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Football at Four: Explaining How NFL Put Together Eagles Schedule · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Right now, we're going to take a look at the
0:02
Speaker 1: news and notes from Adam Kaplan some of the things
0:05
Speaker 1: that stood out to him with the Eagles schedule, which
0:08
Speaker 1: started to drip and drab yesterday all throughout the day.
0:13
Speaker 1: And now Adam, we know when, why, how, where and
0:17
Speaker 1: what time and it's a doozy man. They're all over
0:20
Speaker 1: the place. Eight standalone games.
0:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Mike, look, this situation with Eagles is this
0:27
Speaker 2: from a league standpoint, the NFL believes Eagles are what
0:30
Speaker 2: we call national team. I've talked about this before. They
0:34
Speaker 2: have a really good national following and as long as
0:37
Speaker 2: they do all they're not really bad a season before,
0:39
Speaker 2: like in twenty twenty, they're going to be on primetime
0:42
Speaker 2: a lot. So what happened after that? Peterson was fired
0:47
Speaker 2: After the twenty twenty season, they only got two primetime
0:50
Speaker 2: games for Nick Sirianni's for a season. Well, they made
0:54
Speaker 2: the playoffs. The league's always liked them. They put him
0:56
Speaker 2: on primetime five times, twenty three, six times, twenty four
0:59
Speaker 2: to four times, last year five times and this year
1:03
Speaker 2: five times. So they're a national team. They're very very popular.
1:07
Speaker 2: To me, they're a top five team when you talk
1:09
Speaker 2: about national exposure. And not only that, Mike, this is
1:14
Speaker 2: an incredible fact. Nobody's played more Monday night football games
1:20
Speaker 2: since two thousand than the Eagles they played in forty four.
1:23
Speaker 2: That's hard to believe.
1:25
Speaker 1: Very popular. Yes, we know primetime games, but now you
1:28
Speaker 1: have all these other standalone games. You've got Christmas Eve,
1:31
Speaker 1: and you've got Thanksgiving. We'll get into all that, but
1:33
Speaker 1: five primetimes games. This is the obvious that during the
1:36
Speaker 1: Sirianni era, the networks want to see the Eagles on
1:40
Speaker 1: the screen.
1:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, and part of that is, Mike, it's a as
1:47
Speaker 2: I said, have you have you you know, do you
1:49
Speaker 2: have a history of winning? Are you consistent? Do you
1:53
Speaker 2: become a flash in the pan? No, the you look
1:56
Speaker 2: at the Andy Rade Joe Banner time, what they work together.
2:00
Speaker 2: When Andy came in here in ninety nine and turned
2:02
Speaker 2: things around. Well again, since two thousand, he goes a
2:06
Speaker 2: bit on Monday Night football forty four times. So the
2:09
Speaker 2: networks have absolute confidence and the schedule makers, Mike North
2:13
Speaker 2: and his group, they've made it pretty clear that if
2:19
Speaker 2: you're a consistent winner, you're going to be on primetime. Now.
2:23
Speaker 2: This is why we have flex scheduling well, there are
2:25
Speaker 2: times that might guess, you know, if the team is
2:27
Speaker 2: worse than they thought, if they thought you were going
2:29
Speaker 2: to be really good and you're in primetime. If you're
2:32
Speaker 2: on the primetime schedule five or six times, you can
2:34
Speaker 2: be flexed out of it. Remember Denver in twenty twenty two,
2:39
Speaker 2: and I was wrong on it. I thought that Russell
2:42
Speaker 2: Wilson be really good year on oops, so they took
2:46
Speaker 2: him out of a bunch of primetime games. So it's
2:49
Speaker 2: all relative to the history of the team. And look,
2:52
Speaker 2: if you have a setback the next season, you're not
2:55
Speaker 2: going to be on primetime. And also the reason why
2:58
Speaker 2: they flex scheduling. There are years that nobody knows about
3:01
Speaker 2: a team, like when Washington came out of the blue
3:04
Speaker 2: two years ago. Well, the league, you know, they wanted
3:07
Speaker 2: to make sure that they scheduled them to get them
3:10
Speaker 2: on primetime. Well next last year, they sucked, they were hurt.
3:14
Speaker 2: They had the oldest team in the National Football League,
3:17
Speaker 2: and that's why they're not as many primetime games. So
3:21
Speaker 2: it's it's consistency. The league takes notice. And that's why
3:24
Speaker 2: the Eagles again have five primetime games. And and by
3:27
Speaker 2: the way, I could have more. They're allowed to.
