The Philadelphia Eagles took home the Lombardi Trophy in convincing fashion on Sunday night.
And while there will be many postmortems about how it was done and what impact this has on the fledgling Kansas City Chiefs “dynasty,” for some, it’s time to look ahead to next season.
Only once in the past 21 NFL seasons has the NFL Kickoff Game not featured the defending Super Bowl champions. So assuming the league continues that trend, the Eagles are a lock to be playing at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on September 4, 2025 live on NBC.
That narrows it down to eight possible opponents for the defending champs in the season opener: the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Washington Commanders, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, and Los Angeles Rams.
A couple of those teams can probably be eliminated right off the bat. It’s unlikely that the league will schedule the ratings-darling Cowboys for the opening game as it makes more sense to save that matchup for later in the season when there won’t be the type of built-in audience the NFL Kickoff Game has. On the flip side, it’s unlikely they’d schedule a team like the Raiders, who simply haven’t been very good recently.
That leaves six possible teams, with the two most likely being the Commanders and Lions.
Both the Commanders and Lions had great seasons in 2024, and would likely bring a competitive game to the defending champions. And when looking at recent history for the NFL Kickoff Game, the league tends to favor opponents that made deep playoff runs the prior year. Last season, for instance, the Ravens took on the defending champion Chiefs in a rematch of the 2023 AFC Championship Game.
The league could run back that playbook next season, staging a rematch of the recent NFC Championship Game between the Eagles and Commanders. Or, the league can opt to put the 15-win Lions into the slot. Both games would be high-octane on paper, making them likely candidates.
But the NFL has plenty of other options to choose from as well.
Both the Giants and Bears fall into a similar category — large market teams that will draw a solid audience based on brand recognition alone. The Bears would probably be the more likely choice of the two, considering there will still be excitement around Caleb Williams with the introduction of new head coach Ben Johnson.
Then there’s the Rams, who might be a dark horse contender in all of this. They had a solid season this year, losing to the eventual champions in the Divisional Round, but they don’t necessarily have the television appeal that the Lions or Commanders may have. If the NFL is looking to juice the ratings for a game that may not be the most attractive on paper, but still should be solidly competitive, this would be the prime candidate.
The Broncos game would fall under similar logic, though the NFL may avoid that matchup for being a bit too underwhelming.
The Eagles’ 2025 schedule is a bit of a murderer’s row, which gives the league plenty of great options to choose from for its opener just under seven months from now.