Packers-Eagles Will Feature Super Bowl, MVP Favorites

In exactly 20 days, the Green Bay Packers will battle the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil in a made-for-primetime showdown.

Bill Huber | Aug 17, 2024

Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles will battle the Green Bay Packers in Week 1. / Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – In 20 days, the Green Bay Packers will kick off the 2024 NFL season in Brazil against the Philadelphia Eagles.

It will be a heavyweight showdown in several ways.

First, the Packers and Eagles both made the playoffs last year. The Eagles lost 38-35 to the Chiefs in the Super in 2022 and were 10-1 to start the 2023 season before falling apart. The Packers stormed into the playoffs by winning six of their final eight regular-season games and demolishing the Cowboys in the wild-card round.

The Eagles have the fifth-shortest Super Bowl odds at FanDuel Sportsbook while the Packers are ninth.

Second, the quarterbacks, Jordan Love of the Packers and Jalen Hurts of the Eagles, are two of the best in the business. They are tied for the fifth-shortest MVP odds at FanDuel. Their performance has a dramatic impact on betting lines.

Third, both teams made big splashes in free agency. Philadelphia signed running back Saquon Barkley, defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson and linebacker Devin White while the Packers added safety Xavier McKinney and running back Josh Jacobs.

Plus, the Packers had five picks in the Top 100 of the 2024 NFL Draft while the Eagles upgraded their secondary by drafting cornerback Quinyon Mitchell in the first round and defensive back Cooper DeJean in the second round.

Fourth, the coaches are winners. Green Bay’s Matt LaFleur is 56-27 and has qualified for the playoffs in four of his five seasons. The Eagles’ Nick Siriani is 34-17 and reached the playoffs all three seasons.

Packers-Eagles is one of three Week 1 games in which both teams are among the top 10 in Super Bowl odds. The others: The Thursday night matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs and the Monday night game between the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers.

The Packers are 1.5-point underdogs at FanDuel for their Sept. 6 showdown. That was the opening line, and it hasn’t budged.

Here are the top 10 in Super Bowl odds.

Kansas City Chiefs: +600

San Francisco 49ers: +600

Baltimore Ravens: +1000

Detroit Lions: +1200

Philadelphia Eagles: +1300

Houston Texans: +1500

Cincinnati Bengals: +1500

Buffalo Bills: +1500

Dallas Cowboys: +1800

New York Jets: +1800

Green Bay Packers: +1800 (from +1900 about two months ago).

The key to the teams’ success could lie in how their players respond to new defensive coordinators. The Eagles hired the esteemed Vic Fangio, who has a long history of running strong defenses, while LaFleur hired Jeff Hafley. While Hafley has a lot to prove, the players are fully onboard with his vision.

“Just keep getting 1 percent better. That’s what this whole defense about,” cornerback Eric Stokes said. “For each and everybody out there to where we know for a fact that we’ve got to go at the end and it’s the Super Bowl, to be a Super bowl defense. We want to be remembered as one of the best defenses out here. We don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, we relying on the offenses and all this stuff.’ Nah, we want, when people think about the Packers, they think about our defense, not our offense.”

Green Bay will continue its preseason at the Denver Broncos on Sunday night. With Love not expected to play, the Packers are 7-point underdogs.

More Green Bay Packers Training Camp News

In 10 days, the #Packers will have to cut their roster to 53 players. Here's an updated look at the big roster battles ahead of Sunday night's game at Denver and the practice and game next week against Baltimore. ⬇️https://t.co/aDsXEr5B5D
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) August 17, 2024

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BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.