanders: The Commanders got a game closer to the Eagles in the standings Week 5 with their win over the Chargers and the Eagles' loss to the Broncos. They can take the divisional lead with a win over the Bears, on the strength of a better divisional record.

The biggest threats in the NFC

• Rams at Ravens: The Rams are the biggest threat in the NFC West. It's better for the Eagles if any other team wins that division.

• Bengals at Packers: While the Packers are a more ideal NFC North winner than the Lions, they are also a threat for playoff seeding, so a loss here is ideal.

• Lions at Chiefs: The Lions look like the best team in the NFL right now. As noted in my Week 6 picks, I'm unsure why they're underdogs to this Chiefs team that is not as good as we've become accustomed to seeing.

• 49ers at Buccaneers: The Eagles got to face the Bucs when the Bucs were very banged up, and they kind of just survived in their win. I still believe that they are a team the Eagles do not want to have to face in the playoffs.

Other NFC playoff contenders

• Seahawks at Jaguars: The Seahawks are a more ideal NFC West winner than the Rams or 49ers.

• Cardinals at Colts: The Cardinals are the most ideal NFC West winner, but they're looking like deep longshots at the moment.

• Bills at Falcons: It's more ideal if the Falcons win the NFC South instead of the Buccaneers.

Draft considerations

• Broncos at Jets: The Eagles own the Jets' third-round pick. If the season ended today, that would be the 65th overall pick, since the Jets are the NFL's only winless team. The more games they lose, the better, but it's already almost certain to be a high pick in the third round.

Also, the more games the NFL's bottom dwellers lose, the more likely it is that they will finish higher in the draft order than the Giants. It's best if teams like the Saints and Browns lose a lot of games.