NFL playoffs: Will the Eagles play next Saturday or Sunday?

With their first-round bye, Philadelphia Eagles aren’t set to compete until the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs. Will their opening game be on Saturday or Sunday?

The Philadelphia Eagles won’t be in action during the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs, having secured the top seed in the NFC and the first-round bye that comes with it.

Their first game of the postseason is scheduled to take place next weekend against whichever one of the other three remaining NFC teams is seeded lowest.

While it hasn’t yet been confirmed whether Nick Sirianni’s team will be playing on Saturday or Sunday of next week, there is a good chance that it will depend on who their opponent ends up being.

With the No. 5 seed Dallas Cowboys and the No. 4 seed Tampa Bay Buccaneers set to play on Monday night to wrap up the Wild Card round, there is a very good – if not 100% – chance that the NFL will schedule the winner of that game to play next Sunday instead of Saturday, to prevent that team from having just four days of rest.

Last season, the first season in which a Monday night Wild Card game was contested, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Arizona Cardinals and then squared off against the Buccaneers the following Sunday, not Saturday.

We know that if the No. 7 seed Seattle Seahawks beat the No. 2 seed San Francisco 49ers, they will face off against the Eagles, as the Seahawks are seeded lowest among all NFC playoff teams.

This scenario would likely mean that the Eagles suit up on Saturday for their first game of the NFL Playoffs.

A Seahawks win would result in the winner of the Cowboys vs. Buccaneers game taking on the winner of the game between the No. 6 seed New York Giants and the No. 3 seed Minnesota Vikings.

If the Giants beat the Vikings – even if the Seahawks lose – the Eagles would also presumably be given a Saturday playoff game, since this would ensure that the winner of the Cowboys vs. Buccaneers game does not play the Eagles next week.

But if both the 49ers and Vikings take care of business, then the Eagles would take on the winner of the Cowboys vs. Buccaneers game in a matchup that would be a hypothetical lock for a Sunday time slot.

In short, if the Seahawks and/or Giants win this weekend, expect the Eagles to be in action next Saturday against one of the two. If not, expect them to be in action next Sunday against the Cowboys or Buccaneers.

Update: The Eagles’ opponent is the Giants. The expectation is they’ll meet on Saturday.

The 49ers took care of business. The Vikings didn’t. The Eagles’ first game of the NFL Playoffs is scheduled to take place next weekend, and now we know the opponent. They take on the sixth seed, the hated New York Giants, and with that, we can make educated guesses, though the NFL has made no official announcement, that the game will be played on Saturday.

The winner of Cowboys/Bucs is expected to face the Niners on Sunday to avoid the winner having to play on only four days of rest.