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The NFL regular season kicks off on Thursday night with the Baltimore Ravens taking on the Kansas City Chiefs. However, do not forget we also have NFL action on Friday night in Brazil.
The Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles are traveling to Sao Paulo to square off. This is the first time ever that the NFL has traveled over to Brazil to play a game. Both teams are coming off tough losses in the playoffs last season so you know they want to get off to a hot start in this campaign.
In this article, we dive into our Packers at Eagles picks and break down this Friday night football matchup in San Paulo, Brazil.
As mentioned above, these two teams are coming off playoff losses. Although they had two different stories to get them there.
The Packers were projected to take a step back after moving on from Aaron Rodgers and handing the keys to the franchise over to Jordan Love. It looked as though that was going to happen as the Packers started the season 4-6 after their first 10.
Green Bay then went into Detroit on Thanksgiving Day and took down the Lions, which completely changed their season. They won four out of their next six games and got into the playoffs with a 9-8 record, taking on the Cowboys in the Wild Card round. They went on to upset Dallas 48-32 before falling to San Francisco the next week 24-21, ending their season.
As for the Eagles, they were the complete opposite of the Packers. The Eagles started the season as winners of their first five games before tripping up against the Jets.
After the first 11 games, they sat with a record of 9-2. After that point, the wheels fell off as they lost four of their last six games. The Eagles looked very shaky heading into the playoffs and it showed in their Wild Card game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The offense collapsed in that game, scoring just nine points as they were crushed 32-9 by the Bucs.
Both of these teams are going to look a bit different as we head into the 2024 season. The biggest move for the Packers this offseason was extending Jordan Love and making him the second-highest-paid quarterback in the NFL.
The biggest change for the Packers this offseason was at the running back position. Green Bay moved on from long-time veteran running back Aaron Jones and replaced him with Josh Jacobs.
Jacobs comes over from the Las Vegas Raiders where he dealt with injuries last year, leading to career-low efficiency numbers. However, the year prior, Jacobs was great, scoring 12 total touchdowns and leading the league in rushing with 1,653 yards.
As for the Eagles, they decided to make multiple changes to their team and coaching staff. They brought in former Cowboys and Chargers offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. As for the defensive side, they hired Vic Fangio, who has been great at times in his career. Perhaps the biggest loss was long-time center Jason Kelce, who retired this offseason.
Some player additions for the Eagles include long-time rival running back Saquon Barkley, as he comes over from the New York Giants. They also made many changes on the defensive side, bringing back C.J. Gardner-Johnson and bringing in Devin White to play middle linebacker.
The Eagles also used their NFL draft capital on the secondary. They drafted Quinyon Mitchell with the 22nd pick in the first round. Then they drafted Cooper De Jean with their second-round pick, trying to fix a secondary which was the weakness of their team last season.
There is a ton of hype surrounding this Packers and Eagles matchup from both fan bases. However, one team is going to come away disappointed and we expect that to be Philadelphia.
The Eagles have done everything they can to try and improve this team’s weaknesses. With a lot of new moving pieces on the defensive side of the football, it could take time for things to gel, especially for the rookies on the backend of their secondary.
The Packers have a lot of continuity on the offensive side and do not lack playmakers. Green Bay wide receivers Romeo Doubs and Jayden Reed took big steps in the offense last season, becoming Jordan Love’s favorite targets. Christian Watson is also coming back from an injury-plagued sophomore season and looks to make an impact.
We expect the Packers to take advantage of the Eagles’ young secondary, making our Packers at Eagles pick to be for Green Bay to win with a three-point head start.
Dylan has had a love for sports since he was a kid. Four years ago, he decided to dive into the sports content-creating industry specializing in Fantasy Football, NFL and NBA. He has since had his work published on sites that include Fantasy Alarm, Fansided, and Fantasy Six Pack.