3:28
Speaker 1: Yes, they can get flexed into a primetime game as well.
3:32
Speaker 1: They're gonna have the buy Many people thought when the
3:35
Speaker 1: London game was announced that they would have the buye
3:38
Speaker 1: in week six. That is not the case, Adam. The
3:40
Speaker 1: buye is in week ten.
3:43
Speaker 2: All right. So I remember the league explaining us to
3:46
Speaker 2: us on their national call, not the NFLS. You get
3:52
Speaker 2: a choice, do you want to have your buye after
3:55
Speaker 2: the international game or not. I'm guessing, Mike, because I
3:59
Speaker 2: don't know this, but I can't imagine that they would not.
4:04
Speaker 2: But by choice. They may have decided that there's some
4:08
Speaker 2: travel analytical data that says that after England sometimes you
4:14
Speaker 2: want to play the next week, you don't want to
4:16
Speaker 2: have your buy then I know you're allowed to choose
4:18
Speaker 2: that that that the league has made that clear. Some
4:21
Speaker 2: you could request it to not have your buy after
4:25
Speaker 2: your international game. And this is, by the way, the
4:28
Speaker 2: third international game, Week five at the Jaguars. This game
4:31
Speaker 2: is in London. And by the way, the Jaguars they
4:34
Speaker 2: are not going to be playing any home games this
4:36
Speaker 2: year in their stadium. It's getting renovated, so they're going
4:39
Speaker 2: to play in Campus World Stadium in Orlando, and of
4:42
Speaker 2: course shot Con the owner of the Jaguars hat he
4:45
Speaker 2: owns a soccer team in England and they have you know,
4:50
Speaker 2: they usually have a few games in London anyway.
4:52
Speaker 1: So they're playing back to back out there this year.
4:56
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. By the way, Dallas in twenty eighteen, Dallas Goddard, Uh,
5:01
Speaker 2: if you I'd have to look at I he might
5:03
Speaker 2: have scored in that game. I just remember him playing
5:05
Speaker 2: well in that London game in twenty eighteen. I think
5:08
Speaker 2: although one of those games he got hurt, unfortunately. But
5:13
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen, Mike, we started to see that. That
5:17
Speaker 2: was the year after the Degles won the Super Bowl
5:19
Speaker 2: in seventeen, and that was when Dallas Gotter was drafted
5:23
Speaker 2: in the second round. And that twenty eighteen team was
5:26
Speaker 2: interesting because that's the year that Wentz had the back fracture.
5:29
Speaker 2: It's just that that honestly, Wentz actually played well that season,
5:35
Speaker 2: but he had trouble throwing the ball downfield. And uh,
5:38
Speaker 2: that was a very interesting season. That was also the
5:40
Speaker 2: year that Deagles only had five draft picks but got
5:42
Speaker 2: just about got them all right, including Dallas Goddard.
5:46
Speaker 1: All right, So the bye week is week ten, and
5:50
Speaker 1: that is one that the coaches like this. They like
5:52
Speaker 1: a later on an early one.
5:54
Speaker 2: No, they would rather have it later. Now, the way
5:57
Speaker 2: it's explained to me is they love it. Coaches are
6:00
Speaker 2: on the NFL would love it. If it's mid season. Well,
6:02
Speaker 2: it's almost midseason, Mike, because you've got eighteen weeks, seventeen
6:06
Speaker 2: games and it's week ten. That's not bad. And if
6:09
Speaker 2: you had your choice, you'd rather have it, as I
6:11
Speaker 2: was told, later in the season, not earlier in the season.
6:15
Speaker 2: The worst is if you have it like week four
6:16
Speaker 2: or five, that's just too early because you'd rather have
6:20
Speaker 2: it later because your team is tired. You like to
6:22
Speaker 2: get them off their feet. So you've got that situation.
6:25
Speaker 2: So and by the way, Mike, if you look at
6:28
Speaker 2: the toughest stretch, remember in twenty twenty three they had
6:31
Speaker 2: that incredibly called the Gauntlet of six straight games, where
6:34
Speaker 2: it was unbelievably difficult. The toughest stretches are in weeks
6:38
Speaker 2: three through five at Chicago home against the Rams. That's,
6:41
Speaker 2: by the way, that Rams game is one o'clock. How
6:43
Speaker 2: about that game one o'clock Eastern, So that's like a
6:45
Speaker 2: ten am game. For the Rams and the London game
6:48
Speaker 2: in week five, which we talked about, and then weeks
6:50
Speaker 2: fifteen through seventeen on that odd Saturday game at when
6:54
Speaker 2: was the last time you saw the Eagles played five
6:56
Speaker 2: pm Eastern?
