Eagles

If the Eagles Lose in the Playoffs, it Won’t Be Because They Rested Their Starters Against the Commanders

By Nick Piccone

Published: Jan 5th, 2026 · 12:10 PM EST

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The noise is loud.

Nick Sirianni has given local media and some fans all the ammo they need for this week after resting key starters in the season finale against the dirty Washington Commanders on Sunday.

The conversation isn’t about the 49ers, a team that’s been propped up due to having the league’s easiest schedule this season, and who just gave up 38 points to a Chicago Bears squad whose starters looked like they were resting on the field for much of their game against the Detroit Lions.

The conversation is about Sirianni’s decision to rest his starters, when the story coming out of the Commanders game should be how bad the offensive game plan remained with backups in. Are they serious in not giving Tank Bigsby a touch in the entire fourth quarter after gashing Washington for 4.7 yards per rush, ending with 75 yards on 16 carries? The game could have been that easy to win if Kevin Patullo just fed Tank. 

But winning games easily is not what this offensive coaching staff is interested in. Call it arrogance, or simple incompetence, there’s no way a team with this talent on offense should be struggling week after week to score points. 

That’s where the ire should be directed. Not because the starters weren’t playing. 

The odds Patullo would have called plays that ultimately failed with the starters in the game is pretty high. If you’ve watched any Eagles game this season, you’d know that. I mean, who in their right mind would call a prayer on 3rd and 3 when there’s plenty of time left to just get the first down and continue driving, taking time off the clock, and putting your team in a better position to score? –

That’s not because the starters weren’t playing. 

Let’s also remember the players themselves have said they wanted a physical and mental rest. Maybe the mental aspect was about not having to perform Patullo’s disgustingly bad play calls, but they welcomed rest nonetheless. If they feel better, maybe they play better. Maybe it’s prolonging the inevitable. The answer is – we don’t know. We won’t know now. Telling people to admit they were wrong about resting starters isn’t a measured take, it’s just a hot, lazy one, feeding on the negative hive mind.

Sure, injuries can happen at any time, but that’s precisely why not giving the dirty Commanders a chance at injuring a key guy is just as important. Let’s also not act like the starters “getting in a rhythm” would have boded well for the playoffs. This offense has shown streaks this season just to fall back into their consistent inconsistency due to bad execution and bad playcalling. One game against a bad Commanders team wasn’t going to fix their problems.

Under Nick Sirianni, the Eagles are 30-13 on the road. I won’t ignore that, sure, a home playoff game is probably preferable than one on the road, but it’s not as if this Eagles team can’t win on the road. If you want to throw their 0-2 road playoff record under Sirianni at me, that’s fine, but it doesn’t mean much when those were against a stacked Brady Bucs team in Hurts’ first year as a starter and a game where they were collapsing the entire second half of the season and the decision to play A.J. Brown in Week 18 cost them his services in the playoffs.

We should probably be past this doom-and-gloom outlook as a fanbase. But, admittedly, I don’t think we collectively know how to handle a Super Bowl-winning team. It’s not 2002. We’re not the Patriots or the Chiefs, but we’re not the Cowboys, either. This team overcomes disadvantages a lot, and the biggest disadvantage right now is on their own sideline. I don’t necessarily know if this entire season was meant to be vanilla so they could open up the playbook in the playoffs, but that’s not exactly a great philosophy if it was. Some of us have convinced ourselves of that because it’s been that bad offensively.

And, who knows, maybe the Eagles preferred a match-up against the 49ers the entire time?