Eagles vs Giants: What to watch for

I typically do these "what to watch for" type posts prior to most Eagles games, but this time around I realized that most of the relevant things to watch won't actually be a part of today's game.

For the Eagles, it's really all about draft positioning and for the Giants, it's about trying to back into the playoffs.

We'll start with the Eagles. A loss would mean they pick no worse than 4th. Should the Raiders beat the Chargers today, the Eagles would pick 3rd. The good news is that if the Eagles win today, it wouldn't change a whole lot. They can't drop lower than 7th and would only do so if the Lions, Bills & Browns all lost. The Lions are at home against the Bears, the Bills at home against the Jets and Browns are on the road to face the Steelers.

I would say there's a decent chance at least one of those teams could find a win, so a win over the Giants would likely only drop the Eagles from #4 to #6.

And it would be kind of nice to beat the Giants because doing so would eliminate them from playoff contention. Of course, the Giants need a lot more than just a win to get themselves into the postseason. They also need Detroit to beat Chicago, the Packers to beat Minnesota and the Redskins to beat the Cowboys in what is more or less the "NFC East title game."

The good thing for the Giants is that 2 of 3 teams they need to win are at home, however all 3 of their opponents have a lot to play for. The Bears & Cowboys need a win to get a playoff berth and the Packers are playing for a first round bye. In the case of the Packers, that's a good thing for the Giants, but then again the Vikings are also playing for a playoff berth.