The San Francisco 49ers will find out who their Wild Card opponent will be next week before Sunday night football kicks off.
One of their potential matchups, the Philadelphia Eagles, will rest several starters on Sunday. Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and the entire starting offensive line are not listed among the first team depth chart. Defensively, the same is true. The Eagles are punting a chance at a home game in the Divisional round in exchange for a week of health.
Philadelphia also seems comfortable with the idea of playing the 49ers next week as opposed to the Packers. Philly narrowly escaped Green Bay earlier this year in a 10-7 victory.
Let’s act as if the Eagles lose. Regardless of what happens the rest of Week 17, they are the sixth seed—assuming the Rams don’t slip up against the Cardinals Sunday afternoon.
Dan Campbell plans to play his starters, even the banged-up ones. That offense is still lethal. Way back in Week 2, the Lions beat the Bears 52-21. Of course, these are much different teams since then, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Detroit pull off a mild upset against the Bears.
Let’s pretend Tanner McKee turns into Randall Cunningham today and the Eagles beat Washington. That result, paired with a Lions win, means the 49ers would travel to Soldier Field and face a Bears team that will have revenge on its mind.
Which team would you rather face?
Facing a team twice in three weeks and expecting a win is a tall task. Chicago didn’t present much of a challenge defensively for the 49ers, but the margin for error against Caleb Williams and that offense is slim to none.
The Eagles are an elite defensive team and are the closest thing to the Seahawks’ defense in the NFC. We saw how that went for the 49ers on Saturday night. Philly is wildly inconsistent on offense, but getting stops is an issue for Robert Saleh’s unit.
This is all under the assumption that the Rams win and the 49ers won’t face the NFC South winner.
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