Nick Piccone
One of the parts of the NFL offseason people tend to love is going through wins and losses, in April, when teams’ schedules are released. Teams released their schedules last night. The Eagles’ schedule is here.
I’m not going to do that here. It’s pointless. I don’t have to tell you why. But I would like to get into some of the matchups and the fact that the Eagles face three straight opponents coming off bye weeks, which is certainly unusual. Let’s delve.
With the Eagles opening up the season at home against the Cleveland Browns, I’m somewhat annoyed we didn’t get a better home opener. Why not a divisional opponent? The Eagles never seem to open the season against a divisional opponent, and have to play some random team that nobody really cares about. The Browns? Come on. Last year, I thought opening against the Falcons was bad. This opener is going to suck.
The Eagles have their bye week during Week 4, after back-to-back games against the Chicago Bears, in Chicago, and at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Those will be tough games, but nothing annoys me more than early bye weeks. Three games, and then a break? The Eagles will have to play 12 straight weeks with three prime time games after their bye. Dumb.
In Week 7, a stretch of three straight weeks of the Eagles playing opponents coming off bye weeks begins. They’re the only NFL team, other than the Jaguars, who will face consecutive opponents coming off a bye week. The Eagles will play the Vikings, Cowboys and Giants in weeks coming off their respective byes.
The Eagles won’t play a home divisional game until December, when they play the Washington, the Giants and the Cowboys in the span of four weeks. And the Cowboys come to town on New Year’s Day for a 1:00 P.M. start. Now, that could obviously get flexed, but a New Year’s Day 1:00 game against the Cowboys? That better be for the division.
Those are my thoughts. What are yours?