How likely are the Eagles to make the playoffs?

BGN’s own John Stolnis wrote that the Eagles’ chances of making the postseason are on the upswing. He’s right and the numbers back it up.

Following the Birds’ 30-13 win over the Broncos in Denver, FiveThirtyEight gives the Eagles a 26 percent chance of reaching the playoffs.

If the Eagles pick up a W over New Orleans on Sunday, those odds shoot up to 40 percent. If we want to get wild, a win against the Saints coupled with road wins in the Meadowlands against the Giants and Jets would have the Birds’ chances leap to 67 percent. Let’s get wild.

Conversely, if the Eagles were to lose to the Saints this weekend, their odds would go down to 10 percent.

I wrote earlier that I do believe that the Birds are going to go on this three-game run. Sitting at 7-6 heading into their bye week with the NFC playoff race up in the air would be an absolute win.

The top five seeds in the NFC will likely be the Cardinals, Rams, Packers, Buccaneers and Cowboys in some order. Those final two Wild Card spots are up for grabs. The Birds will be contending with the Saints (5-4), Panthers (5-5), Falcons (4-5), Vikings (4-5), 49ers (4-5) and Seahawks (3-6) for that positioning. The Eagles already have tiebreakers over the Panthers and Falcons with their head-to-head wins (the 49ers have it over them), so getting that advantage after beating New Orleans on Sunday would be huge.

When the NFL unveiled their new playoff system last year that saw an extra Wild Card team added to each conference’s postseason format, I was skeptical. When you’re used to something, whether it’s in sports or life at large, change can be weird. I felt that way when a second Wild Card team was added to Major League Baseball. These move gave hope when it was least expected though. It kept more teams involved as the season went on. That’s great for baseball. With a seventh seed up for grabs in the NFL now, so many more fan bases are locked in late in the season, clinging to hope and trying to believe in a way that would make Ted Lasso proud.

It only takes one Eagles seventh seed playoff berth and first round upset for me to become the biggest fan of this format on the planet.

Wild Card fever.