Pros and cons of the Eagles’ 2025 schedule

The Eagles’ 2025 schedule has been revealed and now it’s time to take a closer looks at the advantages and disadvantages.

Unlike last year, the Eagles do play one team (and only one) coming off a bye. The Minnesota Vikings will be resting in Week 6 before hosting the Birds in Week 7. But the Eagles will also be coming off a mini-bye from playing on Thursday night in Week 6. So, Minny’s rest advantage is somewhat mitigated.
The Eagles have a bye week rest advantage over the Green Bay Packers in Week 10; the Birds are off in Week 9 before traveling to Lambeau Field. The Packers have a home game against the Carolina Panthers in Week 9. Eagles-Packers has the potential to be an important game when it comes to NFC playoff picture seeding, so, this seems like an especially meaningful advantage.
The Eagles have a slight rest advantage over the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2. The Eagles open the 2025 season on Thursday night while the Chiefs play in Brazil on Friday night. While just one day separates them, KC also has to deal with the long travel back from South America.
The Eagles have a slight rest advantage over the Denver Broncos in Week 5. The Broncos are hosting the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night in Week 4, so, it’ll be a short week plus travel for Sean Payton’s team.
The Eagles have a slight rest advantage over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 12. The Cowboys are playing an away game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night in Week 12 before hosting the Eagles on a short week.
The Eagles have a rest advantage over the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 14. The Birds play on Friday afternoon in Week 13 while the Bolts play a Sunday 4:30 PM game.
The Eagles have a slight rest advantage over the Buffalo Bills in Week 17 since the Birds play on Saturday in Week 16 while the Bills play on Sunday.
The Eagles don’t have to play three straight road games at any point.

CONS
The Eagles have one of the most difficult schedules in the NFL.

The Eagles have to travel to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a late September 1:00 PM kickoff once again. Last year, they were incredibly overheated in the Florida sun as players were failing to finish the game in a blowout loss. They might have to deal with intense heat and humidity once again.
Unlike last year, the Eagles have to play Thursday Night Football on the road. Thankfully, it’s only against the nearby New York Giants in Week 6 … but the tight turnaround plus travel is not an ideal scenario irrespective of opponent. Then again, the Eagles will be playing at home in Week 5 while the G-Men will be traveling home from a road game against the New Orleans Saints.
The Eagles will be at a rest disadvantage when they host the Detroit Lions in Week 11. They’ll be coming home from a Monday night road game against the Packers in Week 10. At least it’ll be going from MNF to a Sunday night start instead of MNF to a Sunday 1:00 PM start?
The Eagles will be at a rest disadvantage when they host the Washington Commanders in Week 18. The Commanders are hosting the Cowboys in a Thursday 1:00 PM start on Christmas in Week 17 before traveling to play the Birds in the final week of the regular season. The Eagles will be playing a Sunday road game against the Bills in Week 17.
The Eagles don’t play back-to-back home games all season long. No reprieve of getting to settle in in Philly for a little bit.

OTHER
For items that didn’t cleanly fit in either of the first two categories:

NFC East record predictions by quickly playing the win-loss game with their schedules — Washington Commanders: 10-7 … Dallas Cowboys: 9-8 … New York Giants: 5-12
There’s a school of thought that it’s better to play your toughest on-paper opponents later in the season because there’s a greater chance of a key injury (or several) that impacts them. If you subscribe to that line of thinking, you’re happy the Eagles are facing Washington (twice) and Buffalo in the final three weeks. You’re less happy the Eagles are playing the Chiefs and Rams early on.
Playing a single division rival twice within three weeks is already stupid. Somehow, the Eagles are set to do that two times this year (Giants in Week 6 and Week 8, Commanders in Week 16 and Week 18). It’s just very dumb. Spread it out.
The Eagles don’t have a version of The Gauntlet as much as they have tough games spread throughout their schedule.
The Eagles will play at least five non-Sunday games this season. Nick Sirianni will have to navigate the challenge of fewer Sunday-to-Sunday weeks. From a fan standpoint, more Sundays to enjoy watching RedZone and checking in on the rest of the league.
There are currently six 1:00 PM starts scheduled for 2025. That’s the same number the Eagles had last year. It was brutal for them to have only three 1:00 PM starts in 2023.
The Eagles have the 11th-shortest travel schedule this season in terms of miles. They have the shortest travel schedule in the NFC East.
The Eagles have one joint training camp practice scheduled ahead of their preseason game against the Cleveland Browns. I wonder if they might have one against the New York Jets in Florham Park as well.

OVERALL
The Eagles’ schedule is really difficult on paper but there are more rest advantages than I expected them to have since they also had a lot of breaks in that regard last year. 2025 will prove tougher than 2024 but I don’t think it’ll be quite as bad as 2023 when the combination of really tough opponents and significant rest disadvantages contributed to an epic collapse.

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