6:57
Speaker 1: That is weird yesterday, and these things started to leak
7:01
Speaker 1: out and I said five o'clock, Like, what are you
7:03
Speaker 1: talking about Saturday at five o'clock time?
7:06
Speaker 2: Yep, yep. Then they play the Texans. The Texans are
7:10
Speaker 2: going to be lead defensively. How good their offenses remain
7:13
Speaker 2: to be seen. And then, as you explained to me,
7:15
Speaker 2: also you really want to have your West Coast games,
7:19
Speaker 2: You could request it, but the league, the league can
7:22
Speaker 2: only honor so much. You'd rather have them earlier in
7:24
Speaker 2: the season. That game is in week seventeen at the Niners.
7:28
Speaker 2: That that you know, look traveling three time zones. Yeah,
7:32
Speaker 2: and a set that I've taken that flight that's a
7:35
Speaker 2: six hour flight from Philly to SFO. So then that's
7:38
Speaker 2: in the s flight. Don't like that one.
7:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. Andrew Brandt talked about it on his podcast What
7:44
Speaker 1: Teams Look For. He said, all schedule games Thursday night, Holidays,
7:48
Speaker 1: Monday night Sundays in that order, and their opponents before
7:52
Speaker 1: and then after those games, and then warm weather games
7:56
Speaker 1: early in the season, cold weather games late in the season,
8:00
Speaker 1: and then their divisional opponent gained timing. And that's an
8:04
Speaker 1: interesting one because they have Dallas, Washington, New York back
8:08
Speaker 1: to back to back leading into their bye week there,
8:10
Speaker 1: so they have that division. You know, I think last
8:13
Speaker 1: year they had the divisions late late in the year.
8:15
Speaker 1: This time they're getting them kind of right there in
8:17
Speaker 1: the middle with Dallas, Washington and New York before the bye.
8:21
Speaker 2: Oh, Mike, I one thing I would add from the
8:22
Speaker 2: league call so they told us so because he hears
8:25
Speaker 2: that while the media and the fans would love to
8:28
Speaker 2: have the game, all the division games, you know, the
8:31
Speaker 2: final four B divisional games, the league's partner says, what
8:36
Speaker 2: they really care about is they want competition. They don't
8:38
Speaker 2: care if it's divisional rivalry, particularly if the tea let's
8:43
Speaker 2: say it's the Eagles who are very good but Washington's
8:46
Speaker 2: really bad that season, they don't want that game, like
8:48
Speaker 2: they if they don't feel good about that game, then
8:51
Speaker 2: the partners, whether it's CBS, Fox, Amazon now obviously Netflix,
8:59
Speaker 2: they want YouTube won great games. They just do.
9:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, YouTube. Don't forget about them. The Eagles will be playing,
9:05
Speaker 1: by the way, on YouTube. They will be playing on
9:09
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve. That will be an NFL an Amazon Prime game.
9:13
Speaker 2: I should say, yeah, yeah, yeah, YouTube. Well YouTube's the
9:16
Speaker 2: NFL ticket. But yeah, it's you know, it's a shame though.
9:20
Speaker 2: I'm not one to complain but that you've got to
9:23
Speaker 2: spend so much money get only string services. It's just
9:26
Speaker 2: it's reluck. We saw we just saw this with the Sixers.
9:29
Speaker 2: You know, I don't have YouTube TV, so I got
9:32
Speaker 2: you know, I got shut out for not having NBC
9:34
Speaker 2: Sports Network, which went away for years out to come back.
9:38
Speaker 2: So that's just the way it is, and we've got
9:39
Speaker 2: to live with it.
9:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, the for the people out there, the Eagles are
9:42
Speaker 1: playing on Thanksgiving this year and on Christmas Eve, so
9:47
Speaker 1: you have two kind of holiday games there. And then
9:49
Speaker 1: the only game that is not scheduled is Week eighteen,
9:52
Speaker 1: which is normal against the New York Giants. I want
9:54
Speaker 1: to get your take on that real quick. They're going
9:56
Speaker 1: to play the Giants in Week nine, and then at
9:58
Speaker 1: the end of the year. I'm seeing people that are
10:02
Speaker 1: starting to pick the Giants as one of those teams
10:04
Speaker 1: that didn't make the playoffs from one year and that
10:08
Speaker 1: they could be the team that makes them. You know,
10:09
Speaker 1: it always happens the teams that goes from career first.
