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The NFL confirmed today that the 2012 schedule will be revealed tomorrow at 7pm on NFL Network. We'll certainly have it for you here on BGN, but it's worth noting that we already know where and against whom all these games will be played. The NFL has set teams' home and away schedules through 2017, so all we'll find out about tomorrow is what time of year these games will be.
In addition to playing the NFC East home and away, here's the Eagles 2012 opponents.
Home - Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions
Away - New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Arizona Cardinals
Just because we already know who and where doesn't mean the when is irrelevant. There will be some key things to watch for.
- Back to back road games. Bettors will tell you that teams on the second leg of back to back road games struggle. So it will be interesting to see which team the Eagles will play in that situation.
- Obviously the national TV games are always big. There's already some obvious candidates there. The Eagles will always play an NFC East team or two on national TV, but virtually every Eagles home game in 2012 would be a good candidate for a national TV game.
- Games after national TV. We saw last year that the Eagles got royally screwed by the schedule makers when they were sent all the way to Seattle for a Thursday night game following a late Sunday game against the Patriots. The only real cross country trip they've got this year is to Arizona, so it will be important to see where that falls.
- Bye weeks - Teams are good coming off their bye weeks, so that will be a key thing to look for. Last year, the Eagles played an inordinate number of teams coming off their bye. Generally, you do not want that.