Each year, the NFL International Series plucks a few games from the league and attempts to expand the worldwide audience. This year, the NFL has announced five matchups in three cities.
The 2024 NFL International Slate is Here!
NFL’s 2024 International Schedule: pic.twitter.com/2Bdu6lV0ep
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 15, 2024
For the 17th consecutive non-COVID-impacted season, the NFL will play overseas. The league has been aggressive in its attempts to build its audience worldwide and what better way than to play on foreign soil? The NFL International Series started back in 2007 when the Miami Dolphins fell to the New York Giants in London. Prior to 2024, the NFL has played 36 games internationally ranging from London, Mexico City, and Munich.
This year, there will be five NFL International Series games. Only one team has to play more than one, but they only forfeit one home game. Next year, we could see as many as eight international games.
Week 1: Green Bay Packers vs Philadelphia Eagles
Location: Corinthians Arena, Sao Paolo, Brazil
To kick off this year’s NFL International slate, the league is starting early. This year, the Packers and Eagles get to clash in the first-ever South American NFL game. It’s also important to note that this one is not taking place on the usual Sunday evening; they’re set to kick off on September 6, a Friday.
The Packers and Eagles have faced off 43 times in the regular season and three times in the playoffs. To date, the Packers own a 28-16 lead all time during the regular season. In the playoffs, however, the Eagles have won two of the three meetings.
Each team is looking to hit the ground running in 2024. Both have playoff aspirations after flaming out in last year’s edition. The Eagles look to be contenders yet again behind Jalen Hurts as well as that rebuilt defense. Green Bay looks like they’re back to competing behind Jordan Love, who led the team to the playoffs in his first full season at the helm. That’s something not even Aaron Rodgers was able to to in Green Bay, if you remember.
With Kansas City hosting Baltimore on Thursday and then the Packers and Eagles in Brazil, the 2024 NFL schedule is off to a fantastic start.
The Eagles are 1-0 in international games with a 24-18 win over the Jaguars in London in 2018. The Packers dropped their only international game in 2022 to the Giants, 27-22, also in London.
Week 5: New York Jets vs Minnesota Vikings
Location: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, England
The first of three London games will feature the Jets and Vikings, two teams who disappointed last year due to injuries.
Considering the Jets and Vikings reside in opposite conferences, the two have only ever faced off 12 times in history. The Jets own the all-time record, 8-4, however, the Vikings are on a three-game winning streak after dropping each of the previous seven.
The Jets are going to be an interesting team in 2024. It can be argued that they have the best roster in the division and Rodgers is set to be fully healthy. As we’ve seen in his career, a healthy Rodgers is a dangerous one. The Vikings might be in flux this year. They brought in a new quarterback in Sam Darnold and drafted J.J. McCarthy. In the draft, they were also able to snag one of the best defenders, Dallas Turner.
To this point, the Jets have split their two NFL International games with a win over the Dolphins in 2015 and a loss to the Falcons in 2021. They’ve only ever played internationally in London. The Vikings are unbeaten in three games overseas with wins over the Steelers (2013), Browns (2017), and Saints (2022). They, too, have only ever played internationally in London.
Week 6: Jacksonville Jaguars vs Chicago Bears
Location: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, England
A London mainstay, the Jaguars drew two NFL International games this year, as expected. They were in line to win the AFC South again but choked down the stretch and missed out on the festivities. The Bears looked like they had a little life late but they shipped off Justin Fields and will begin a new era with Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze.
Since the Jaguars are one of the younger teams in the NFL, these two teams have only faced off eight times to this point and the Bears sport a 5-3 record. The most recent matchup of the two was back in 2020 where the Bears shellacked the Jaguars, 41-17.
Jacksonville is looking to get back into the thick of things in an uber-competitive AFC South. They added all kinds of LSU talent, headlined by Brian Thomas, Jr. in the first round to give Trevor Lawrence an exciting weapon to go with Christian Kirk and Trevor Etienne. The Bears, meanwhile, are looking to start anew. They only had five draft picks but seemingly hit on all five, led by the top-10 quarterback-receiver duo.
The Jaguars have played the most NFL International Series games with 11 to their name to this point. They own a 6-5 record, all of which took place in London. Chicago, on the other hand, have split its two international games with a win over the Buccaneers in 2011 and a loss to the Raiders in 2019.
Week 7: New England Patriots vs Jacksonville Jaguars
Location: Wembley Stadium, London, England
The following week, the Jaguars suit up yet again, this time against the Patriots. Just like last year, the Jaguars earned back-to-back London games. Hopefully for them this year, they won’t sleepwalk out of the gate and need those back-to-back wins to get back on track.
All-time, the Jaguars and Patriots have faced off nine times in the regular season and five times in the playoffs. The most recent regular season matchup featured a 50-10 Patriots beatdown of the Jaguars. The most recent playoff matchup, however, was that “Myle Jack wasn’t down,” infamous game in 2017-18.
The Patriots are set to kick off a new era themselves after finally cutting ties with failed first-round quarterback, Mac Jones. This year, they’ll be led by North Carolina product, Drake Maye. To help him out, the Patriots took a pair of dynamic receivers to help him out in Ja’lynn Polk and Javon Baker. The latter has been talking himself up to the point of saying he makes “people in wheelchairs stand up” because he’s so exciting. Needless to say, this should be a much-improved New England squad.
To date, New England has been featured in four NFL International games where they’ve won three. The lone loss was last year in Frankfurt, Germany at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts.
Week 10: New York Giants vs Carolina Panthers
Location: Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany
Finally, the lone Germany-based game of the series will feature the Giants and Panthers. On paper, this matchup doesn’t seem like it is one fans back home will want to wake up for.
These two NFC foes have faced off just eight times, all in the regular season. To this point, the Panthers lead, 5-3, and have won each of the last three matchups.
The Giants could have replaced Daniel Jones in the draft but elected to get him an elite new toy in Malik Nabers. Even if the team isn’t quite up to par in 2024, they’ll be fun to watch despite losing Saquon Barkley. The Panthers, on the other hand, are hoping for a second-year jump from former first-overall pick, Bryce Young. The team traded for Diontae Johnson and drafted Xavier Legette, Ja’Tavion Sanders, and Jonathon Brooks to help him out on offense.
The Giants have yet to lose on foreign soil, winning all three London matchups to this point. Something will have to give as the Panthers are also unbeaten internationally. Albeit, their only game was in 2019 in a win over the Buccaneers.
Main Image: Peter van den Berg-USA TODAY Sports
