The NFL released the dates and times for the 2017 regular season on Thursday; a week before the NFL Draft is set to get underway in the City of Brotherly Love. The Eagles will open their 2017 campaign on the road against a very familiar foe when they head to FedEx Field to play the Washington Redskins. The early betting line out of Las Vegas has Philly listed as a 2.5-point underdog in this matchup.
The Birds will stay on the road in Week 2 to face former head coach Andy Reid's Kansas City Chiefs before playing their home opener against the New York Giants in Week 3. We should get a pretty good idea of just how good (or bad) this team will be in these three tough tests. Week 4 takes Philly to the West Coast to face the San Diego Chargers before playing host to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 5. The Eagles will then play a pair of night games in the next two weeks starting with a Thursday night road game against the Carolina Panthers before facing the Redskins for the second time this season on Monday night at home.
They will close out the first half of their schedule with a home game against San Francisco. Given the first eight games on the Eagles' 2017 schedule an even 4-4 record at this point could be considered a good start. Week 9 brings the Denver Broncos to Lincoln Financial Field in their third-straight home game. Following a bye in Week 10, the Eagles will go on the road in their first game of the season against Dallas in a prime time showdown on Sunday Night Football. The next three games are against Chicago at home followed by road games against Seattle and the Los Angeles Rams.
Given its schedule to date, I have Philly at 6-7 heading into the final three games of the year. Next up could be tough road game against the Giants before closing out the season at home against Oakland and Dallas. I have them squeezing at least one win in the closing trio of games for a second-straight season at 7-9.
Do not worry all you die-hard Eagles fans out there. These predictions are pre-draft and largely based on what all of the Eagles' 2017 opponents did last season. The NFL is still a league of parity that has a tendency to produce a number of new playoff teams each and every year. A couple of bounces of the ball in the Eagles' favor could easily turn this record to 9-7 and 10 wins is not out of the question. With five prime time games on the schedule, maybe the NFL knows something that I do not!
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