The Lab · 2026 season, results through Week 5
Sunday Rooting Guide
Pick your team and what you want for it. The guide plays out the rest of the season thousands of times and ranks the games by how much each result moves your odds, so you know who to cheer for on Sunday.
Pick any of the 32 teams. The link updates, so you can share it.
Philadelphia Eagles
2-2 · Outside the seven, 11th in the NFC · NFC East
Playoffs odds up 3 pts since the end of Week 4 (33% to 36%).
Make the playoffs
36%
Week 5: who to root for
Ranked by how far the Eagles’ chance to make the playoffs moves between the best and worst result. Changes are in percentage points.
This is the Eagles' own game. The Eagles' chance to make the playoffs is 46% if the Eagles win and 30% if the Jaguars do.
If the Eagles win (your best case)46%+10 ptsIf the Jaguars win30%−6 ptsIf it ends in a tienot worked outWhere you stand now36%0 pts- Eagles (away)
- 2-2
- Jaguars (home)
- 3-1
- The model gives the Jaguars a
- 63% chance to win
- Jaguars: other conference
The swing is measured to within about 1 point either way (95% range). Points are percentage points of the team’s chance, not percent growth.
The Giants are in the NFC East, so a loss for them helps the Eagles' race directly. The Eagles' chance to make the playoffs is 37% if the Commanders win and 34% if the Giants do.
If the Commanders win (your best case)37%+1 ptIf the Giants win34%−1 ptIf it ends in a tie33%−2 ptsWhere you stand now36%0 pts- Giants (away)
- 3-1
- Commanders (home)
- 1-3
- The model gives the Commanders a
- 52% chance to win
- Giants: division rival
- Commanders: division rival
The swing is measured to within about 1 point either way (95% range). Points are percentage points of the team’s chance, not percent growth.
The Rams are chasing the same NFC seeds, so a loss for them helps. The Eagles' chance to make the playoffs is 37% if the Bills win and 35% if the Rams do.
If the Bills win (your best case)37%+1 ptIf the Rams win35%−1 ptIf it ends in a tienot worked outWhere you stand now36%0 pts- Bills (away)
- 3-1
- Rams (home)
- 2-2
- The model gives the Rams a
- 55% chance to win
- Bills: other conference
- Rams: conference rival
The swing is measured to within about 1 point either way (95% range). Points are percentage points of the team’s chance, not percent growth.
11 other games in Week 5 move your odds by less than a point, or by less than the guide can tell apart from chance, so they are left off.
Results that already moved your odds
For each recent final, how much better or worse off the Eagles are for the way it ended, compared with the other team winning. Same goal as above: make the playoffs.
- LAR 24, PHI 20Week 4Hurt −25 pts
- ARI 24, NYG 36Week 4Hurt −5 pts
- TB 24, DAL 16Week 5Helped +4 pts
- DAL 34, HOU 30Week 4Hurt −2 pts
- IND 30, WAS 13Week 4Helped +2 pts
- DEN 14, SF 24Week 4Hurt −1 pt
- NYJ 12, CHI 23Week 4Hurt −1 pt
- LAC 23, SEA 30Week 4Hurt −1 pt
How the Sunday Rooting Guide works
For every game still to play, the guide asks one question: how much does the result change your team’s chance to make the playoffs? It plays the rest of the 2026 season 60,000 times, with the same Elo ratings and the same NFL tiebreakers as the Playoff Machine. In each simulated season it records who made the playoffs, who won each division and who took the No. 1 seed. A game’s effect is the difference between your team’s chance in the seasons where one side won and in the seasons where the other did.
Reading the numbers
Every change is in percentage points of your team’s chance, not percent growth: going from 40% to 48% is +8 points. Games are ranked by the gap between the best and the worst result, and a game is only ranked when that gap is at least a point and clearly bigger than the simulation’s own margin of error. The three goals are worked out separately, because a result that helps a wild-card chase can hurt a division race. When the standings already prove a goal is won or out of reach, the guide says so instead of showing odds. The same simulated seasons are used for every comparison, so the rankings do not shift from one reload to the next.
What it does not know
This is a model, not a forecast. The ratings come only from this season’s final scores, so early in the year they are rough. They know nothing about injuries, quarterbacks, rest or the spread, and ties are not part of the main simulation (a tie is worked out separately for the biggest games, from a smaller sample). Cross-conference games matter only through tiebreakers such as strength of victory. The numbers are rebuilt when final scores reach our data, which can take a few hours after a game ends, and a game that has just finished is taken off the list in the meantime. Last rebuilt Oct 10.
Build your own scenario in the Playoff Machine · Eagles vs. Jaguars, position group by position group · How the Eagles stack up
Schedule and scores: the nflverse nfldata games file, CC BY 4.0. Odds and tiebreakers calculated by Raiders Rundown.
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