PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Super Bowl champion Eagles are set to play for the No. 2 seed in the NFC — without several key starters.
Which ones, coach Nick Sirianni declined to say.
Yet it seems like a safe bet Sirianni — who last season benched Saquon Barkley in the finale with his shot at the NFL rushing record at stake — will again rest Barkley, Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts and other pivotal players in Sunday's home game against Washington.
The Eagles (11-5) would earn the No. 2 seed if they beat the Commanders (4-12) on Sunday and Chicago loses to Detroit.
If not, the Eagles are the No. 3 seed.
What difference does one seed make?
Plenty.
The No. 2 seed could earn the Eagles two home playoff games and maybe even three if the top seed (San Francisco or Seattle) lose in the playoffs. The scenario could happen — just as it did last season when No. 1 seed Detroit lost and the Eagles won three home games on the way to their Super Bowl championship.
Sirianni has stressed this week the value of a game off —- essentially a bye week — and used examples such as last season when Week 18 was a bye week for the Eagles starters and they rolled to the franchise's second Super Bowl championship with a rout over Kansas City.
Hurts, who twice this season has failed to complete a pass in the second half of wins against Tampa Bay and Buffalo, understood he could yield the starting job to Tanner McKee.
“Just giving my trust to the coaches and trust in their plans and everything they do,” Hurts said Wednesday.
The Eagles will sit some starters, some will be limited, and others will be dressed but not play as the team needs to meet the league minimum of available players.
“If I look back at how beneficial some of the byes that we’ve had have been, that’s part of the reason why you think through it. It’s a marathon of a season,” Sirianni said. “You give your guys some rest, you get some time to think through some different things, even though you’re preparing for an opponent as you go. Both times that I’ve been here that we’ve been to the Super Bowl, we’ve had that opportunity for a bye, and that’s ’22 and obviously ‘24.”
The Eagles are currently the No. 3 seed and could host the Rams or the 49ers in the wild-card round. If they earn the No. 2 seed, the Eagles will host the Packers.
The Eagles are poised to turn to McKee, a sixth-round pick out of Stanford in 2023 who has thrown for 356 career yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions in limited action the last two seasons.
“I think that when you see Tanner, he’s really good about knowing where to go with the football, seeing the defense, and being able to deliver things accurately,” Sirianni said. “It’s a great room where those guys feed off each other and learn from each other. He’s got Jalen, being able to learn from Jalen, which is a huge deal.”
Sirianni's decision dropped the Eagles from eight-point favorites on Monday to beat the Commanders to four-point favorites on Wednesday, per BetMGM Sportsbook. The Eagles clinched the NFC East two weeks ago with a 29-18 win over the Commanders — who are expected to start third-string quarterback Josh Johnson on Sunday.
McKee threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns in a game full of backups to help the Eagles tune up for the postseason with a 20-13 victory over the Giants in last season's finale.
Barkley lost his shot at breaking Eric Dickerson’s NFL single-season rushing record. Barkley finished the season with 2,005 yards rushing, 101 yards shy of breaking Dickerson’s record of 2,105 yards set with the Los Angeles Rams in 1984.
Hurts was sidelined with a concussion but wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and offensive linemen Landon Dickerson and Lane Johnson were among the regulars who sat out against the Giants last season.
The Eagles are rolling the dice they can beat the Commanders and possibly earn the No. 2 seed without their best players.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley celebrates a first down against Washington Commanders safety Will Harris (3) during the first half of an NFL football game, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni reacts after the Eagles blocked an extra point attempt during the second half of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Philadelphia Eagles' Jalen Hurts passes during the second half of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he’s dropping — for now — his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, a move that comes after legal roadblocks held up the effort.
“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!" he said in a social media post Wednesday.
Governors typically control states' National Guardsmen, and Trump had deployed troops to all three cities against the wishes of state and local Democratic leaders. He said it was necessary as part of a broader crackdown on immigration, crime and protests.
The president has made a crackdown on crime in cities a centerpiece of his second term — and has toyed with the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act to stop his opponents from using the courts to block his plans. He has said he sees his tough-on-crime approach as a winning political issue ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Troops had already left Los Angeles after the president deployed them earlier this year as part of a broader crackdown on crime and immigration.
In his post, Trump said the troops' presence was responsible for a drop in crime in the three cities, though they were never on the streets in Chicago and Portland as legal challenges played out. When the Chicago deployment was challenged in court, a Justice Department lawyer said the Guard’s mission would be to protect federal properties and government agents in the field, not “solving all of crime in Chicago.”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson’s office in a statement said the city’s reduction in crime was due to the efforts of local police and public safety programs. Chicago officials echoed the sentiment, saying in a release Tuesday that the city had 416 homicides in 2025 — the fewest since 2014.
Trump’s push to deploy the troops in Democrat-led cities has been met with legal challenges at nearly every turn.
The Supreme Court in December refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area. The order was not a final ruling but was a significant and rare setback by the high court for the president’s efforts.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote on X Wednesday that Trump “lost in court when Illinois stood up against his attempt to militarize American cities with the National Guard. Now Trump is forced to stand down.”
Hundreds of troops from California and Oregon were deployed to Portland, but a federal judge barred them from going on the streets. A judge permanently blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there in November after a three-day trial.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said in a statement Wednesday that her office had not yet received “official notification that the remaining federalized Oregon National Guard troops can return home. They were never lawfully deployed to Portland and there was no need for their presence. If President Trump has finally chosen to follow court orders and demobilize our troops, that’s a big win for Oregonians and for the rule of law.”
Trump's decision to federalize National Guard troops began in Los Angeles in June, when protesters took to the streets in response to a blitz of immigration arrests in the area. He deployed about 4,000 troops and 700 Marines to guard federal buildings and, later, to protest federal agents as they carried out immigration arrests.
The number of troops slowly dwindled until just several hundred were left. They were removed from the streets by Dec. 15 after a lower court ruling that also ordered control to be returned to Gov. Gavin Newsom. But an appeals court had paused the second part of the order, meaning control remained with Trump. In a Tuesday court filing, the Trump administration said it was no longer seeking a pause in that part of the order.
“About time (Trump) admitted defeat,” Newsom said in a social media post. “We’ve said it from day one: the federal takeover of California’s National Guard is illegal.”
Troops will remain on the ground in several other cities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in December paused a lower court ruling that had called for an end to the deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., where they’ve been deployed since August after Trump declared a “crime emergency.”
Trump also ordered the deployment of the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis in September as part of a larger federal task force to combat crime, a move supported by the state’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee and senators. A Tennessee judge blocked the use of the Guard, siding with Democratic state and local officials who sued. However, the judge stayed the decision to block the Guard as the state appeals, allowing the deployment to continue.
In New Orleans, about 350 National Guard troops deployed by Trump arrived in the city's historic French Quarter on Tuesday and are set to stay through Mardi Gras to help with safety. The state's Republican governor and the city's Democratic mayor support the deployment.
Ding reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press reporters John O'Connor in Springfield, Illinois, Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, Jack Brook in New Orleans and Adrian Sanz in Memphis contributed.
FILE - A protester confronts a line of U.S. National Guard members in the Metropolitan Detention Center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)
FILE - Protesters stand off against California National Guard soldiers at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, during a "No Kings" protest, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
