Five Takeaways From Eagles Schedule Release: Road Trippers and More

PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Eagles know when they’re playing now after the NFL released it schedule for all 32 teams on Wednesday night.

Here are my takeaways on the Eagles’ schedule:

ROAD TRIPPERS
Playing just two games at Lincoln Financial Field in the first two months of the season is absurd, but that’s what the schedule makers did to the Eagles, and they’re sending them packing to Brazil for the opener.

Maybe the Philadelphia Phillies played into that thinking, and after the baseball teams’ 31-13 start, that may have been good thinking with the real possibility the Phillies could be playing playoff baseball through October and beyond. Even though the two teams don’t share a stadium, they are a stone’s throw away from each other, which would cause major congestion and a parking crunch if they played on the same day.

The only two games the Eagles will play at the Linc before November are Week 2, when the Atlanta Falcons visit for a Monday night game on Sept. 16, and Oct. 13 in Week 6 when the Cleveland Browns arrive.

The four road games after the trip to South America will be at the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in back-to-back weeks and a back-to-back set against the New York Giants and Cincinnati Bengals.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE

Not too much to complain about other than that, especially since the Eagles have what has already been deemed the ninth easiest schedule in the league. Besides, with that early run of road games, the Eagles will finish with several home games with five of their final six at the Linc.

It’s always a good thing too, when a team doesn’t have to board a plane after Thanksgiving, as is the case with Philly. Their last plane trip will be to visit the Los Angeles Rams – for a second straight year – in Week 12 on Nov. 24.

HOME SWEET HOME?
If it feels like the Eagles are always making the trek to Florida’s Gulf Coast, you would be right.

Not that fans should complain – the Gulf Coast of Florida is a solid road trip no matter the time of year the game is played. Perhaps this will even feel like a home game for the Eagles, given the number of fans that will likely attend, and, well, it seems like they always play there.

The Eagles have played at Raymond James Stadium, the home of the Bucs, in six of their last eight matchups dating back to Dec. 9, 2012, when Philly won 23-21 on a last-second touchdown pass from Nick Foles to Jeremy Maclin.

The Bucs, however, have won four of the last five meetings, including last year’s wild-card playoff game.

The two teams will do it again in Tampa in Week 4, on Sept. 29, and then the Eagles will have their bye week.

BELIEVERS
The NFL evidently still believes in the Eagles despite last year’s 1-6 collapse, otherwise they probably wouldn’t have given them five more primetime games, with a likely flex looming against the Dallas Cowboys at some point since the two rivals don’t meet for the first time until Week 10, on Nov. 10, at AT&T Stadium. The Eagles have appeared in the second-most primetime games (105) in the NFL dating back to 2000.

BACK-TO-BACK

The league likes to safe most of its division games until later in the season, and this year is no different with the Eagles scheduled to end the season with three straight against NFC East rivals – at Washington then home vs. the Cowboys and Giants.

In 2019, the Eagles closed the season by playing four straight against the NFC East with Carson Wentz behind center and won all four to make the playoffs at 9-7.

In 2021, Nick Sirianni’s first season as the head coach, the Eagles once again concluded the year with four in a row vs. the NFC East, going 3-1 to finish at 9-8 and make the postseason.

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