On Thursday night, the NFL released the schedule for the 2016 season.
The Philadelphia Eagles will be opening their campaign with a home game against the Cleveland Browns to kick off the Doug Pederson era, and while the NFL Draft and Training Camp really need to play out before we'll have a clear idea of how good this team could be, the schedule release always provides some good insight into how difficult their road to the playoffs might be.
With a couple of days for the news to sink in, let's take a look at some of the key aspects of this year's schedule and how it may impact the Eagles' odds of having a winning season and returning to the playoffs.
The Eagles schedule has a lot of challenging elements to it, the greatest of which is the amount of time the Birds will spend on the road in the first half of the season.
While the team has a chance to get off to a fast start with a couple of winnable games against other mediocre franchises like the Browns and Bears, a very difficult home matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers occurs in Week 3, and then the Eagles will say goodbye to Lincoln Financial Field for quite some time.
Between Sept. 25, the date of the Eagles-Steelers game, and Nov. 28, Philadelphia will play just two games in their home stadium.
That's not to say that some of those road games aren't winnable, but for a team with a rookie head coach trying to feel his way around the league, it's very unfavorable to be placed in a situation where you're playing just two games at home within a span of two months.
And when the Eagles do finally reach the part of the schedule where they'll begin to play more home games, what's the first team on their slate? None other than Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, who figure to be one of the elite teams in the NFC once again.
In fact, beginning Nov. 20, they will begin a stretch where they play four straight weeks against teams that made the playoffs in 2015, beginning with a difficult road trip to Seattle — which could have been avoided if the Eagles had lost their meaningless Week 17 finale against the Giants — the Packers at home, Cincinnati on the road and Washington at home.
And what awaits the Eagles after those four difficult matchups? Another tough trip on the road in Week 15 to a Baltimore team that didn't make the playoffs last year, but will return healthy and determined to get back to the top of the standings.
To make matters worse, the league also gave the Eagles the earliest possible bye week in Week 4. The bye week happens at a time where players are still very fresh, and won't have the same positive effects that a bye can have if it takes place in the middle of or at the end of the season. The bye also takes place before any of the games on the previously mentioned road-heavy slant on the schedule, meaning that the Eagles are going to have to do quite a bit of traveling without rest.
The Eagles will also have to play three straight opponents that are coming off of their bye weeks, beginning in Week 7 with the Minnesota Vikings.
When considering what realistic expectations for the Eagles could be for this season, the timing and circumstances of each of their games can be just as important as how well they match up with the talent of the opposition.
I think the Eagles have had a very nice off-season, but this is still a young, rebuilding team with a first-time head coach that will now be placed into some pretty difficult circumstances thanks to the schedule. Improvement is very much expected of the Birds next season, but they may well be another year away from making a serious push to get into the playoffs.
Denny Basens is a contributing writer for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @DennyBasens.
