Eagles clinch NFC East; Cowboys' 30-year Super Bowl drought persists

The Dallas Cowboys' bid for a Super Bowl appearance ended Saturday night as the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Washington Commanders 29-18, clinching Philadelphia's second straight NFC East title. The result sealed Dallas’s postseason fate and left the Cowboys to finish the regular season with nothing at stake. Philadelphia’s win also crowned the NFC East’s first back-to-back champion since the 2004 Eagles, underscoring a win-for-win shift in a division that has flipped recently between the two programs.

With the result, Dallas was eliminated from playoff contention and will close the season with nothing at stake in their final game. Philadelphia sealed the division for the second consecutive year, becoming the NFC East's first repeat champion since 2004. The Cowboys’ 30-year wait for a Super Bowl appearance now extends into a third decade, a reality that will dominate offseason conversations in Dallas.

Entering the night, Dallas still carried a theoretical path to the division crown, but it required a perfect combination of outcomes. The Cowboys would have needed to win their final three games and have Philadelphia lose its final three to claim the NFC East. That scenario dissolved when Philadelphia beat Washington, and Dallas’s postseason hopes vanished at the same time. The loss reaffirmed Dallas’s playoff drought, marking two straight years without a postseason appearance—the first time since 2020 that the franchise has failed to reach the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.

Beyond the immediate outcome, the day’s cricket-bite of quarterback and personnel decisions around Dallas drew significant attention. The Cowboys’ aggressive moves at the trading deadline—sending a 2027 first-round pick and a 2026 second-round pick to the New York Jets for defensive tackle Quinnen Williams—were front and center in debates about whether Dallas maximized its window. Williams is under contract through 2027, a detail that has prompted praise for fortifying the middle but skepticism about the short-term payoff given a season that did not yield a playoff berth.

Questions about whether the Cowboys would be competitive in 2025 intensified after the team traded star linebacker Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers ahead of the season. Parsons’s absence left an evident mark on a defense that entered the year with high expectations but finished 29th in the NFL in efficiency without him. Dallas did show moments of resilience, including a three-game winning streak in November that briefly rekindled hope and kept alive a faint playoff pulse as they climbed from 3-5-1 to 6-5-1 and into consideration for the seventh seed in the conference.

That momentum was short-lived. A 44-30 primetime loss to the Detroit Lions on Dec. 4 deflated the rally and dropped Dallas’s playoff chances to about 8%. They then followed with a home defeat to the Minnesota Vikings, a loss that effectively ended the Cowboys’ postseason run and left them to ponder a difficult offseason with questions about the roster, coaching, and the overall direction of the franchise.

The Eagles, by contrast, remain focused on defending their title. Philadelphia will finish its season against the Buffalo Bills next week and then host Washington in Week 18 for a rematch that could shape seedings and momentum entering the playoffs. The club endured a midseason stretch that included a three-game skid—highlighted by a late, 21-point blown lead to Dallas—but rebounded with consistency and a late-season push that solidified their standing atop the division.

This outcome shifts the NFL landscape in meaningful ways. For Dallas, the immediate offseason will center on how to rebuild sharply around a core that has been both productive and polarizing in different moments of a season that failed to reach the goals the fan base expected. The broader conversation in Dallas will address whether personnel moves at the top of the depth chart align with a sustained championship window, how aggressively the team will pursue upgrades in the secondary and along the edge, and what role, if any, coaching decisions will play in a franchise known for its high expectations.

For Philadelphia, the focus remains on sustaining the run. The Eagles’ ability to navigate the remainder of the schedule while protecting the division title keeps them in position to contend for a deep postseason run, even as they managed a turbulent stretch earlier in the year. The dynamic between the two teams in the NFC East—pushed by the Cowboys’ roster changes, draft decisions, and potential cap-management strategies—will be a talking point across the league as teams reassess their windows and plan for 2025 and beyond.

As the season wraps up, the broader NFL storyline centers on how teams balance short-term results with long-term productivity. The Cowboys’ 2025 trajectory, shaped by trades and player moves, and the Eagles’ continued pursuit of back-to-back success will define next spring’s headlines, with fans and analysts watching closely to see which strategy ultimately yields the championship arc each franchise seeks.