The final Wild Card weekend matchup kicks off around 8:15 p.m. ET, Monday, as the road favorite Eagles have a potential franchise-altering date with Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers.
Philadelphia is in a similar spot as the Cowboys were Sunday – a loss could devastate the team, coaches and fan base and make for an unhappy owner.
Plenty of Philadelphia pundits will call for the end of Nick Sirianni’s reign over the Eagles if they fall short in what has been a collapse since a 10-1 start.
It will be a fascinating “Monday Night Football” matchup with many layers of drama surrounding it.
Below, we target a few player props and picks ahead of the Eagles-Buccaneers.
Many of these are long shots, with a few lower-end over/under props as well.
This one is about opportunity, and there could be a lot of it for the aging Julio Jones.
Jones will one day see his jersey number in Canton, Ohio, but, for now, he has one last swan song against his ex-teammates.
Jones will play quite a bit with AJ Brown listed out for the Eagles on Monday.
He has actually become a legitimate piece of their offense, maxing out at a 71 percent snap rate in Week 12 when Brown was actually healthy.
Jones receives targets on 14.4 percent of routes he ran in the past eight weeks; this is second on the team behind only DeVonta Smith.
It’s not exactly likely that he grabs 60 yards Monday, but at +900 in a game where they could seriously rely on Jones, it’s worth a flyer,
The longest of these yardage ladders is probably a one-or-the-other scenario between Jones and Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert. But I’m betting on both, as the numbers are too wide to ignore.
The Buccaneers are an albatross against opposing tight ends, allowing the most yards in the NFL over the final eight games (540).
Philadelphia needs to throw the ball to someone and Goedert is an excellent receiving tight end – he is sixth among tight ends in YAC (yards after catch).
Bet365 is giving by far the best odds on both ends of this prop, with other sportsbooks at +800 for a similar yardage total for Goedert.
Goedert had 111 yards receiving earlier this season against the Rams and 92 in the Eagles’ 2021 Wild Card game in Tampa Bay.
The Philadelphia Eagles limped into the playoffs with one of the worst secondaries in the NFL and opposing receivers made a mockery of their secondary.
In comes Chris Godwin, who has been a target hog for the Buccaneers most of the season, with only three games this season with less than five targets.
The Eagles allowed a whopping 13 receiving touchdowns to wide receivers, second-most in the NFL.
Mike Evans receives tons of love in the red zone and he should, but the odds are too wide on Godwin here.