Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Schedule Talk

Posted May 15th, 2026 | No Comments »

The NFL released the schedule officially last night. Leaks had been coming out for days, but now we know all the details. Let’s take a look at the Eagles schedule and I’ll go game by game with some thoughts.

Week 1 – Jayden Daniels will be healthy and he should make a good test for the Eagles defense. Dan Quinn will celebrate every good play and half the bad ones. Hopefully Jonathan Greenard will spend enough time with Daniels that Quinn isn’t smiling at the end.

Week 2 – Jeffrey Simmons will be a great test to see where Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens are at. Would be great to see them handle him and Saquon to run wild in Nashville. Titans LG Peter Skoronski has become a stud and is a pending free agent. Would the Eagles be interested in him, should Dickerson retire next offseason? Keep your eyes on #77.

Week 3 – The Bears got the best of the Eagles last year and it wasn’t pretty. I’m sure Vic Fangio will have his guys fired up. Watching Ben Johnson and his team celebrate last year should have the Eagles plenty motivated to kick some butt this time around.

Week 4 – The last time the Eagles lost to the Rams was in the Nate Gerry era. Could this finally be the year that Sean McVay beats Nick Sirianni? On paper, LA looks like a juggernaut.

Week 5 – UK Eagles fans better fill that stadium so the Jags contingent doesn’t control the place. Jacksonville is an ascending team and will be a tougher opponent than many realize. This will be a tough game.

Week 6 – No bye week after the UK game and the Eagles have to face Jaelan Phillips and his Panthers. Carolina gave them fits in 2024, but this is a game the Eagles should win, tired or not.

Week 7 – Dallas at Philly is always wild. And this will be on MNF. The Eagles need to win this to keep control of the division.

Week 8 – The Eagles go to Washington for SNF. I guess the league expects the Commanders to bounce back. We’ll see. That team still has plenty of holes. Anything can happen in division games and the Commanders have upset the Eagles more than a few times over the years. Sneaky tough game.

Week 9 – Jaxson Dart and the improved Giants come to Philly to find out how they stack up against the big boys. I think Saquon will be ready to run wild.

Week 10 – The bye. Coaches can assess the new offense and figure out what needs fixing.

Week 11 – The Steelers traditionally struggle in Philly. Mike McCarthy likes traditions so hopefully this one will continue. There is also the question of who will be the QB for Pittsburgh. Aaron Rodgers is still not signed.

Week 12 – Thanksgiving. Dallas. The Eagles are 2-0 in those games. Saquon Barkley talked about how cool it is to watch the winning team eat turkey after these games. Let’s hope he is enjoying Tom Turkey after a big road win. Would also love to see Jordan Davis and Lane Johnson doing the same.

Week 13 – Eagles at Cardinals. I hear there is a nice hotel in Sedona.

Week 14 – Indiana Jones and the Colts come to Philly. Sean Mannion vs Shane Steichen. They won’t go against each other directly, but it sure would be great for Sean to look good here.

Week 15 – The last two Super Bowl winners battle as Seattle comes to town. The Eagles haven’t beaten them since 1857 or something like that. This sure would be a good time to break that streak. It will be up to the Eagles D to shut down Sam Darnold. JSN vs Cooper DeJean could be a great battle.

Week 16 – The Eagles have to play on Christmas eve at 815pm. What the hell is wrong with the NFL? Christmas eve should be for chugging cocoa, watching Scrooged (vastly overlooked Christmas movie) and family time. Instead I’ll be yelling about blocking, tackling and catching the damn ball. Thanks, Rog. Even worse, the game is against the Texans and that vicious defense. Something tells me I might not go to bed happy that night. Bah humbug.

Week 17 – The rested Eagles will travel to SF, or Electric Avenue as Jordan Davis referred to it. That is one funny dude. The Eagles dominated the Niners in 2022, but SF has owned them since. That needs to change.

Week 18 – The regular season concludes with the Giants. Could this be for the division title? Will the Eagles be resting starters? All kinds of crazy possibilities.

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If the Eagles stay healthy, I see a 12-5 team. The overall slate is seventh easiest in the league. But there is a lot of travel and the tough games are bunched up. The league did what it could to make things tough. The Eagles face four teams coming off a bye. That’s no bueno.

My annual reminder…it isn’t just who you play, but when you play them and where you play them.

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Eric Edholm of NFL.com sees the Eagles as one of the schedule winners.

Last season, the Eagles became the first team to repeat as NFC East champs in more than 20 years. And they appear to be in a strong enough position to make it three straight division titles now that we’ve seen what looks like a very favorable schedule.

Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts might be facing some pressure, and A.J. Brown might soon be gone, but this is a slate the Eagles can take advantage of, even with five prime-time games and an overseas trip on tap.

After opening with the Commanders and Titans, things get thicker, especially with the Bears-Rams-Jaguars cluster (Weeks 3-5), but there’s nothing treacherous thereafter. Yes, the Eagles have three different pairs of back-to-back road games; they also have a three-game homestead over the holidays in December, which is nice timing. And they come against three quality teams, too: the Colts (Week 14), Seahawks (Week 15) and Texans (Week 16).

Even with two roadies to close out the season, including Week 17 at San Fran, the Eagles’ schedule lays out pretty nicely, featuring a well-placed bye in Week 10.

