Eagles Schedule Reaction: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
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PHILADELPHIA - The NFL's 2024 schedule was revealed on Wednesday night and there's a lot to like for the Philadelphia Eagles, who are starting to feel like a contender again after a disastrous end to the 2023 season.
THE GOOD:
If the Eagles can reach the final stretch of the season in good shape, they should have every opportunity to close strongly over the final leg and improve playoff seeding.
For the first time since 1951, Philadelphia will play four of its final five games at home, starting with a Week 14 matchup against Carolina. A week later, Keystone State rival Pittsburgh will visit Lincoln Financial Field, and then the Eagles will finish their regular-season schedule with the team's three NFC East rivals: Washington at FedEx Field and Dallas and the New York Giants in Weeks 17 and 18 at Lincoln Financial Field.
In fact, after a Week 12 "Sunday Night Football" game at SoFi Stadium against the Los Angeles Rams, the Eagles will not get on a plane again until a potential postseason run.
Former Eagles DC Jim Schwartz
USA Today
THE BAD:
If you finish with home cooking, that means you're road warriors early. Between the Eagles' Week 1 "home game" against the Green Bay Packers and Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a Week 6 matchup against old friend Jim Schwartz and the tough Cleveland Browns defense, Philadelphia has one game at the Linc, a Week 2 Monday night affair against Kirk Cousins and his new team, the Atlanta Falcons.
That's one real home game between Sept. 6 and Oct. 13 so only one home in 37 days.
More so, Week 5 before the Browns game is the Eagles' bye week and that's way earlier than a team would typically like their annual pause button. The later the better is the conventional school of thought with byes because players are naturally going to get banged up throughout an NFL season.
The conditioning to go through Week 6 to Week 18 and a potential playoff run on top of it also comes to the forefront with the Eagles because it seemed like some players ran out of gas during the team's last-season collapse in 2023-24.
THE UGLY:
The ugly is obvious, starting with the fact that the Eagles have one "home game" on a neutral field against another potential NFC playoff contender in the Green Bay Packers.
As far as stretches, it will get no tougher than Weeks 12 and 13 against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium and the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium, particularly the back end against Lamar Jackson and Co.
The Ravens should be a legitimate Super Bowl contender again and they will be getting the Eagles late in the season after a difficult West Coast trip. Philadelphia has had some success out in LA and beat the Rams there last season.
The week after that win, however, was the Eagles' first loss of the season to a poor New York Jets team. The Rams themselves are also projected to be better this season and are regarded as a solid playoff contender after being a surprise last season.
