Three Eagles with Three Different Playoff Paths
The Eagles have several players who have been down this road before, the one that leads directly to the second round and all the way to the Super Bowl.
Guys like Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham did it in 2017, the last time the Eagles had the No. 1 seed and spent the first weekend of the playoffs kicking back and relaxing before triumphing in Minneosta to capture the franchise's first Super Bowl title in early Feb, 2018.
A.J. Brown has been a visitor to the playoffs every year since entering the league in 2019, and is 2-3 in the postseason.
Ndamukong Suh has had a first-round bye once but also had to play in the first-round. Both times, his teams went to the Super Bowl.
Then, there’s Haason Reddick, who has never made the playoffs.
"It's a great feeling not cleaning up your locker,” he told reporters on Friday. “Usually, I'm planning what trip I'm gonna go on but now I'm here with a chance to fight for something special, be a part of something special and I'm, trying to do my best to make sure we hit that goal at the end of the day.”
Suh was part of an L.A. Rams team that was seeded second in the 2018 playoffs, making it to the Super Bowl before bowing to the New England Patriots.
He won a Super Bowl in the 2020 playoffs as a fifth seed, having to win three times just to get to the big gae then winning there, 31-9, over the Chiefs.
“I think it’s important to definitely take the shortest route to the Super Bowl,” said Suh. “I’ve done it both ways, whether it was in LA when we got a first-round bye, or with Tampa when we had to go through the wildcard series. At the end of the day, we have an opportunity where our first game is the divisional game, and we’re not going to take anyone lightly.”
“…Obviously, being able to be at home, not having to travel because traveling in general takes a toll on you.”
As for Brown, it didn’t go so well last year when the Titans were the No. 1 seed, losing to Cincinnati, 19-16, in the Divisional Round.
“Hey, sometimes it happens like that,” said Brown, who was named second-team All-Pro on Friday.
Brown said he didn’t plan on doing anything differently this year than last. He will take care of his body, watch film, and, when he returned to practice on Friday after having Thursday off, work on the details of his game.
“It’s pros and cons to everything,” he said about the week off before beginning the playoff ride a week after 12 teams will play in Super Wildcard Weekend.
“Some people say, ‘how they gonna keep the ball rolling? They’ve been off a week.’ Like I said, pros and cons to everything. And some will say, ‘You giving guys time to get healthy.’ We’re professionals. It’s what we do.
“We know if we don’t come out and play our best ball, it could be our last time that we play. It’s just about how you handle things, and how you look at things, and we just try to look at things on the positive side and not on the negative side.”
Brown’s rookie year, he won two games with the Titans before losing to the Chiefs, 35-24, in the AFC Championship Game. In 2020, Tennessee bowed out in the wildcard round.
“It’s details,” said Suh. “It comes down to every single inch, every single blade of grass. It’s very important to be very unselfish and find ways to get the ball back to the offense so they can score points.”
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
