Champion Eagles first on schedule
Super Bowl champion Philadelphia will host Atlanta to open the 2018 NFL season Thursday night, Sept. 6.
The Eagles also will play at England’s home of soccer when they take on the Jaguars in Week 8 at Wembley Stadium, one of four international games. The Chargers and Titans play in London, as do the Raiders and Seahawks. The Rams and Chiefs meet in Mexico City.
The schedule has three threegame road trips, down from seven last year. The Saints, Rams and Ravens will have those three-game journeys, but the Ravens and Rams also have three-game homestands. In all, 12 franchises are home for three straight weeks, and Baltimore and Indianapolis have a bye in there, meaning neither club will leave home for a month.
Also, no team plays a road game following a road Monday night game. That occurred last year five times.
The playoffs begin with wildcard weekend, Jan. 5-6. The Super Bowl is Feb. 3 in Atlanta.
Marshall cut: The Giants terminated the contract of receiver Brandon Marshall. General manager Dave Gettleman said the 34-year-old, who was scheduled to make $5 million this season, failed his physical. Marshall signed a two-year, $12 million contract as a free agent a little more than a year ago. He was limited to five games last season by injury.
Freeney to retire: Defensive end Dwight Freeney will retire as a member of the Colts on Monday. Freeney, a seven-time Pro Bowl pick, was Indy’s firstround draft pick in 2002 and stayed through 2012. He is second in Colts’ history with 107½ sacks, trailing only Robert Mathis.
Bears’ new offense: Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky completed his first three-day minicamp running new Chicago head coach Matt Nagy’s offense and came away convinced he would be an ideal fit. The offense uses run-pass options extensively, an approach Trubisky used at North Carolina.
Cardinals sign cornerback: Arizona signed cornerback Marcus Williams, 27, to a oneyear contract. He has appeared in 49 games, 14 as a starter, over four seasons with the Jets and Texans.
Doggie news: The Jaguars plan to be the first NFL team to have a dog park inside the stadium. The 2,000-square-foot area in the south end zone will have artificial turf, a pool and palm trees. Fans can leave their dogs there and go watch the game. Or they can stay in the park with their dogs during the game.