These five games will say a lot about where this Eagles season goes — starting Week 1 against Dallas

The Eagles return to the practice field Sunday, and it’s officially game week in Philadelphia. The Super Bowl champions raise their banner and host the Dallas Cowboys Thursday night to kick off the 2025 NFL season.

The quest to repeat as champions will not be easy because the Eagles have one of the most difficult schedules in the NFL. Sharp Football Analysis ranks it the fourth-hardest schedule among the 32 teams. Eleven of the Eagles’ 17 games are against a playoff team from last season, including matchups with every NFC playoff team from the postseason. Seven of those 11 contests are on the road.

While every game is important in a 17-game season, here’s a look at five games on the Eagles’ schedule, in chronological order, that likely will have the biggest impact on where the 2025 season goes:

There are the obvious reasons: It’s good to get off to a good start; it’s good to beat a divisional rival; it’s embarrassing to raise a banner and then get embarrassed on the field. All of those things are true.

But beyond that, it’s what comes after this game that makes Thursday so critical for the Eagles. They will be around a touchdown favorite over the Cowboys, and it’d be good to win because after that, they travel to Kansas City, host a Los Angeles Rams team that almost derailed their Super Bowl run, and then play Tampa on the road, where they haven’t had much recent success.

Dallas getting rid of Micah Parsons made things a bit easier for the Eagles, and they’d be wise to take advantage.

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This game is as much about exorcising demons as anything else. The Eagles are 1-4, including playoff games, against the Buccaneers in the Jalen Hurts era. Todd Bowles, the defensive coordinator turned head coach, has been Hurts’ kryptonite.

The Eagles’ 2023 collapse ended with an humiliating playoff loss in Tampa, Fla., and they had to return to the scene of the crime last year in Week 4. It didn’t go well. They were missing multiple starters and melted under the Florida sun in a 33-16 drubbing that wasn’t even that close. That loss dropped them to 2-2 entering a bye week that led to a course correction and a run of 10 straight wins.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Eagles head to Tampa with a 1-2 record, given the opening sequence of games.

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The Eagles get a bit of an extended bye week after their Week 8 game on Oct. 26 since their game in Green Bay is of the Monday Night Football variety.

They’ll need all the rest they can get.

Nick Sirianni has had a lot of success after bye weeks, but this game will test that trend. The Packers already were a contender in the NFC before they acquired Parsons from Dallas. Now, they’re slightly favored over a strong Detroit team to win the NFC North.

After an early stretch of difficult games, the Eagles’ schedule softens a little before the bye, but it cranks right back up after the long layoff against a good football team with playoff seeding on the line. And who knows what kind of impact the weather could have?

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It was the NFC championship everyone wanted to see last season before Washington got in the way by knocking off Detroit. But the Lions are right back among the handful of Super Bowl contenders, and they are coming to town for a Sunday Night Football game on a short week for the Eagles.

Like the Green Bay game six days earlier, this one could have major playoff seeding implications — a win could give the Eagles a leg up on hosting a NFC championship game at Lincoln Financial Field.

Detroit has a high-powered offense and a game-wrecking edge rusher in Aidan Hutchinson that will give the Eagles everything they can handle.

The Eagles (+380) are the favorites at FanDuel to win the NFC. The Lions (+600) and Packers (+650) are behind them. This two-game stretch in mid-November is no joke.

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It’s fair to expect Washington to take a step back in 2025. The Commanders have the oldest roster in the NFL and benefited from one of the softer schedules in the league in 2024.

NFL data scientist Tom Bliss’ luck dashboard had Washington as the luckiest team in 2024.

This year, Washington plays five of its first eight games on the road against teams that include the likes of Green Bay, the Los Angeles Chargers, Dallas, and Kansas City. We’ll know a lot about how real the Commanders are before October ends.

What they do have, though, is a star quarterback who is just 24 years old and an improved offensive line. They just satisfied holdout receiver Terry McLaurin with a new contract, too.

If last year wasn’t a fluke, then this Week 16 game could determine the NFC East champion.

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Week 17 at Buffalo Bills, Dec. 28: The games on this list were NFC games because of the nature of playoff positioning, but this one might have made the cut if it came earlier in the season. It’s a potential Super Bowl matchup, but if the Eagles have wrapped up the NFC East and aren’t worried about playoff seeding, this one might lose its luster.

Week 2 at Kansas City Chiefs, Sept. 14: The Super Bowl rematch will get a lot of hype, but the result might not be that meaningful, especially if the Eagles win their opener Thursday vs. Dallas.