NFL Schedule Rumors: First four weeks will feature NFC vs. AFC games [UPDATE]

UPDATE: It looks like this report is off base considering the Philadelphia Eagles are reportedly set to play Washington in Week 1.

ORIGINAL STORY BELOW.

The 2020 NFL schedule will be officially revealed tomorrow evening at 8:00 PM Eastern on Thursday, May 7. Some teams — including the Philadelphia Eagles — will announce their schedules a little earlier at 7:30. Some schedule leaks will likely emerge even earlier than that.

On that topic, there are already some rumors out there about what this year’s slate could look like. Longtime NFL reporter John Clayton told 93.7 The Fan that the 2020 schedule will begin with four straight weeks of NFC versus AFC matchups. Clayton later confirmed as much with Touchdown Wire.

The opening weeks of the schedule will feature out-of-conference games, John Clayton confirmed to Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar this has been a league discussion.

Clayton has heard this from multiple league sources over the last few weeks. The idea is to start with the out-of-conference games so if they need to shave the season off at the start, those games are the least important in a competitive sense.

Assuming there’s validity to this rumor, the Eagles will begin the first quarter of their 2020 schedule against the AFC North. They have home games set against the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals while they’ll be on the road against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns.

That division features a prolific group of quarterbacks with 2019 NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, two-time Super Bowl winner Ben Roethlisberger, 2020 No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow, and 2018 No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield. The Eagles’ defense could be tested early on.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that these games will even take place. There’s a lot of uncertainty about the future amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Hopefully things will be safely back to normal sooner than later. But we’ll just have to see.

We won’t need to wait as long to see if Clayton is right about this season starting with interconference matchups. Stay tuned to BGN for complete coverage of the Eagles’ 2020 schedule coming tomorrow.

Here’s a reminder of all 13 opponents the Eagles will play this year:

HOME — New Orleans Saints, Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Rams, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, New York Giants

ROAD — Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, New York Giants