Power ranking Eagles' 2024 opponents as the regular-season gauntlet approaches

Pay very close attention because the clock is about to speed up. Sure, there's that break in the summer where the players go home before training camp launches, but for the most part, the Philadelphia Eagles are about to get pretty busy.

Organized team activities are scheduled for May 20th, May 22nd-23rd, May 28th, and May 30th-31st. Mandatory minicamp comes a few days later. Pencil June 4-6 on your calendars.

We'll know Philly's regular-season schedule before all of that takes place. We've long known who their opponents are. Now, we'll learn dates and times of the games.

Power rankings: Stacking every Eagles 2024 opponent from best to worst

We all know the drill now, right? 18 weeks... 17 games... There are nine home dates on the ledger (if we're including Week 1's game in Brazil where Philly is technically the home team). The other eight contests will be played in hostile territory.

As mentioned earlier, we know the 14 adversaries. Philly plays the other three NFC East members at home and on the road in six games. They also play the four NFC South members, the AFC North, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the L.A. Rams, and the Green Bay Packers.

Let's rank every 2024 opponent.

Baltimore Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens couldn't close the deal last season. Still. following an AFC Championship Game appearance, they have retooled by adding Derrick Henry via free agency and a handful of stellar prospects in the most recent NFL Draft.

T.J. Tampa, Nate Wiggins, Roger Rosengarten, Devontez Walker, Rasheen Ali, and Adisa Isaac are all going to be great pros. They add to what was already a great roster.

Thankfully, Philly only has to play these guys once every four seasons. The task this time will prove to be tough.

Green Bay Packers

We place the Green Bay Packers above the Bengals, Cowboys, and Browns for several reasons. Here's one of the easiest to explain. If The Pack needed to play any of those teams today, we'd place our money on the Cheeseheads.

Jordan Love can ball, and his team wants to play for him. Matt LaFleur is a better coach than he gets credit for being. If you need further evidence, rewatch this team's dismantling of Dallas and how they came within a few plays of disposing of the 49ers in the Divisional Round one week later.

Cincinnati Bengals

Having Joe Burrow on this roster means the Bengals have a shot in every game they play in. Adding Sledon Rankins and Vonn Bell in free agency and acquiring Amarius Mims, Kris Jenkins, and Jermain Burton in the draft has us recycling overused phrases like 'bouceback season'.

Dallas Cowboys

If "all in" for the Dallas Cowboys means doing nothing of note in free agency other than reacquiring a broken-down Ezekiel Elliott, we hope they go "all in" every offseason. One of Philly's fiercest rivals has been a thorn in the Birds' side for a while. As much as we hate to admit it, they'll probably be the same when these two meet next season.

Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns are fresh off a postseason appearance. That alone is significant. That isn't something we say frequently, and they could be good enough to get there again next January if a few things go their way.

The road to a second consecutive postseason berth won't be free of a few bumps. The AFC North will again be stacked. We mentioned the Ravens and Bengals. Don't forget about Pittsburgh. Cleveland is good, but they now wear a target.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Dare we say the Steelers are in danger of flirting with the AFC North's cellar? That's what can happen when the Ravens, Bengals, and Browns all have their franchise signal-callers and Pittsburgh just opened the purse for Russell Wilson.

The Black and Gold doesn't experience losing seasons under Mike Tomlin. It simply doesn't happen. There's a lot of talent here. We'll see what happens.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Okay, we'll say what no one else wants to. Trevor Lawrence might be a tad overrated. Doug Pederson, when left to his devices, is probably consistently a 9-8 head coach, but we love them both. Also, we've seen them make magic. They'll need to do so this season.

The Jaguars are looking up at the Texans now, but they play in the AFC South. The Colts and Titans might hand them four wins collectively. Asking this team to make the postseason shouldn't make anyone uncomfortable. That should be the expectation every year.

Los Angeles Rams

The Rams finally had a first-round selection in 2024, and they made it count, adding pass-rushing ace Jared Verse. The next three picks they made were also intriguing: Braden Fiske, Blake Corum, and Kamren Kinchens.

Playing in the same division as the San Francisco 49ers won't do the Rams any favors, and Aaron Donald has retired. This was a playoff team

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Honestly, the Bucs are an average unit that earned a postseason berth simply by being the best team in a division full of struggling organizations. Baker Mayfield is probably the best quarterback in the NFC South though, and Todd Bowles may be the division's best coach. Sometimes, that's all it takes to guarantee superiority. The Bucs have taken the NFC South three years in a row, and they'll do so again in 2024.

Atlanta Falcons

The Atlanta Falcons got themselves a quarterback this offseason. No, that isn't totally true. They landed two. One is the always underachieving Kirk Cousins. The other is the 2024 NFL Draft's overall selection, former Washington QB Michael Penix.

Kirk has a no-trade clause worked into his contract by the way. He will be around even if that means he eventually represents a huge cap hit. The Falcons have good young players, but something tells us they will waste many of their productive years.

Here's where we sit. Atlanta is better than the Saints and Panthers. How's that? There! That's the pep talk.

New Orleans Saints

The New Orleans Saints' future may hinge on the success of Taliese Fuaga, Kool-Aid McKinstry, and Spencer Rattler. Think about that for a second. All of those guys can play, but even with that said, it always feels like this team needs more weapons than it has.

We hate to be the bearers of bad news for the fans of the teams in the NFC South, but this will again be the worst division in football. The Saints have a shot at winning the crown, but that isn't saying much. An 8-9 finish might be the ceiling, but looking at their 2024 opponents, it's hard to find eight wins.

New York Giants

The Giants might be one quarterback away from being decent. They don't care, so why should we? For some reason, they want to prove everyone wrong and convince themselves (and the rest of us) that Daniel Jones is the guy.

Brian Daboll's AP NFL Coach of the Year nod in 2022 was a farce. That honor should have gone to Nick Sirianni as Daboll was NEVER that good.

The NFC East will again feature dogfights. Still, we wouldn't be shocked if Big Blue replaced the Washington Commanders by taking up residency in the division's cellar.

Washington Commanders

If Jayden Daniels pulls a C.J. Stroud and wins the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award, we're going to really look stupid here. We're also going to have to bregrudgingly name Commanders GM Adam Peters as a serious Executive of the Year candidate.

Here's why we think we won't have to. Nothing excites us about most of their free-agent additions. Zach Ertz and Bobby Wagner acquisitions would have been more frightening two years ago. Washington has added a nice draft class though.

Carolina Panthers

This is the most discouragement I have felt about the Carolina Panthers in years, and that's saying something. Passing on C.J. Stroud for Bryce Young is going to haunt them for a while, and there isn't much to get excited about when you look at the rest of the roster.

David Tepper might be the second coming of Daniel Snyder. As long as he's in Charlotte, this is going to be an awfule franchise that enjoys the surprising decent season because they're always selecting at the top of the NFL Draft.