2015 Philadelphia Eagles Schedule: Full Listing of Dates, Times and TV Info | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
Has any NFL team been more interesting to watch this offseason than the Philadelphia Eagles?
Many will agree that head coach Chip Kelly is putting his stamp on the team. For better or worse, he's crafting the team in his image and unique style.
Bleacher Report's Mike Tanier questioned whether Kelly's moves have hurt the team. He argued the coach is ill equipped to handle the process of building an NFL team and that his experience at the college level will have done little to prepare him:
General managers and other top NFL decision-makers spend years working their way up through personnel, scouting or cap-management departments. The head coaches who gain personnel control usually climb through the coordinator ranks—where they deal regularly with general managers and administrators and learn the fundamentals of roster assembly—and almost always keep an experienced personnel director around as a combination logistical coordinator/consigliore.
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A major college coach, meanwhile, knows nothing of salary caps, or salaries. Trades do not exist. Agents are kicked off campus, theoretically. The only competition for talent involves showing 17-year-olds a good time on Fraternity Row and promising them a shot at a starting job as freshmen.
It's not like Philly entered this offseason in desperate need of a rebuild. The Eagles won 10 games in each of Kelly's first two years and narrowly missed out on the playoffs in 2014. Sure, there were some positions to address, but nothing too dramatic was necessary.
Instead, Kelly either traded or declined to re-sign many of the team's key pieces from the past few years.
At least the Eagles won't be boring in 2015.
Here's a look at their full schedule for the regular season ahead:
| Philadelphia Eagles 2015 Regular-Season Schedule | ||||
| 1 | 9/14 | at Falcons | 7:10 p.m. | ESPN |
| 2 | 9/20 | vs. Cowboys | 4:25 p.m. | FOX |
| 3 | 9/27 | at Jets | 1 p.m. | FOX |
| 4 | 10/4 | at Redskins | 1 p.m. | FOX |
| 5 | 10/11 | vs. Saints | 1 p.m. | FOX |
| 6 | 10/19 | vs. Giants | 8:30 p.m. | ESPN |
| 7 | 10/25 | at Panthers | 8:30 p.m. | NBC |
| 8 | BYE | |||
| 9 | 11/8 | at Cowboys | 8:30 p.m. | NBC |
| 10 | 11/15 | vs. Dolphins | 1 p.m. | CBS |
| 11 | 11/22 | vs. Buccaneers | 1 p.m. | FOX |
| 12 | 11/26 | at Lions | 12:30 p.m. | FOX |
| 13 | 12/5 | at Patriots | 4:25 p.m. | FOX |
| 14 | 12/13 | vs. Bills | 1 p.m. | CBS |
| 15 | 12/20 | vs. Cardinals | 1 p.m. | FOX |
| 16 | 12/26 | vs. Redskins | 8:25 p.m. | NFLN |
| 17 | 1/3 | at Giants | 1 p.m. | FOX |
| NFL.com | ||||
All eyes will be on Bradford in 2015. There will be two big questions he needs to answer in the coming season if the Eagles are to take the next step: Can he stay healthy, and can he succeed in Kelly's more uptempo offense?
The health question is obviously huge. Bradford didn't play at all in 2014 after tearing his ACL in the preseason. Before that, he missed nine games in 2013 and six games in 2011.
Just as pressing is the issue of whether or not Bradford will adjust to the Eagles offense.
Kevin Wilson, Bradford's offensive coordinator at Oklahoma, was asked that very question during an interview on 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia (via Matt Lombardo of NJ Advanced Media). Wilson firmly believes that the doubt about Bradford's fit is unwarranted:
I think Sam's athletic enough, even with those injuries. He can do some movement and run around when you need to. At the same time, I don't think you want to live and die on the quarterback running game in the pros where you're going to expose your quarterback to a lot of excessive high end numbers of carries and running the ball. You need a guy who can distribute the ball, can spread it around the field and to do so you have the arm to make all the throws but you need the vision and the mind and the decision making to do things quickly.
Of course, Bradford will also have to deal with an offense that jettisoned its leading rusher (McCoy) and leading receiver (Maclin). The Eagles have yet to find a replacement for Maclin, but Murray will help soften the blow of losing McCoy.
Bleacher Report's Bryn Swartz believes McCoy is the better player but that Murray will suit Kelly's style more:
Bryn Swartz @eaglescentral@Aboites_arlu Murray fits the offense better but McCoy is the better running back.
Then, on the defensive side of the ball, you wonder whether Maxwell can live up to his six-year, $63 million deal. Some believe Maxwell only looked good with the Seattle Seahawks because of the players around him.
Kelly counters that being in the Legion of Boom only meant Maxwell got tested more often, thus preparing him for a starring role, per Eagles Insider:
Dave Spadaro @EaglesInsiderKelly: Said Byron Maxwell was helped playing across from Richard Sherman since he saw the majority of targets. Praised Maxwell's versatility
Between all of the teams in the league, the Eagles might have the most boom-or-bust potential. If everything goes right, Philadelphia could be a Super Bowl contender. But if everything goes wrong, fans won't waste any time turning on Kelly.
Pivotal Matchups
Basically, you can highlight all of the Eagles' divisional matchups. Although Philadelphia went 4-2 in the NFC East last year, the two losses came in Weeks 15 and 16, when the Eagles badly needed to win in order to secure at least a wild-card berth.
The defeat to the Washington Redskins was particularly galling. Washington carried a six-game losing streak into that matchup, and yet, the Eagles completely fell on their faces with their playoff lives on the line. Philadelphia's loss to the Dallas Cowboys a week before also meant the division was all but out of reach.
Looking outside of the NFC East, games against the Carolina Panthers, the Detroit Lions, the Atlanta Falcons, the New Orleans Saints and the Arizona Cardinals could be interesting depending on what the wild-card picture looks like.
In retrospect, last year's game between the Cardinals and the Eagles had playoff implications, given the fact Arizona finished a game ahead of Philadelphia.