5 Eagles games I’m most looking forward to in 2025

When you’re the defending Super Bowl champions, which the Eagles are, having defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in Super Bowl XIL…

… it’s only fair that the degree of difficulty for them gets amped up.

The 2025 season will provide quite the challenge for the Birds as they defend their Lombardi Trophy, with NFL.com stating their schedule this season ranks 5th-hardest.

Like the Lions, the Eagles have 11 games against 2024 playoff teams. Counting the season opener against the Cowboys, Philly also has at least five prime-time games, and potentially seven, depending on whether late-season games get flexed to night. It’ll be nice having a mini-bye to prepare for the Chiefs in Week 2 following the Week 1 Kickoff Game on Thursday, but facing the Rams (Week 3), Bucs (Week 4) and Broncos (Week 5) makes for a thorny opening five games.

The Eagles only have one true West Coast trip, at the Chargers for Monday Night Football in Week 14. But they’ll have two short weeks in December, hosting the Raiders the next Sunday, followed by a Week 16 Saturday game at Washington. The Eagles then close the season with Week 17 at Buffalo and the finale at home against the Commanders. That’s a pretty challenging month.

For only the second time in NFL history, a team will play all four of their playoff opponents from the previous season. The Birds get the Packers, Rams, Commanders and Chiefs, and all four of them will be seeking revenge. They will play at least five prime time games in 2025, with a sixth potentially added if their game against the Commanders in Week 16 gets flexed. And while last year’s road games were all stacked in the beginning of the season, the Eagles will not play back-to-back games at home the entire season.

In other words, the Eagles will be involved in a marquee match-up virtually every week. There are few, if any, (hi Giants!!!) duds.

So, here are the five match-ups I’m most interested in watching in 2025, ranked from No. 1 to No. 5.

Eagles vs. Detroit Lions, Lincoln Financial Field – Sunday Night Football, Week 11 (11/16), 8PM ET
It’s the NFC Championship Game we all thought we were going to see, only played in Philly and not at Detroit’s Ford Field. Thankfully, the Lions’ defense was in tatters by the time they took the field against Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders in the NFC Divisional Round last winter, which allowed the Eagles to earn another home NFC title game against a lesser opponent.

This is the game the NFL should have scheduled for their Opening Kickoff in Week 1, but there is logic to having it in Week 11. Both teams will be smack dab in the middle of their seasons, both will have worked out any early season kinks, and while there may be injuries with which to deal, it will be an outstanding measuring stick for both teams.

There will be a lot of running in this one, with the Eagles and Lions utilizing the running game more than any other team in the league. Philly should be favored at home, and the Lions won’t have Ben Johnson calling the plays this time around (he’s now Chicago’s head coach), but it should still be perhaps the league’s best match-up all season and the Birds’ most challenging game of the season.

Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys, Lincoln Financial Field – Thursday Night Football, Week 1 (9/4), 8PM ET
Instead of the Lions, the Eagles get the Cowboys at home to kick off the season, and while it wouldn’t have been my first choice, it’s still an excellent one. I probably would not have ranked this game so high if it wasn’t opening week, but there is something special about the first game of the season, especially since it’s the first time these two teams have met in Week 1 since the now-famous Pickle Juice game in 2000.

Honestly, I don’t know what we’re going to get from the Cowboys this season. The addition of George Pickens makes their offense a bit more dangerous, and last year notwithstanding, they’ve generally had the Eagles’ number during Dak Prescott’s run as the starting QB. But they were awful a season ago and the vibes surrounding that organization have been stinky for a long while.

Getting to watch the Eagles hoist their championship banner in front of the Cowboys, in front of Jerry Jones, with the world looking on, is going to present a level of satisfaction perhaps unrivaled in franchise history. Once the game is over, we’ll either be flying high, or feeling pretty low. Not a bad kickoff to the season!

Eagles @ Kansas City Chiefs, Arrowhead Stadium – Sunday, Week 2 (9/14), 4:25pm ET
It’s interesting that a Super Bowl rematch is the third-most anticipated game of the year, but for me, that’s where this ranks. The Eagles will have the advantage of getting 10 days of rest between their season-opening tilt against the Cowboys to taking the field in KC, giving Nick Sirianni and the boys extra time to prepare.

Will Andy Reid have any new tricks up his sleeve against an Eagles defense that will look quite a bit different than it did in the Super Bowl? Will Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, AJ Brown and Devonta Smith replicate their success against Steve Spagnuolo? Here’s a key highlight from the Super Bowl in case anyone’s forgotten what happened. 🙂

In short, did the Eagles officially end the Patrick Mahomes Chiefs as we know them? Or will they come back firing?

Eagles @ Washington Commanders, Northwest Stadium – TBD, Week 16
Yep, the NFC Championship Game rematch is No. 4 on my list. Before I discuss this game, a quick word about the schedule makers.

They’re sniffing glue.

Why on earth are these two teams playing twice in three weeks, and in the final three weeks of the season to boot? I know the NFL wants to have as many key intra-divisional games in Week 18 as possible, but the vast majority of the time at least one of the teams playing has nothing to play for in the final week of the season, so it’s more likely than not that the second of these two games will be without consequence. What a waste.

That said, the Week 16 game in DC will almost certainly have tremendous importance. It could decide the division. I’m not convinced the Commanders will be as good as they were last season, there’s a non-zero chance their 2024 run was just a Robert Griffin-like, one-season blitz, but I don’t think so. Daniels is for real, and if he’s healthy, the Commanders will be a force to be reckoned with.

Eagles @ Buffalo Bills, Highmark Stadium – Sunday, Week 17 (12/28), 4:25pm ET
The last time these two teams played was the Eagles’ high-water mark of the 2023 season. It was a legendary back-and-forth tilt that ended with a Jalen Hurts walk-off touchdown run in the rain.

At that moment, I believed the Eagles were not going to be beaten again the rest of the season. As it turned out, the impact that game had on an exhausted and undermanned defense essentially resulted in them not winning again the rest of the season.

This could be a preview of next year’s Super Bowl. Who wouldn’t love to see Hurts go up against Josh Allen with everything on the line, next February? This Week 17 match-up could be a brutal task, and given it’s happening in late December, one should expect this game to feature bitter cold and/or extreme weather.

The schedule is littered with games that could have made this list. Postseason rematches with the Rams in Week 3, another trip to Tampa against the Bucs in Week 4, at Green Bay on Monday Night Football in Week 10, even matchups against the Bears (Week 13), Broncos (Week 5) and Raiders (Week 15, Chip Kelly’s return to Philadelphia) are fascinating.

But the five above are the ones you absolutely cannot miss in 2025.

LET’S PLAY FOOTBALL.