Eagles will not face punishment for Week 17 quarterback substitution decision

(Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

By Sam Britt

The Philadelphia Eagles will not be penalized for the handling of a quarterback substitution in Week 17 because the NFL couldn’t determine that the Eagles intentionally tried to lose the game, according to the Associated Press.

Doug Pederson, who was fired on Monday, chose to substitute quarterback Jalen Hurts in the fourth quarter of their season finale against the Washington Football Team for third-string quarterback Nate Sudfeld, who hadn’t thrown a pass since 2018.

The Eagles would go on to lose the game 20-14.

The win allowed for the Washington Football Team to avoid a tie with the New York Giants and win the NFC East.

“To disrespect the effort that everyone put forward to make this season a success for the National Football League, to disrespect the game by going out there and not competing for 60 minutes and doing everything you can to help those players win, we will never do that as long as I’m the head coach of the New York Giants,” Giants coach Joe Judge said.

With the loss, the Eagles' draft position improved from 9th overall to 6th overall.

Giants players and fans were outraged and accused the Eagles of tanking the game, or losing on purpose to secure a better draft pick.

Peterson told the quarterback group in the week prior to the game that Sudfeld would get some snaps. Hurts also only completed 7 of 20 passes for 72 yards and one interception before he was benched.

These reasons were why no penalty will be levied against the Eagles.

“Doug said we were going to use as many young players as we could” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said. “I think Doug just wanted to give Nate a chance. He deserved it. He’s been part of our Super Bowl-winning team, he contributed to the scout team, he contributed so much. And I think it was just with good intentions. The circumstances weren’t the best, maybe the communication wasn’t the best. We would’ve loved to have eliminated Washington.”

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