10:12
Speaker 1: The first are the Giants? Well, that Week eighteen game matter.
10:18
Speaker 2: So Mike, this is the way I would answer it,
10:20
Speaker 2: as I told you when we did the over unders.
10:23
Speaker 2: I am bullish on John Harball and the Giants. I
10:25
Speaker 2: really am. I believe they're going to surprise a lot
10:28
Speaker 2: of people. I'm not saying they're going to be a
10:30
Speaker 2: playoff team, but they're going to be better. They're going
10:32
Speaker 2: to be better than a great than the odds makers think. Now,
10:35
Speaker 2: who's going to be that break up the team that
10:38
Speaker 2: I all right, I gotta look at their over hunner total.
10:41
Speaker 2: So I don't know it offhand, but I believe the
10:44
Speaker 2: Titans are going to be better than people say.
10:46
Speaker 1: Are you hump it off? I'm starting to see people
10:48
Speaker 1: jump on this Titans train.
10:50
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I Brian Dables is not good head coach,
10:53
Speaker 2: but he's a really good coordinator. I love the way
10:56
Speaker 2: coaches quarterbacks. Robert Salas is. I mean, he's a good
11:00
Speaker 2: head coach, not great. I'm looking forward. I'm looking forward
11:04
Speaker 2: to seeing what they do there.
11:08
Speaker 1: By the way, over under wins on the Titans right now,
11:12
Speaker 1: over under six and a half.
11:16
Speaker 2: Got to give that more thought. We will revisit that
11:19
Speaker 2: one more time. We will revisit that one and then
11:21
Speaker 2: they in the NFC. I kind of like New Orleans
11:24
Speaker 2: for six and eleven last season. Tyler Shuck looked really
11:26
Speaker 2: good in the season. I think they're going to be improved.
11:30
Speaker 2: I was right about Detroit last year. I didn't partict
11:33
Speaker 2: their injuries, but I thought they would not be the
11:34
Speaker 2: earliest good They were not. The Giants are might improved.
11:39
Speaker 2: Team Washington will be better than their five to twelve
11:42
Speaker 2: last season because there's no way they're not gonna have
11:44
Speaker 2: the oldest team in the National FOOTBA League. They know
11:46
Speaker 2: that it's gonna be a fun year. Mike and I
11:48
Speaker 2: always tell people strength to schedule before you get out
11:50
Speaker 2: of here. Be careful of strength to schedule. No team
11:53
Speaker 2: stays exactly the same, it's impossible. I use coaching changes,
11:58
Speaker 2: personnel changes, office changes, and I adjust accordingly, and that's
12:02
Speaker 2: that's the way I come up with it.
12:03
Speaker 1: Well, real quick, you've got five one o'clock games. So
12:07
Speaker 1: if you are a fan of the sitting on the
12:09
Speaker 1: couch at one o'clock getting yourself ready for an eagle Sunday.
12:13
Speaker 1: You are not going to be rewarded that this year.
12:15
Speaker 1: Even opening Day against Washington two East Coast teams, they're
12:20
Speaker 1: playing at four to twenty five. And then it starts
12:23
Speaker 1: right off the bat four twenty five, one o'clock, eight fifteen,
12:25
Speaker 1: one o'clock, nine to thirty am, one o'clock eight fifteen,
12:28
Speaker 1: eight twenty. I mean the last weeks of the season, Adam,
12:32
Speaker 1: as we get you out of here on this as
12:33
Speaker 1: you said, five o'clock on Saturday, eight fifteen, on Christmas Eve,
12:38
Speaker 1: eight twenty, on January third, So that last stretching game.
12:42
Speaker 1: And by the way, you're playing the Super Bowl champions,
12:45
Speaker 1: the AFC South Champions, the forty nine ers. That is
12:49
Speaker 1: your last three out of four games before you face
12:52
Speaker 1: the Giants to end the season. There, So that is
12:54
Speaker 1: a tough little three four game stretch at the end
12:57
Speaker 1: of the season, might be, might be their toughest stretch
13:00
Speaker 1: to the season right there.
13:01
Speaker 2: Week fifty, I said earlier week fifteen for seventeen to
13:04
Speaker 2: me by now again on paper, sure we have to
13:07
Speaker 2: see actually how good these teams are in Houston. I'm
13:10
Speaker 2: worried about their offense. They're their offensive line. See, they
13:12
Speaker 2: don't Mike, I don't understand the way teams think. Like
13:17
Speaker 2: Nick Issari. Their GM is actually pretty good, but he's
13:19
Speaker 2: like so many of these gms, they failed or adress
13:21
Speaker 2: their offensive line. Well, that's why they're not going to
13:23
Speaker 2: win a Super Ball until they figure it out.
