Cardinals vs. Eagles Week 15 Matchup Flexed to 'Sunday Night Football'

The NFL has flexed the Week 15 Sunday Night Football game to feature the Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Arizona Cardinals, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, in what could be a matchup of two playoff teams. 

The Eagles-Cardinals game was initially slated for a 1 p.m. ET kick in Philadelphia on Fox and will replace the Cincinnati Bengals vs. San Francisco 49ers matchup. 

The Eagles are 5-7 but only a half-game out of first place in the porous NFC East to the Washington Redskins, who cap the Week 13 slate vs. the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football. 

The Cardinals are tied for the league’s best record at 10-2 and hold a three-game lead over the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC West. Their Week 15 game will be their third on Sunday Night Football this season. They won their first two against the Seahawks and Bengals.

This is the third game this season the NFL has utilized its flex option, which is intended to showcase the most premium weekly matchup on national television as the playoff race takes form, per the league: "Flexible scheduling ensured quality matchups on Sunday night in those weeks and gave surprise teams a chance to play their way onto prime-time. The NBC Sunday night time slot for "flex" weeks lists the game tentatively scheduled for Sunday night."

The league flexed the Week 11 game between the Cardinals and Bengals and has scheduled this week’s matchup between the New England Patriots and Houston Texans into the primetime slot. 

The Week 15 shift might not be the final alteration the league makes, as the Week 16 game features the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, the latter of which is well out of the playoff race. 

The final Sunday Night Football game in Week 17 will be determined on six days notice, per the league, in order to ensure it features a matchup with playoff implications. A possible option would be the Cardinals and Seahawks, who have become arguably the league’s hottest team, now at 7-5.