The Eagles Will Not Be Playing in Europe Next Season
International games have become a bigger and bigger thing every year in the NFL. Completely dominating the sports landscape is not enough for them. They have made great efforts to expand the game across the Atlantic. The United Kingdom and Germany both hosted games this season and will in 2024 too. It started with 1 overseas game a year. Next season there will be 4. But one team that will not have to update their passport is the Eagles. The NFL revealed the 4 “home’ teams for these games next season, and the Eagles are not among them.
We do not yet know who these 4 teams will be playing. But we do know that the Eagles do not have away games scheduled against any of them. So there will be no London or Munich game for the Eagles in 2024. The Phillies will be in London to take on the Mets in June, but the Eagles will skip out on a potential trip to Europe for another season.
To this point, the Eagles have only played in Europe once. They went there to take on the Jaguars in 2018 following their Super Bowl season. But they have not been back to Europe since. And they will miss out on that trip for at least one more season. They are one of 7 teams who have only played one game in Europe since the NFL started hosting games overseas.
They could still play in Brazil next season. The NFL will host their first-ever game in the Southern Hemisphere next season when a game is played at Corinthians Arena in Brazil. They usually play one game in Mexico too, but no game is scheduled to be played there in 2024.
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Ranking Which Of The 9 Offseason Losses Hurt The Eagles The Most
9th) Miles Sanders
(Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images)
This is one loss they are definitely not missing. Not just because D’Andre Swift has come in and played well, but because Sanders has been a no-show in Carolina. To be fair to Miles, that whole team has been a mess, and their O-line is awful. But even with that context, it’s clear Sanders was overachieving here. And Chubba Hubbard has been more productive behind the same line. He is a solid RB, that was buoyed by an elite O-Line. This season he averages just 3.3 yards per carry. All 4 Eagles RBs, even Penny with his 5 carries, average more yards per rush than him. Letting Sanders walk was the right choice.
And by the way, this same logic applies to Swift too. He has been productive this year. But lots of RBs could be. They have enough work to do this offseason, paying Swift will not be a priority.
8th) Isaac Seumalo
(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
This has nothing to do with Seumalo as a player. He is as solid as ever with the Steelers. But the Eagles O-Line hasn’t missed a beat with Cam Jurgens in there. Cam has missed some time here and there, but he has been very solid when he plays. And moving on from him, to get a bit cheaper, helped them make changes elsewhere.
7th) Jonathan Gannon
(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
Sean Desai and Matt Patricia have not done a good job ad DC for the Eagles. But Gannon wasn’t good at the job either. Losing him is not why the Eagles have taken a massive step back on D. It is because of all the good players they are missing on defense. If Gannon was the Eagles DC, they would still be in trouble. Gannon was exposed as a bad DC in the Super Bowl. He was helped out big time buy how talented the Eagles defense was last season.
6th) Kyzir White
(Photo by Mike Christy/Getty Images)
Was Kyzir White a star linebacker? No. But he was at the very least passable. You could put him in your starting lineup and be content he would not get picked on all game long. Were he still here, he would probably be their best LB. And while that says more about the linebackers they have, than it does about him, it doesn’t change the fact that this would be a better defense if he was still here.
5th) Marcus Epps
(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Like with White, Epps is not some super star that made a massive difference last year with the Eagles. But he was a solid dependable Safety. And it was rare to see him getting beat badly. That is not the case this year for the Eagles at Safety. Reed Blankenship has upside, and we have seen him flash it. But we have also seen a few too many mistakes from him. And maybe those mistakes would be easier to stomach if they had Epps lined up next to him.
4th) Shane Steichen
(Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Play calling is not fully the issue on defense, but you can make the argument it is the biggest problem on offense. Now I would say Brian Johnson takes too much heat, and that Nick Sirianni is more to blame for the Eagles offense being a bit stale. But this is pretty much the same offense they had last year, and the biggest difference is no Steichen. So it is hard not to wonder what they would look like if he was still here. He has the Colts offense over performing expectations, even with Gardner Minshew at QB. And maybe his presence helped balance Sirianni’s worst habits on offense.
3rd) Javon Hargrave
(Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images)
On paper, the Eagles got the perfect Javon Hargrave replacement, Jalen Carter. And for the first half of the season, Carter was playing like it. But now we see the perils of banking on a rookie. Carter has hit the rookie wall. And without his production, the Eagles D-Line has completely fallen off. Over his career, Carter will be a great replacement for Hargrave, and might even be better. But this year they are missing Hargrave. Having another great pass rusher inside would make the world of difference for them right now.
2nd) CJ Gardner Johnson
(Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
Last year the Eagles were a takeaway machine, and leading the way on that was CJ Gardner Johnson. This year they are near the bottom of the league in that category. And Safety has been one of their biggest issues as teams picked them apart across the middle of the field. I will give the Eagles credit, and say that losing CJ, was way more on CJ than it was on the Eagles. They easily would have given him what the Lions gave him. But the Eagles took their time in the off season as they tried to reshape their secondary, and CJ got awful advice by his now former agent. Regardless of who’s fault it is though that he is no longer here, they dearly miss his ability to impact the game out of the secondary.
1st) TJ Edwards
(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
And without a doubt the guy they are missing the most this year is TJ Edwards. I don’t think we understood how good he was until he started playing for the Bears, and we realized what it looks like when you have terrible LB play. It seems like Edwards was set on going home to Chicago, and they paid him very well. But if they had found a way to keep him in Philly, the Eagles defense would look very different this season. TJ was great at not only dropping back in coverage, but he could defend the run to both sides of the field. Linebacker has been a complete mess this season. It is the primary reason why this defense is this bad. And if they had TJ, this would go from a bad defense, to perhaps even a good one.
