Sunday night is straightforward.

If the Eagles win, the Cowboys or Giants are NFC East champions and Philadelphia’s draft position drops.

If the Eagles lose, the Washington Football Team becomes NFC East champions and Philadelphia’s draft position improves.

Obviously losing this game is in our best interests. We can successfully solidify our draft position and knock Dallas out of the postseason, so that sounds like a win-win to me.

You won’t hear that from the Eagles, however, because they can’t say it publicly. No coach or player or executive is going to come out and say “we need to lose this game,” because it goes against the ethos of hard-work, and giving it your all, and being a competitor on the field.

To that end, Jim Schwartz said this about Sunday’s PRIMETIME season finale:

“We have a division opponent that’s going to come and try to celebrate on our field. We gotta have a no-hat rule this week. We can’t have opponents put division winner hats on at the Linc. There’s a lot of pride in that. All of our focus has to be on accomplishing that this week.” 

That’s a good philosophy, though if the Eagles win, Dallas or New York puts on the division winner hat, so it’s kind of a wash. At least Warshington doesn’t clinch on your home turf, and that’s what Schwartz is talking about here. You avoid that insult and disgrace if you win.

People will point out that the NFL is not like the NBA, and that one great draft pick doesn’t turn around a franchise, which is mostly true. But if the Eagles stumble into a high pick in a QB-heavy draft, you’re looking at flipping that pick for multiple picks and then addressing multiple positions of need. That’s why I think this matters more than people realize. The difference between pick 10 and pick 5 doesn’t seem significant on the surface, but you are more likely to turn the latter into a batch of assets via a team trading up for a franchise quarterback.

Good on Schwartz for approaching the game the right way, but the Eagles need to lose this game for the good of the franchise.

They must lose.