Eagles vs. Redskins Week 17 game start time changed

The NFL officially announced some changes to the Week 17 schedule in order to potentially prevent teams from resting their starters in the 2018 regular season finale.

Instead of playing at 1:00 PM ET on Sunday, December 30, the Philadelphia Eagles will now play the Washington Redskins at 4:25 PM ET on FOX. The Eagles obviously must beat Washington in order to have a shot at making the playoffs.

Another game of interest for the Eagles has been flexed; the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings are now also playing at 4:25 PM ET instead of 1:00 PM. The Bears have incentive to play their starters because a Chicago win plus a Los Angeles Rams loss means the Bears clinch a first-round bye by earning the No. 2 seed. Although, the Bears could potentially pull their starters if they see Los Angeles jump out to a big lead on San Fran.

Speaking of the Rams, they’re still scheduled to play the San Francisco 49ers at 4:25 PM ET as originally scheduled. The Niners have been playing teams tough over the past three weeks, for what it’s worth.

The Seattle Seahawks are also set to host the Arizona Cardinals at 4:25 PM ET. This game is only of interest to Philadelphia if Seattle loses to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football. An Eagles win PLUS the Seahawks losing twice (vs. KC, vs. AZ) allows Philly to make the playoffs, regardless of what Minnesota does.

In other news, the league flexed the Indianapolis Colts at Tennessee Titans game to an 8:20 PM ET. That’ll be the last game of the regular season. It’s a win-and-in scenario.