December 08, 2025
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Fans begin to fill Lincoln Financial Field on Thursday night in the lead-up to the Eagles' 2025 season opener against the rival Dallas Cowboys.
If it feels like the Eagles are playing a primetime game every single week, there's a reason for that.
A combination of them being in contention (though you wouldn't know it from their recent play), their Super Bowl title defense and having one of the toughest schedules in the sport has made the Eagles a prominently scheduled team all season.
And while they have been nauseatingly difficult to watch at times this season, clearly they're a ratings draw.
When Monday Night Football kicks off on ESPN to cap off Week 14, it will be the fifth consecutive time the Eagles have played under the spotlight. Not to mention they're also prominently featured in HBO's Hard Knocks right now as it documents the last few weeks of the regular season in the NFC East.
Following back-to-back 1 pm "local" broadcasts before their Week 9 bye week, the Eagles have had the following on their slate:
• Week 10: Monday Night Football in Green Bay (10-7 win)
• Week 11: Sunday Night Football at home vs Detroit (16-9 win)
• Week 12: America's Game of the Week in Dallas (24-21 loss)
• Week 13: Black Friday Game vs. Chicago (24-15 loss)
• Week 14: Monday Night Football in Los Angeles
In addition, two of their next four games are going to be in prime viewing windows as well — their Saturday night game in Washington was moved to 5 p.m. on December 20th, and on December 28th they'll have another 4:25 national spotlight game against the Bills in Buffalo.
Philly will play five "prime time" (8 p.m. starts) games in total this season, third-most in the NFL, not including their Black Friday or Saturday Dec 20 games.
It's not talked about much, and clearly the Eagles have bigger issues right now, but they have not had any consistency whatsoever this season on a week-to-week basis. Imagine being a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball and having seemingly random and varied numbers of days off between starts.
This season the Eagles (8-4) have played with the normal six days to prepare for a game just five out of 13 times, with only one week remaining the rest of the regular season with a normal six-day prep time (between Weeks 17 and 18). In their other eight games they've had three short weeks (three days two times and four days once) with two more short weeks ahead.
They've also had extra rest before a game four times. It's just sporadic, and it while the team's issues with injuries, scheming and execution are all a lot more impactful on performance, their weird schedule — which has seen them play one of the 10-toughest stables of opponents so far — has definitely been a factor.
For some contrast, prior to their trip to Philly on Black Friday the NFC-leading Bears (9-3) had played twice on Monday and nine times on Sunday. They have no Thursday game this season.
With some extra time built in after their loss to the aforementioned Bears and before their trip to California, the coaching staff is trying to turn these abnormalities into a strength.
"You don't have as much time as you have in a normal bye week," Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said this week, "but it's a mini-bye and so everything was being evaluated. We will think about some different things that we want to do all over the place: scheme, everything. I don't think it benefits us for me to share in particular what that is."
Add the absurd and excruciating start times and days of the week to the list of things that routinely work against the defending Super Bowl Champions — like losing assistant coaches and playing a first place schedule.
The price of success?
We'll add it to the list of things the Eagles will need to continue to overcome as the playoffs approach.
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