The schedule is out, which means we now have clarity as to when the Eagles will play where and the obstacles created by those dates.
A lot of people are upset that the Eagles don’t have back-to-back home games and that is by far the biggest quirk in the team’s schedule. They are the only team in the NFL that doesn’t have back-to-back home games.
Thirty of the league’s 32 teams have at least two stretches of back-to-back home games.
The Eagles are also the first Super Bowl champion not to have back-to-back home games at any point on their schedule the following season. Even the 1981 champion San Francisco 49ers got one back-to-back one game during the strike-shortened nine-game season in 1982.
The last time the Eagles did not have back-to-back home games was 2008. That team was wildly inconsistent, but went 9-6-1 and lost in the NFC Championship to the Arizona Cardinals.
We’re not sure what to make of this scheduling oddity beyond its rarity. We will consider that and other factors here as we rank the degree of difficulty for each game on the Eagles’ 2025 schedule.
Easy (Will win these six games)
We put Week 1 at home against the Cowboys, Week 5 at home against the Broncos, Week 6 on the road against the Giants, Week 8 at home against the Giants, Week 13 at home against the Bears and Week 15 at home against the Raiders on this list.
Eagles -7 is listed at -105 on Caesars for their Week 1 matchup versus the Cowboys. Our complete list of New Jersey sportsbook promos will help you decide which sportsbook to use. For full analysis of the Eagles’ Week 1 matchup, check out our expert predictions.
The Cowboys did some recent talking about how they’ll be ready for the Eagles when the teams play the first game of the 2025 season on Thursday Sept. 4, but Lincoln Financial Field is going to be crazy that night and it’s hard to imagine the Eagles losing this game. For the record, Super Bowl winners are 20-5 in their last 25 opening days and the Eagles get the benefit of playing a team that went 7-10 last season.
The Giants are improved, but the quarterback situation remains a huge question mark and that’s not a winning recipe in the NFL, especially against the Eagles.
Week 5 against the Broncos looks tougher on paper than it is in reality. Yes, they made the playoffs last year and finished third in the NFL scoring defense. And, yes, Bo Nix had a terrific rookie season. But the Broncos played a pretty easy schedule in 2024 and they’ll be coming to Philadelphia on a short week after playing the Bengals at home on Monday night in Week 4.
Black Friday at the Linc against the Bears could be interesting because Chicago has talent and a highly respected new coach in Ben Johnson, but Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is going to give second-year quarterback Caleb Williams fits with his scheme.
The Raiders will be in the midst of going against three straight playoff teams with three of the games on the road. Pete Carroll was 8-0 against the Eagles as coach of the Seahawks, but he’s not in Seattle any more.
Medium (Should win these four games)
This list includes Week 7 on the road against the Vikings, Week 12 on the road against the Cowboys, Week 14 at the Chargers and Week 18 at home against the Commanders.
The Vikings are a team with a ton of talent, but an inexperienced quarterback in J.J. McCarthy. Factor in that the Eagles will have extra time to prepare following a Thursday game against the Giants and a win should be expected.
We also put the road game against the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in this category because we just don’t know what to expect from Dak Prescott. If he’s in 2023 form this will be a really difficult game for the Eagles. The Cowboys, however, will play this game on a short week after facing the Raiders in Las Vegas on a Monday night.
Like the Broncos, the game against the Chargers looks more difficult on paper than it could be in reality. The Chargers went 11-6 last season in Jim Harbaugh’s first year as head coach, but they were 2-5 against teams that made the playoffs with both of those wins coming against the Broncos. SoFi Stadium is going to have as many Eagles’ fans as Chargers’ fans at this game and the Eagles are going to have extra rest playing on Monday night following their Black Friday game against the Bears.
Finally, we’re putting the season finale against the Commanders on the list, too, with the assumption that the game will have meaning. If it doesn’t, then who even cares. But if the Eagles need a win to close out the season, the Linc will be rocking with fans reminding the Commanders about what happened last season when their season came to a close in Philadelphia.
Difficult (Could lose these five games)
This list includes the Week 3 home game against the Rams, the Week 4 road game at Tampa Bay, the Week 10 game at Green Bay, the Week 11 home game against the Lions and the Week 16 game at Washington.
One of the big challenges against the Rams is that the Eagles will be coming off a Super Bowl rematch on the road against the Chiefs. The Rams are obviously going to be highly motivated to beat the Eagles after nearly pulling off the upset in the NFC Divisional round a year ago. Working against L.A. will be a road trip to Nashville to play the Titans in Week 2, which means back-to-back games in the Eastern Time Zone. That’s something they’ve done just twice since moving back to Los Angeles in 2016.
Week 4 at Tampa Bay makes its way into this category for obvious reasons. The Eagles have played four times in Tampa since the 2021 season and lost three of the four games by double digits. Last season when the teams played in Week 4 it was stifling hot, and the tropical air is likely to still be around for this late September game, too.
The Packers have lost three straight to the Eagles, but they’ve beaten them two of the last three times they played at Lambeau Field. One advantage the Eagles have is that this Monday night game will be preceded by the bye week. Nick Sirianni is 6-1 after bye weeks and the Eagles did a masterful job of mapping out their season following last year’s Week 4 bye. The Packers will be coming off a Week 9 game at home against the Panthers.
The schedule gets even more difficult in Week 11 for the Eagles with a home game against the Lions on short rest. We didn’t need to know when the Eagles would be playing the Lions to know this would be a difficult game because the Lions won 15 games and were the NFC’s top seed last year. This will be a second straight road game for the Lions, who play at Washington in Week 10.
The Eagles will face the Commanders on the road in Week 16 for the second straight season. Washington, of course, beat the Eagles last season at Northwest Stadium. It was the Commanders’ only win in four games against playoff teams during the regular season last year. This year the Commanders have twice as many games against teams that made the playoffs last season. We’ll have a clear idea how they handled the tougher schedule by Week 16.
Daunting (should lose these two games)
Finally, we list two games that it would be entirely understandable if the Eagles lost them.
The list starts with Week 2 against the Chiefs in Kansas City and ends with Week 17 against the Bills in Buffalo.
This will be the Chiefs’ home opener and Andy Reid is 9-3 in home openers since moving from Philly to Kansas City. The Chiefs will be more motivated than ever to win this game after what happened to them in the Super Bowl.
The Eagles will have extra rest after opening the season on a Thursday, but so will the Chiefs, who open the season on a Friday in Brazil. The trip to South America will be a new challenge for Reid and his team.
A Week 17 trip to Buffalo probably wasn’t on the Eagles’ wish list, although it was 57 degrees when the Bills played the Jets in Week 17 last year. That probably just means the region is due for eight feet of snow around Christmas this year.
The weather isn’t the biggest challenge in Buffalo, however. The Bills are 61-22 at home during Sean McDermott’s eight seasons as their head coach. That includes a 10-0 record last season. Quarterback Josh Allen and the Bills put up 30 points or more in eight of those 10 games.
The Eagles could have an extra day of rest if their scheduled Week 16 game against the Commanders remains on a Saturday, but the Eagles will not be favored in this game.
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Bob Brookover can be reached at rbrookover@njadvancemedia.com