Referee for Eagles vs. Buccaneers Wild Card Playoff Game Revealed

The Philadelphia Eagles head into the playoffs in the middle of a significant slump. Coaches aren't preparing the players well, which is leading to the players not playing well, and locker room drama has broken out as a result.

However, the Eagles need to put all of that behind them with their first playoff game coming up on Monday.

Ahead of kickoff against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Philadelphia has found out who will be officiating its Wild Card contest.

Eagles vs. Buccaneers Referee Crew

The NFL announced the referee assignments for the first round of the playoffs on Monday. Adrian Hill has been selected to lead a crew — which will be finalized in the coming days — for Eagles-Buccaneers.

Hill is an incredibly experienced official who touts 14 years of experience. He worked all over the field before being promoted to the role of referee in 2019, previously serving as a line judge, side judge and field judge from 2010-2018.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, Hill's appointment may be bad news for them. Hill's crew called 20 more penalties against road teams (101) than home teams (81) during the 2023 campaign, per Pro-Football-Reference. This led to Hill's percentage of flags against home teams (44.51%) being much lower than the league average of 49.08%.

Additionally, the team with home-field advantage posted a 56.25% winning percentage this year when Hill was on the call. That's even slightly above the league average of 55.1%.

Now, this doesn't mean anything concrete for the Eagles at this time. After all, those numbers include Hill's entire crew, even if they're just attributed to him. He's not likely to work with all the same people who contributed to that home-aligned bias, which could change the number of calls made against the road team on Monday.

However, this is a storyline to monitor. If Hill's tendency to watch visiting teams more closely translates to the playoffs, then that makes Philadelphia's job even more difficult in Tampa.

Of course, the Eagles can neutralize any home bias by stomping all over the Bucs. Nick Sirianni's squad has the clear talent advantage, which could ensure any ref controversy doesn't have a major impact on this game.

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