Eagles
Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Philadelphia will open the 2026 season against Washington at Lincoln Financial Field. It will be only the first of 17 games, but Eagles history has turned Week 1 into something more than just another date on the calendar.
Since 2000, no NFL franchise has posted a better record in season openers. Nick Sirianni, meanwhile, has never lost an opener since taking over as head coach. And there is an even more striking number: in each of the five seasons in which the Eagles reached the Super Bowl, they started the year with a victory.
On September 13, the Linc will once again host the beginning of a season filled with major expectations. On the other side will be the Commanders, a rival that also holds a particular place in this history.
It will be the 12th time Philadelphia and Washington have met in Week 1 and only the sixth time that opening matchup has been played in Philadelphia. The previous 11 meetings are almost perfectly balanced: Washington won six and the Eagles won five.
Across the entire rivalry, Washington owns a 44-44-2 record as the road team against Philadelphia. Few statistics could better illustrate just how evenly matched this series has historically been in Philadelphia.
That balance against Washington, however, stands in sharp contrast to Philadelphia’s recent performance in Week 1.
From a Nearly Even Record to the NFL’s Best
For much of its history, starting a season on the right foot was far from guaranteed for Philadelphia. The franchise’s all-time Week 1 record still reflects that reality: 40 wins, 41 losses and one tie.
Since 2000, however, the picture has changed completely.
The Eagles have won 18 of their 26 season openers since then. No NFL team has produced a better record over that span.
And that stretch began with one of the most memorable openers in franchise history.
On September 3, 2000, Philadelphia visited Dallas in suffocating heat at Texas Stadium. The Eagles caught the Cowboys off guard with an onside kick on the opening kickoff and turned to pickle juice to fight dehydration. Duce Staley rushed for 201 yards, and Philadelphia eventually pulled away for a 41-14 victory.
The game became permanently known as the Pickle Juice Game. It also marked the beginning of a stretch that would make the Eagles the NFL’s most successful Week 1 team.
In recent years, that dominance became even more pronounced. Philadelphia’s only Week 1 loss since 2016 came against Washington itself, in 2020.
That afternoon, the Eagles built a 17-0 lead before surrendering 27 unanswered points and losing 27-17. What followed was not much better: Philadelphia finished that season 4-11-1, last in the NFC East and outside the playoffs.
After that loss, the Eagles won every season opener game they played. And that is where another story begins.
All Five Super Bowl Seasons Started 1-0
One pattern stretches across different eras, coaches and generations of players: every time Philadelphia reached the Super Bowl, it had started the season with a win.
In 1980, the Eagles defeated Denver 27-6 before eventually reaching Super Bowl XV.
In 2004, they opened with a 31-17 victory over the Giants and finished the season by playing in Super Bowl XXXIX.
In 2017, they beat Washington 30-17 and, months later, lifted the first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.
Jason Kelce celebrates the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII championship during Philadelphia’s victory parade.Credit: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
The story repeated itself in 2022, when a 38-35 win over Detroit preceded a trip to Super Bowl LVII, and again in 2024, when the 34-29 victory over Green Bay in São Paulo became the first step of another championship season.
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, left, holds the Vince Lombardi Trophy next to head coach Nick Sirianni after defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL Super Bowl LIX football game, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Those five teams were separated by more than four decades. The coaches changed, the quarterbacks changed, the systems changed, and even the context surrounding the franchise changed. The starting point, however, was always the same.
Dick Vermeil’s team did it in 1980. The generation led by Andy Reid, Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens did it again in 2004. Doug Pederson and Carson Wentz started the same way in 2017. And both Nick Sirianni teams that reached the Super Bowl also began 1-0.
Is it a coincidence? Maybe.
Winning the first game guarantees absolutely nothing about what will happen over the following four months. But the pattern is there.
Nick Sirianni Has Yet to Start a Season 0-1
Since taking over as head coach in 2021, Sirianni has won all five season openers he has coached.
The run began with a dominant 32-6 victory over Atlanta. Then came the 38-35 win against Detroit in 2022, the 25-20 victory over New England in 2023, the 34-29 win over Green Bay in São Paulo in 2024, and the 24-20 victory over Dallas in 2025.
That 5-0 record was not built entirely on comfortable afternoons, either. After the blowout win over Atlanta, the next four openers were decided by five points or fewer.
There were road games, an international matchup, conference opponents and divisional battles. Coordinators changed, players changed and offensive schemes changed as well. Philadelphia, however, always found a way to start with a win.
And those five victories shared something else: each one started a season that ended with the Eagles in the playoffs.
Sirianni will now have the opportunity to move his record to 6-0 while trying to lead the franchise to its sixth consecutive postseason appearance.
Recent History Against Washington
Beyond those broader trends, this year’s opponent provides the most relevant recent history heading into Sunday’s game at the Linc.
The last four times the Eagles opened a season against Washington came in 2013, 2017, 2019 and 2020. Philadelphia won the first three and reached the playoffs in each of those seasons. It lost the fourth and went on to endure one of its most difficult campaigns in recent years.
2013: A New Era Began With 33 Points
Chip Kelly made his debut as Eagles head coach in Washington.
His offense burst onto the field with the speed that had created so much anticipation throughout the offseason, produced 443 yards and carried Philadelphia to a 33-27 victory.
That win offered the first sign of an immediate transformation. The Eagles finished 10-6, won the NFC East and returned to the playoffs after two consecutive seasons without a postseason appearance.
2017: The First Step Toward Minneapolis
Four years later, Washington was once again the opponent in the opener.
Philadelphia won 30-17, Carson Wentz threw for 307 yards and two touchdowns, and the defense forced four turnovers.
At the time, it was simply a strong way to begin Doug Pederson’s second season. Months later, that game had become the opening chapter of a 13-win campaign that ended in Minneapolis with the first Lombardi Trophy in Eagles history.
2019: A Comeback at the Linc
The next season-opening meeting with Washington unfolded very differently.
The Eagles fell behind 17-0 at home and spent the rest of the game fighting their way back. DeSean Jackson, facing his former team, delivered one of the game’s biggest performances with two touchdowns of more than 50 yards, and Philadelphia eventually completed the comeback with a 32-27 victory.
The season was defined by injuries and inconsistency, but the Eagles won their final four games, finished 9-7 and captured the NFC East again.
Another season-opening victory over Washington had once again been followed by playoff football.
2020: The Exception That Came at a Cost
One year later came the opposite result.
Philadelphia once again built a 17-0 lead against Washington, this time on the road. But the Eagles never scored again and eventually lost 27-17.
It was Philadelphia’s only Week 1 loss since 2016 and the beginning of a season that ended 4-11-1. Carson Wentz later lost the starting job, Jalen Hurts received his first opportunities as a starter, and Doug Pederson left the team after the season.
Philadelphia has not lost a season opener since that game.
First, 1-0
None of this can predict how the 2026 season will end.
A victory over Washington would not automatically send the Eagles to the playoffs, much less the Super Bowl. But it would keep several trends associated with the franchise’s best recent seasons alive: extend Nick Sirianni’s unbeaten Week 1 record, preserve Philadelphia’s status as the NFL team with the best season-opening record since 2000, and allow 2026 to begin exactly the same way as each of the five Eagles seasons that ended with a trip to the Super Bowl.
SoFi Stadium can wait. Before thinking about February, Philadelphia has a much more immediate assignment. Start 1-0.
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