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NFL 2022 Schedule

 

On Thu night (5/12) the NFL published their schedule.  I’ve always poo-pooed this event… The opposition was already known for the season, it’s just “calendarizing” it.  And any attempt to forecast wins/losses in May is so arbitrary given the level of change teams can have year-to-year (example… 2020 Bengals had 4 wins, 2021 Bengals were Super Bowl participants). 

So here I am now, writing my Eagles Diary for the event… i.e., my “schedule” (aka poo-poo) entry.  I am going to take my typical good/bad/ugly approach describing the Birds schedule:

Philadelphia Eagles 2022 Schedule of Opponents with Date, Time, Network

  • Week 1  (09/11)- AT Detroit Lions    (1:00 PM, FOX)
  • Week 2  (09/19)- Minnesota Vikings   (8:30 PM, ABC Mon Night Football)
  • Week 3  (09/25)- AT Wash. Commanders (1:00 PM, FOX)
  • Week 4  (10/02)- Jacksonville Jags   (1:00 PM, CBS)
  • Week 5  (10/09)- AT Ariz. Cardinals  (4:25 PM, FOX)
  • Week 6  (10/16)- Dallas Cowboys      (8:20 PM, NBC Sunday Night Football)*
  • Week 7  BYE WEEK                      BYE WEEK
  • Week 8  (10/30)- Pittsburgh Steelers (1:00 PM, CBS)
  • Week 9  (11/03)- AT Houston Texans   (8:15 PM, Amazon Prime Thur Night Football)
  • Week 10 (11/14)- Wash. Commanders    (8:15 PM, ESPN Monday Night Football)
  • Week 11 (11/20)- AT Indianap. Colts  (1:00 PM, CBS)
  • Week 12 (11/27)- Green Bay Packers   (8:20 PM, NBC Sunday Night Football)*
  • Week 13 (12/04)- Tennessee Titans    (1:00 PM, CBS)
  • Week 14 (12/11)- at New York Giants  (1:00 PM, FOX)
  • Week 15 (12/18)- at Chicago Bears    (1:00 PM, FOX)
  • Week 16 (12/24)- at Dallas Cowboys   (4:25 PM, FOX) Saturday, Christmas Eve
  • Week 17 (01/01)- New Orleans Saints  (1:00 PM, FOX)
  • Week 18 (01/07 OR 01/08)- NY Giants  (TBD, TBD)

* Sunday night games subject to time changes.  I am not listing the playoff scheduling the NFL has provided.  Let’s not put the cart before the horse!  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly-

The Good:

  • Extra Home Game this year: 9 home, 8 away.
  • NFC Least: The Eagles play each of their NFC East opponents twice.  Per scheduling the NFC East has 1 good team (Dallas) and presumably 2 bad ones (Washington and the Giants.  The Giants have admitted they are rebuilding.  The Commanders, on the other hand, might just be underrated.  But for the time being, let’s go with the crowd and anticipate a sub .500 Washington squad.  The ratio of 1 good opponent to two “bad” ones is good for the Birds.
  • Inter-division Opposition: The Eagles play the NFC North (Green Bay, Minnesota, Detroit) and the AFC South (Tennessee, Indianapolis, Houston, Jacksonville). Both divisions represent desirable collection of opponents overall, since each has 1 good team, 1 OK team and 2 bad teams.
  • SOS (Strength of Schedule): The SOS the Eagles face is quite desirable, the 3rd easiest in the 32 team league based on last years records.
  • Elite QB’s: The Eagles play in a conference with fewer “elite” Quarterbacks.  The only consistently (year-to-year) elite QB they will face in 2022 is Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay.
  • 5 prime time games:  Only 1 team this century has had more… Dallas.  This presumably suggests the NFL expects the Eagles to be both good and entertaining, a forecast we’d like to see come to fruition!
  • Home cookin: The Eagles final 2 games are at home.  This is an advantage, late in the year, preceding the playoffs.
  • Roster: The Eagles project an improved Defensive line, Offensive Line, Linebacking corps, and Receiving Group.  Their running backs should be just as good as last year, and it is expected Jalen Hurts will be better in his age 24 season (He has improved every season since his freshman year in college!). This all bodes well to forecast an improved Philadelphia Eagles in 2022.   

The Bad: 

  • Having finished in 2nd place in their division last year, the Eagles remaining opponents are 3 of the 8 teams who also finished 2nd in their respective divisions… The Arizona Cardinals, New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers, currently forecasted as foes with projected success similar to Philly, i.e. worthy foes.
  • The best path to the playoffs is to win your division certainly.  Unfortunately, the Eagles 3 division foes (Dallas, Wash. and the NY Giants) have, respectively the 2nd easiest, easiest, and 4th easiest schedules).
  • While not terribly bad, a bye in week 7 is a bit early.  You’d prefr that rest AFTER the half way point, optimally, for a playoff team.  It also follows a game vs. the arch-rival Cowboys.  The Eagles will not want to carry a loss to Dallas into their buy week.
  • The three games at the 2/3 point (weeks 11-13 vs. Indianapolis, Green Bay and Tennessee in succession appears now to be the most difficult part of the schedule.  The Eagles will need to win at least 1, and preferably 2 of those games. 

The Ugly:

  • Injuries: “The game of attrition” play a critical role in creating matchups that may not reflect a teams best talent.  The only thing worse than injured opponents (no one ever wants to wish an injury on someone else) would be for the Eagles to carry significant injuries to their critical players.
  • Desperation: In any given week, an Eagle opponent on a losing streak will likely cultivate an emotional high to end that streak.  This can take presumably easy games an rathet up the competitive level.
  • The Eagles have actually removed talent (Steve Nelson, Rodney McCloud) from an only average (last year) at best secondary.  If their solutions for the lost personnel do not work out, the Eagles may face passing attacks that’ll “drop many successful bombs.”

It’ll be interesting to see what the Eagles do with their roster from here given the schedule.  If management’s perspective is the schedule has a low degree of difficulty, roster aggressiveness to improve the defense might be a strong consideration, to leverage what they perceive as an easier schedule in the Jalen Hurts “discovery” year. 


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