Eagles Draft Watch: Week 15 Edition

With Sunday’s win over the Bucs, the Eagles improved to 4-9 on the season with three games left.

Three teams – the Jaguars (2-11), Chiefs (2-11) and Raiders (3-10) – have fewer wins than the Eagles. Four teams – the Panthers, Lions, Cardinals and Titans – have the same record (4-9) as the Birds.

The tiebreaker among teams with the same record is strength of schedule. The team with the overall easier schedule gets the higher pick. Here’s a look at the top five.

	Wins	Losses	Opponent SOS
Chiefs (1)	2	11	.500
Jaguars (2)	2	11	.541
Raiders (3)	3	10	.457
Eagles (4)	4	9	.510
Panthers (5)	4	9	.510
Titans (6)	4	9	.532
Cardinals (7)	4	9	.562
Lions (8)	4	9	.566

The Chiefs get the nod over the Jaguars because they’ve had an easier schedule. The Raiders are third as the only 3-9 team.

But why are the Eagles ahead of the Panthers? Somehow, their strengths of schedule are identical. Each team’s opponents have combined for a 106-102 record (.510 winning percentage) through 13 games. But the Eagles (2-8) have a worse conference record than Carolina (4-7). That gives the Birds the edge. The Eagles still have two conference games remaining – against the Redskins and Giants. The Panthers have one conference game left – in Week 17 against the Saints.

Even if the Eagles had lost yesterday, they would be fourth since the Raiders have an easier strength of schedule.

Of course, a lot can change in the next three weeks. In addition to being tied with four teams at 4-9, five teams (the Saints, Dolphins, Bills, Chargers and Browns) are just a game better at 5-8.

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.
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