With Eagles now in playoffs, 10 facts and figures on their postseason history originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
After the lights at the Linc had dimmed and the parking lots had emptied out, the Eagles clinched a playoff spot Sunday with very little drama.
The combination of the Lions beating the Packers on Thursday, then the Eagles beating the Panthers, the Vikings beating the Falcons and finally the Seahawks beating the Cards on Sunday added up to a fourth straight postseason berth for the Eagles.
There’s still plenty of regular-season football to play, but here are 10 Eagles postseason facts and figures to put another playoff berth in perspective.
1. When the Eagles clinched a playoff spot, it made Nick Sirianni just the sixth coach in NFL history to reach the postseason in each of his first four seasons. The first was Paul Brown, who won the old AAFC in his first four seasons – 1946 through 1949. When the Browns joined the NFL in 1950, Brown led the Browns to the NFL Championship Game in each of the next six seasons, winning titles in 1950, 1954 and 1955. So Brown reached the postseason in his first 10 years as a head coach and first six years in the NFL. Chuck Knox led the Rams to the playoffs each year from 1973 through 1977, John Robinson also with the Rams made the postseason from 1983 through 1986, Bill Cowher got there his first five years with the Steelers from 1992 through 1997 and most recently John Harbaugh took the Ravens to the postseason in each of his first five years, from 2008 through 2012.
2. Andy Reid is now the only coach in Eagles history to take more teams to the playoffs than Sirianni. Reid spent 14 years as the Eagles’ head coach, and his teams went to the postseason nine times. Dick Vermeil also had four playoff teams – four in a row from 1978 through 1981 – and Greasy Neale, Buddy Ryan and Doug Pederson each had three.
3. Since 1988, the Eagles have reached the playoffs 23 out of 37 years. No team has been to the playoffs more, although that could change. The Packers have gone 23 times since 1988 and will likely make that 24 times in the next week or two. The Steelers have gone 22 times and will likely make it 23. The Patriots are also at 23. The 2nd-most among NFC teams since 1988 is the 49ers, who’ve reached the playoffs 19 times since 1988.
4. In all, the Eagles have reached the postseason 31 times in their existence. Obviously there were no wild cards before the AFL-NFL merger, but it’s still crazy to think that the Eagles have reached the postseason more since 2000 (16 times) than before 2000 (15 times).
5. The Eagles haven’t gone more than three years without reaching the postseason since a six-year gap from 1982 through 1987 spanning Dick Vermeil’s final season, all three Marion Campbell seasons and Buddy Ryan’s first two seasons. The only NFL team that’s gone longer without three consecutive seasons out of the playoffs is the Vikings, who went four seasons without a playoff appearance from 1983 through 1986. So they’ve gone one year longer than the Eagles. The Eagles would have been a playoff team in 1987 if the strike replacement games didn’t count. They were 7-5 in non-strike games but 0-3 in the replacement games.
6. The Eagles are currently the only NFC team to reach the playoffs in each of the last four seasons. The Buccaneers, atop the NFC South at 7-6, have a chance to join them, but they haven’t clinched yet. Only the Chiefs and Bills have also clinched at least a fourth consecutive playoff berth. Other teams that reached the playoffs in 2021, 2022 and 2023 are the Cowboys and 49ers, who haven’t been officially eliminated from postseason contention but both have losing records.
7. There are 12 Eagles players who have a chance to play in the postseason for the Eagles for a fourth straight year: Landon Dickerson, Kenny Gainwell, Jalen Hurts, Dallas Goedert, Lane Johnson, DeVonta Smith and Jordan Mailata on offense, Darius Slay, Avonte Maddox and Milton Williams on defense and Jake Elliott and Rick Lovato on special teams. With Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox retired and Brandon Graham out for the rest of the year, only Johnson, Elliott and Lovato remain on the active roster from the 2017 Super Bowl team.
8. Nick Sirianni is the 11th active head coach to reach the playoffs at least four times. Of the 10 others, it took John Harbaugh four years to take a fourth team to the postseason, Andy Reid, Sean McDermott, Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur and Mike Tomlin took five years, Mike McCarthy, Doug Pederson and Sean Payton six years and Kyle Shanahan seven years.
9. The 2017 and 2018 seasons remain the only consecutive seasons in the last 20 years in which the Eagles have won a playoff game. They won at least one postseason game each year from 2000 through 2004. The only other years they won postseason games in consecutive years are 1948 and 1949 and 1979 and 1980.
10. This is the Eagles’ 31st time making the playoffs. Of the eight original NFL teams from 1933, the Eagles’ first season (the Cincinnati Reds disbanded after 1934 and the Brooklyn Dodgers after 1944), the Steelers, Packers and Giants have been to the postseason more – 36 times for the Steelers and Packers, 33 times for the Giants. Of those eight remaining teams from 1933, the Cards have reached the postseason the fewest – just 11 times in 92 years.
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