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Teams now release schedule videos each year. Some are brilliant, some awful. I enjoyed what the Eagles did.

It is hard not to like Jordan Davis.

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Here are a couple of good nuggets from Deniz Selman.

Deniz always has interesting info and insight.

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Let Him Go

Posted May 14th, 2026 | 1 Comment »

I have written about the Eagles since 2003 in some form or another. From the EMB to various sites to Iggles Blitz. I went through the McNabb roller coaster. There was the TO nightmare. Then we had DeSean-gate. The rise and fall of Carson Wentz was a wild time. Now we have the AJ Brown saga.

I’m talking about AJ today because a few of you brought him up in response to my piece on the Eagles WR corps. With all due respect and friendship, it is time to move on. You have to let him go.

AJ Brown is a few weeks away from officially being an ex-Eagle. I hate it, but this isn’t my choice. This isn’t Howie Roseman or Nick Sirianni’s choice. This is what AJ wants. Some of you will come at me disputing that. I’m tired of those arguments. Save them for someone else, please. Jimmy Bama seems like an engaging fellow, try him. The Eagles only trade two types of guys, players that are disposable and those who want out (Wentz, Reddick, Huff, etc.) Which category do you think AJ fits into? Hint…he’s sure as heck not disposable.

One of my happiest moments as an Eagles fan was in April of 2022 when the shocking news came through that AJ was being traded to Philly. He was one of my favorite NFL players and then suddenly he was an Eagle. The team had great success with him, going to a pair of Super Bowls and winning one. But that didn’t satisfy AJ. He wants to be The Guy. He wants to have the ball fed to him and put up crazy numbers. That’s his choice.

Unfortunately that has no chance of happening in Philly. Saquon Barkley has been the key to the offense since his arrival. He’s a future Hall of Fame player. You have to get him a lot of touches. DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert are key pieces of the passing game. The Eagles aren’t a volume passing team and Jalen Hurts isn’t an elite passer. AJ caught 106 passes in 2023, but that was pre-Saquon. If he prefers numbers to winning, that’s his right. I hate it, but we each have something that drives us and he wants touches. He wants to be up there with JSN, Puka and Ja’Marr.

AJ will be happy when he and Mike Vrabel are sharing a bowl of clam chowder and talking about how the offense will be built around him. If 32-year old Stefon Diggs can catch 85 passes in that offense, AJ can light it up. I wish him well. I hope he posts gaudy numbers and is happy as a clam. I also hope he never sniffs another Super Bowl. That’s more about the Pats than AJ.

When I write about the Eagles receivers, you no longer need to mention AJ. He’s gone by his choice. The Eagles would love to have him, but that option simply isn’t on the table. AJ might as well be Fred Barnett, Irving Fryar or Tommy McDonald. He’s part of Eagles history now. There isn’t a need to let me know the Eagles are less talented without him. That’s not our choice. It is his. The AJ era was fun while it lasted.

Move on.

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To be clear, I’m not some all-knowing wizard that is right about everything. I’ve been wrong about stuff plenty of times over the years and some of that will continue. Nobody bats 1.000. I appreciate when you guys give tough feedback and challenge my takes. I love a good conversation. That’s how you get smarter. If you dig in your heels and close your ears, you’re just going to live with your own opinions. I learned how to go back and forth in my EMB days. That crowd could be brutal. You learned to do your research and to be ready for some good counter-arguments.

Eagles fans are the best.

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Jeremy  Fowler from ESPN had another nugget on Jalen Hurts today.

This is a crucial year for the Eagles’ offense under Hurts, after their passing attack ranked in the bottom third of the league in back-to-back seasons.

The offense will feature more play-action and under-center work, which Hurts has hesitated to embrace at times in the past but has appeared very open to this offseason, according to sources. “As open as he’s ever been,” a source said.

Hurts has been throwing off site with multiple Eagles receivers, including his new No. 1, Devonta Smith — assuming A.J. Brown is traded as expected — and veteran Elijah Moore. Some NFL personnel evaluators still consider him a top-12 quarterback in the league. All of that won’t dim the spotlight placed on him this season — and the spotlight on the team’s next move if he struggles again.

Fowler goes on to talk about how the Eagles could move on from Hurts or extend him, depending on how this season goes. I do agree that Hurts future has some uncertainty, but I also know good QBs are hard to find. The Eagles won’t move on from him unless things go really poorly. They like Tanner McKee, but I don’t know if they think he’s ready to be the guy. And Cole Payton is a complete unknown. The last thing you want to do is be in the QB wilderness. The Steelers have been stuck in that purgatory since Big Ben left. That’s not something you want to experience.

It is great to hear Hurts is working out with his guys. There are limited reps between now and Training Camp. Do everything possible you can to build or improve chemistry. This is a huge year for Hurts and he seems driven to show what he can do. I’m cautiously optimistic. The most dangerous version of Jalen Hurts is the one with a chip on his shoulder.

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The official schedule release is tonight. There are leaks all over social media. I’m not going to post them here. I want to wait and discuss the whole thing when we have all the details.

There is a game in the UK so I’m stoked for all our British Eagles fans. They have to be on cloud nine.

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