5 reasons the Philadelphia Eagles will make the playoffs in 2017

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Dec 11, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson prior to a game against the Washington Redskins at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /

The Eagles weren’t bad in 2016

People sometimes forget that even though the Eagles didn’t make the playoffs last season, they were still competitive in just about every game. Of the Eagles’ nine losses in 2016, six of them were decided by seven points or less.

The Eagles do have a challenging schedule this season, however. Seven of their 16 games will be played against one of last season’s playoff teams. They will also face several other teams who just missed out on the playoffs, such as the Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos and Arizona Cardinals. Philadelphia did have a schedule of similar difficulty last season, though. Like this season, seven of their games in 2016 were played against playoff teams from the year prior.

While schedule difficulty is somewhat arbitrary, it is encouraging to know that the Eagles typically performed well with a similarly difficult schedule and an inferior team last season. Doug Pederson showed that he’s a capable head coach last year and he’ll have a chance to build on that this season.

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