13:24
Speaker 1: All right, Well, always fun the day the schedule comes out.
13:27
Speaker 1: Everybody where you're going on the road this year. I
13:29
Speaker 1: know a lot of our listeners yesterday were texting in Nashville.
13:32
Speaker 1: Seems to be the trip that everybody wants to do
13:34
Speaker 1: this year. And by the way, that is early in
13:37
Speaker 1: the season. You don't have to worry about crazy weather stuff.
13:40
Speaker 1: It seems like a lot of their stuff is kind
13:42
Speaker 1: of perfectly placed for where you want to. By the way,
13:45
Speaker 1: they do have a stretch of four straight home games
13:49
Speaker 1: there La Jacksonville, but that is excuse me, not force.
13:52
Speaker 1: But that game is in London, Carolina, Dallas where they
13:56
Speaker 1: will be the home team in those games. There, so
13:59
Speaker 1: Rams at home, Carolina at home, Dallas at home. U
14:03
Speaker 1: So you got three out of four home games and
14:05
Speaker 1: they do play back to back home games multiple times
14:08
Speaker 1: this year, which they did not do it all last year.
14:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Mike, look, they've got the stretch of three
14:13
Speaker 2: straight home games lately, the Pockets. Yeah, they late in
14:16
Speaker 2: the season, but they've got they've got a pocket Mike Early,
14:21
Speaker 2: they have to tw Homeme, actually three out of four
14:23
Speaker 2: on the road at Tennessee at Chicago, then two weeks
14:25
Speaker 2: later in London, they have a stretch of four out
14:29
Speaker 2: of five at home. Mike, I did want to add, like,
14:31
Speaker 2: don't forget about that. So actually this is a good schedule.
14:35
Speaker 2: And yeah, we don't we don't know from when you're
14:37
Speaker 2: in the next we can look at how many things
14:39
Speaker 2: have changed with these clubs.
14:40
Speaker 1: But Adam on May fifteenth, we're allowed to have fun
14:43
Speaker 1: with it.
14:43
Speaker 2: I know, no, I love look Jeff and I and
14:47
Speaker 2: our show that dropped Friday morning. We don't go game
14:50
Speaker 2: by game predictions, but it's it's fun to look at
14:53
Speaker 2: and we'll visit kind of because I do it, you know,
14:55
Speaker 2: I do a I'm gonna I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring
14:57
Speaker 2: back my trending camp tour. So I'm gonna, Yeah, hopefully
15:00
Speaker 2: it could go out west and then we'll start breaking
15:03
Speaker 2: these games down with Greg Cosel. We actually do a
15:06
Speaker 2: review of the whole Eagle schedule by Cape study with Greg,
15:09
Speaker 2: so we'll do that later on.
15:10
Speaker 1: All right, we look forward to it as always. Mini
15:12
Speaker 1: camp will be starting the twenty six. Next week, the
15:15
Speaker 1: Birds will be back on the field. They now know
15:17
Speaker 1: where they're heading and we'll be heading there with them
15:19
Speaker 1: on Football at four. By the way, first preseason game
15:23
Speaker 1: August fifteenth in Charms City against the Ravens, So the
15:27
Speaker 1: first time the Birds are actually back for real kinda
15:30
Speaker 1: sorta Saturday, August fifteenth, and remember you can listen to
15:34
Speaker 1: every Eagles game right here on ninety seven three ESPN.
15:37
Speaker 1: They'll see AJ Brown and his new Patriots team on
15:40
Speaker 1: October August the twenty second. By the way, they do
15:43
Speaker 1: play the Patriots.
15:44
Speaker 2: And practices, Mike, they're gonna have join.
15:46
Speaker 1: That's right, they have joint the practices.
15:48
Speaker 2: We'll be to get there. I hope to get there nice. Yeah,
15:52
Speaker 2: it is, I would say the last time that they
15:55
Speaker 2: were in New England. So I look forward to it, Mike.
15:58
Speaker 2: Which is going to be a great season and we're
16:00
Speaker 2: happy that we're back with you again.
16:01
Speaker 1: On football for as always, Adam Kaplin and the boys.
16:04
Speaker 1: We had a lot of fun this week. We look
16:06
Speaker 1: forward to it throughout the summer. Here as the birds
16:09
Speaker 1: are back. All right man, we'll talk to you. Thank you,
16:11
Speaker 1: Adam Kaplan. Everybody football at for powered by the end