At the start of the season, there was a lot of talk about team travel for international games as the Rams played the 49ers in Australia.
The two teams employed vastly different strategies, with San Francisco appearing to choose the proper one.
While there is a lot more data about NFL team travel to London, there are still varying approaches to it. With the Eagles playing the Jaguars in London on Sunday, head coach Nick Sirianni detailed his club’s plan for the week in his Monday press conference.
“We felt like leaving Friday was best for our team,” Sirianni said. “This team and with the schedule that we have, with the weeks coming up. So, a lot of research, obviously, went into it. You guys know, when I’ve discussed these things with you about short weeks, long weeks, rain weeks, hot weeks — whatever it may be — international weeks, of how to kind of go about it. This one’s a little different than our last international trip because it was in the first game of the season [in 2024]. And we’re trying to get a full week’s worth of practice in before we go up there.
“But we felt like, though the studies that we did, and through some of the things that we looked all — all the things that we looked at, we decided on this. And at the end of the day, I’ve got to make those decisions, and this is the decision I chose — with the help of great people, no doubt, but at the end of the day, I have to make this decision and this is the one I chose to help this team get ready for this game this week.”
Any concern about jet lag with traveling late in the week?
“Yeah, again, we went through all this,” Sirianni said. “When we get there, I don’t want to get into too many specifics there, but like I said, we feel like this is going our team the best chance to win, taking everything into account — jet lag included.”
As Sirianni alluded to, the last time the Eagles played an international game was Week 1 in 2024 when they defeated the Packers in Brazil. The franchise also played the Jags in London back in 2018, winning that game 24-18.