Top NFL media outlets are interpreting the Eagles' schedule similarly

The Philadelphia Eagles' regular season schedule is now public knowledge as that of the rest of the league. Comparisons have begun, with media outlets ranking the difficulty of each teams schedule as we head into 2024.

Despite a second-place finish in the NFC East last season, Philadelphia's regular season calendar is largely claimed to be the easiest in the division. Different outlets ranked the Eagles' schedule against other teams' using different formulas. Their findings were all interesting.

Let's focus on three, those of the NFL's website, Pro Football Network, and Sharp Football Analysis.

The NFL's Ranking

The NFL's strength of schedule ranking is the most commonly understood methodology for stacking teams' calendars against each other. The idea is simple: It uses the combined 2023 win/loss record of their 2024 opponents and orders them by winning percentage.

The Eagles' 2024 opponent win/loss record from 2023 was 142-147, yielding a .491 winning percentage. This places them tied for 10th easiest with both the Tennessee Titans and Indianapolis Colts.

The Washington Commanders sit behind them tied for the 14th easiest schedule, with the Dallas Cowboys tied at 18th and the New York Giants tied with an unfortunate 25th easiest (T-6th most difficult) slate of games.

Pro Football Network's Ranking

Pro Football Network (PFN) takes a few more variables into account when juxtaposing teams' schedule against one another, knowing that the 2023 record for many teams is not necessarily predictive of their 2024 abilities.

PFN's strength of schedule ranking considers their "internal ranks, the opinions of sportsbooks, and a tweak on some advanced metrics...." In any case, the Eagles again ranked with the 10th easiest schedule using these metrics.

The Commanders come in at 11th here. They are followed by the Cowboys and Giants who are slotted 14th and 15th respectively.

Sharp Football Analysis' Ranking

Sharp Football Analysis is a website owned and managed by one of the more well-known names in football analytics, Warren Sharp. His strength of schedule ranking is largely predicated on Vegas win totals, where he writes that they are "much better than most widely used metrics that incorporate the previous season's record."

His rankings queue the Birds in with the 9th easiest schedule, once again at the top of the division. Sharp's list follows suit with the Commanders at 13th, but surprisingly has the Giants and the Cowboys in the bottom twelve. They're ranked 20th and 22nd respectively.

Here's what all of that means.

It seems that no matter how analysts are attacking their schedule rankings formula-wise, the Eagles are locked into the top ten in terms of 'ease'. Even with a second-place finish last year, they are consistently notched as the NFC East team with the least challenging slate of games in 2024.

Having come off a disappointing end to the 2023-2024 campaign, Eagles fans can rest a bit easier until the fall. They have the comfort of knowing that the league has given them a great opportunity to extend that streak of zero consecutive NFC East Champions to two decades this season.

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