The Philadelphia Eagles season was the franchise's 47th season in the National Football League (NFL).

They appeared in the postseason for the second consecutive year, an attainment that the team had not achieved for three decades. They would make the playoffs again in the following two seasons before a six-year drought. The Eagles managed to host and win their first playoff game since 1960. They would ultimately fall in the divisional round to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by a score of 24–17.

Offseason After going 9–7 in the 1978 season and making the playoffs, the Eagles found themselves having to follow rule 3 of the draft – "Teams that made the playoffs are then ordered by which round of the playoffs they are eliminated" – meaning four teams with a record the same or better than the Eagles would pick in front of them.

NFL draft The 1979 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held May 3–4, 1979 in New York City. As was started with the 1977 NFL draft, this was 12 rounds.

The Philadelphia Eagles got the 19th to the 21st picks in the 12 rounds. They had overcome the traded-away draft picks of the Mike McCormack era. The Eagles had waited but they finally had a first-round pick and other low-round draft picks. They would use these and build a team as 7 of the 10 draft picks made the team for the coming years.

The draft began with first overall pick of Tom Cousineau, linebacker from Ohio State, by the Buffalo Bills. With the number 7 pick the New York Giants selected Phil Simms, a quarterback from Morehead State. The crowd, made up of mostly New York fans, voiced their displeasure of his selection.

Player selections The table shows the Eagles selections and what picks they had that were traded away and the team that ended up with that pick. It is possible the Eagles' pick ended up with this team via another trade the Eagles made. Not shown are acquired picks that the Eagles traded away. = Pro Bowler Players are identified as a Pro Bowler if they were selected for the Pro-Bowl at any time in their career.= Hall of Famer Round Pick Player Position School 1 21 Jerry Robinson LB UCLA 2 48 Petey Perot G Northwestern State University 3 74 Tony Franklin Kicker Texas A & M 4 94 Ben Cowins RB Arkansas 5 126 Scott Fitzkee TE Penn State 6 158 Pick Traded to New York Giants 7 178 Don Swafford OT Florida 7 185 Curtis Bunche DT Albany State 8 196 Chuck Correal C Penn State 8 211 Max Runager Punter South Carolina 9 Pick Traded to 10 Pick Traded to 11 296 Al Chesley LB Pittsburgh 12 Pick Traded to

Personnel

Staff / Coaches

Roster

Regular season

Schedule Week Date Opponent Result Record Attendance 1 September 2, 1979 New York Giants W 23–17 1–0 67,366 2 September 10, 1979 Atlanta Falcons L 14–10 1–1 66,935 3 September 16, 1979 at New Orleans Saints W 26–14 2–1 54,212 4 September 23, 1979 at New York Giants W 17–13 3–1 74,265 5 September 30, 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers W 17–14 4–1 70,352 6 October 7, 1979 Washington Redskins W 28–17 5–1 69,142 7 October 14, 1979 at St. Louis Cardinals W 24–20 6–1 48,367 8 October 21, 1979 at Washington Redskins L 17–7 6–2 54,442 9 October 28, 1979 at Cincinnati Bengals L 37–13 6–3 42,036 10 November 4, 1979 Cleveland Browns L 24–19 6–4 69,019 11 November 12, 1979 at Dallas Cowboys W 31–21 7–4 62,417 12 November 18, 1979 St. Louis Cardinals W 16–13 8–4 70,235 13 November 25, 1979 at Green Bay Packers W 21–10 9–4 50,023 14 December 2, 1979 Detroit Lions W 44–7 10–4 66,128 15 December 8, 1979 Dallas Cowboys L 24–17 10–5 71,434 16 December 16, 1979 at Houston Oilers W 26–20 11–5 49,407 Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game summaries

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16

Standings

Postseason

Schedule Round Date Opponent (seed) Result Record Venue Recap Wild Card December 23, 1979 Chicago Bears (5) W 27–17 1–0 Veterans Stadium Recap Divisional at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2) L 17–24 1–1 Tampa Stadium Recap

Game summaries NFC Wild Card Playoffs: vs. (5) Chicago Bears

NFC Divisional Playoffs: at (2) Tampa Bay Buccaneers

References

Eagles on Pro Football Reference Eagles on jt-sw.com Eagles on Eagles.net