Philadelphia Eagles

Where Eagles' record in 16-game era ranks vs. all 32 teams

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After teasing the move for years, the NFL has finally added a 17th game to its regular season schedule, meaning the days of going .500 are officially over (for now).

It's the end of an era; the league played 16 games every season since 1978, except for player strike-shortened seasons in 1982 and 1987. A pretty wide swath of Eagles history took place in the 16-game era, from the crushing Super Bowl XV loss, through the Donovan McNabb era, all the way to Super Bowl LII glory and now the Nick Sirianni coaching tenure.

How'd the Eagles do in that 43-season span? Pretty well!

Axios's Kendall Baker took a look at the win-loss records of all 32 teams during the 16-game era, and the Eagles stacked up fairly nicely:

Eighth in a 32-team league is not bad at all, especially when you look at how close the margin is between eighth and sixth.

Say, which team is that in sixth again?

...oh, it's the Cowboys. Ouch.

Dallas finished with seven more wins, two fewer losses, and five fewer ties than the Eagles in the 16-game era. That's a tough pill to swallow for Eagles fans, to be that close to claiming historical supremacy over that stinkin' team but ultimately come up short. The Cowboys also won three Super Bowls in the 16-game era, compared to the Eagles' one. Ah, well.

By and large, though, being the fourth-best team in the NFC over that span is a victory for the Birds, especially in an NFC East that has all four teams in the Top 20. (We'll ignore the former NFC East member Cardinals, who were the fourth-worst team in the league in the 16-game era.)

Here's hoping the Eagles can get things together in the next few years and own the 17-game era.

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