Flex deadline day: NFL must decide on Eagles-Commanders in Week 8 after Hurts news and another Washington loss

Tuesday, Oct. 20, is the last day the NFL can move the Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 8 game at the Washington Commanders out of Sunday Night Football. As of early Tuesday morning Eastern time, the league had not announced a change. The game is still listed for Sunday, Nov. 1, at 8:20 pm ET on NBC and Peacock at Northwest Stadium, which is 3:20 am Monday in Cairo.

A Sunday-night flex through Week 13 needs at least 12 days’ notice, and the league can make only two of them between Weeks 5 and 10. When the idea first surfaced last week, both teams still had a game to play. Both lost.

What has changed since last week

Philadelphia is 2-4 after a 25-14 home loss to Carolina, its fourth straight defeat. On Monday the club said Jalen Hurts’ blood clot had spread to both lungs, and he is likely out for the season. Tanner McKee, who threw for 215 yards in his first start against the Panthers, is the starter.

Washington fell to 1-4-1 with a 23-17 loss at unbeaten San Francisco on Monday night and lost Terry McLaurin to a left knee injury in the first quarter. Dan Quinn said there is “fear” the injury is significant, and McLaurin is due for more tests on Tuesday. The Commanders are on their bye this week.

The two teams have three wins between them. No NFC East team has won a game in either of the last two weeks: all four lost in Week 6, and the division’s only Week 5 result that was not a loss was Washington’s 27-27 tie with the Giants. The Eagles won the first meeting 24-22 in Week 1.

The options and their problems

Mike Florio wrote on Monday night that Ravens-Bills makes the most sense, but that Baltimore’s Thursday game the following week gets in the way. He added that Vikings-Lions would work only if the league were willing to commit now to moving the Week 15 Lions-Vikings game off Sunday night. He also considered Browns-Steelers and Chiefs-Broncos presumably off the table, because the first game of each rivalry was in prime time and, by rule, at least one game of a home-and-home division series has to be played on Sunday afternoon.

Colts-Jaguars, the game Evan Sidery reported last week the league was seriously considering, has the same Thursday problem, because Jacksonville plays in Baltimore in Week 9. Florio said it would not have as much sizzle as Eagles-Commanders. Jacksonville is on its bye this week, so it will be 4-2 on Nov. 1, while Indianapolis visits unbeaten Minnesota on Sunday and could be 2-5. “It’s ultimately the league’s decision,” Florio wrote.

What a flex would mean

If the game moves, Eagles-Commanders shifts to one of the Sunday afternoon windows, and the replacement takes the 8:20 pm ET kickoff on NBC. The last early-season Sunday-night flex came in 2024, when the league moved Colts-Vikings into Week 9 and sent Jaguars-Eagles to the afternoon.

The Eagles are on a short week either way. They host Dallas on Monday night, Oct. 26, and then have six days before the trip to Landover.

Kickoff times in Cairo

Egypt turns its clocks back at the end of October, and U.S. clocks go back on the morning of Nov. 1, so the gap between Eastern time and Cairo stays at seven hours for Week 8.

Every remaining night game is listed on our primetime schedule.