NFL Schedule Day is almost upon us, as the league will announce its 18-week, 272-game slate on the evening of May 14.
Until then, all we can do is speculate on which of the eight possible teams will get the assignment of opening the year at Lincoln Financial Field against the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
The three 2025 London Games were leaked this week, as well as the NFL’s games in Germany and Spain. The Eagles, based on those initial reports, were not included in any of those five matchups, leaving all options on the table for Philly’s Thursday night opener on Sept. 4 (8:20 p.m., EST).
As for who the Eagles could potentially play, here are the eight teams who will be visiting the Linc at some point during the 2025 season:
Dallas Cowboys
New York Giants
Washington Commanders
Chicago Bears
Detroit Lions
Denver Broncos
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Rams
For obvious reasons, both the Rams and Lions have been mocked to Philadelphia for the season opener by fans and analysts. Detroit entered last year’s NFC playoffs as the No. 1 overall seed, and the Rams gave the Eagles their toughest test by far during last year’s run to Super Bowl LIX. The NFL loves to pick juicy matchups for its season kick-off game, and both the Lions and Rams have the star power, pedigree, and TV markets to check those boxes.
There are sometimes exceptions to that rule if an ascending franchise is gaining enough buzz, and that’s why Eagles insider Anthony DiBona predicts Philly will open with a wild-card opponent from this list: Ben Johnson’s Chicago Bears.
“Chicago hired Ben Johnson and made several notable additions this offseason,” DiBona wrote. “Their hype will likely never be higher than at the start of the regular season.”
There’s actually some precedent for this type of scenario — and it happened to feature Johnson as the then-ascending offensive coordinator of the Lions.
Detroit was picked to face the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium to kick-off the 2023 season. The Lions didn’t make the NFC playoffs the prior year, but they finished the season hot under coach Dan Campbell and eliminated Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in that year’s regular season finale.
There was enough juice around the program that next offseason that the Lions were sent to Kansas City in Week 1 — and they knocked off Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in that game, 21-20.
This will be Philly’s first chance to host the NFL’s kickoff game since 2018, after the first Super Bowl title in franchise history. These are the league’s six opening-day matchups since:
2024: Kansas City vs. Baltimore (13-4 prior year, lost in AFC Championship Game)
2023: Kansas City vs. Detroit (9-8 prior year, missed playoffs)
2022: L.A. Rams vs. Buffalo (11-6 prior year, lost in AFC Divisional Round)
2021: Tampa Bay vs. Dallas (6-10 prior year, missed playoffs)
2020: Kansas City vs. Houston (10-6 prior year, lost in AFC Divisional Round)
2019: New England vs. Pittsburgh (9-6-1 prior year, missed playoffs)
At a glance, the NFL tends to favor premier quarterback matchups and storylines to help fuel the anticipation for the new season. The Cowboys, picked to play Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021, are a bit of an outlier, coming off a 6-10 season the prior year. But that 2021 season opener was Dak Prescott’s return from a gruesome ankle injury, and given the Dallas market, that storyline carried enough juice for the NFL. The league got what it bargained for, too, with Brady and Prescott combining for 108 pass attempts, 782 yards and seven touchdowns in that game (a 31-29 Bucs win).
Using recent history as a guide, the established contender, like Detroit, or star coach-quarterback, like Sean McVay and Mathew Stafford, still feel like the most likely outcomes. The NFL didn’t get Detroit vs. Philadelphia in the NFC Championship Game, and it has the power to give us that blockbuster matchup just nine months later.
Then again, the league could favor saving those big-time matchups — including the divisional games, which are rarely scheduled in Week 1 anymore — for later in the season, when teams are operating at full speed. In that sense, tapping into the starved and crazed football market that is the Chicago Bears feels like a very real possibility.
