Patriots 2018 preseason schedule has a familiar look

The Patriots 2018 preseason slate was released Wednesday afternoon, and it looks an awful lot like it does every year.

New England will meet Washington (Week 1) and Philadelphia (Week 2) at home and travel for road games in Carolina (Week 3) and the New York Giants (Week 4) this preseason, the league announced Wednesday afternoon. The dates and times will be announced at a later date.

BSJ analysis: What are some potential highlights of the preseason schedule?


Some of New England’s most popular preseason opponents highlight the slate, including the traditional preseason finale with the Giants. (The two franchises have met in the last preseason game of the season every year since 2005.) The Patriots and Panthers have met seven times in the preseason since Bill Belichick took over in 2000. This will be the eighth time that New England and Washington have met in the preseason in the Belichick Era. And the Patriots and Eagles have played nine times in the preseason since 2000.

Week 2 will be one of the more eventful preseason games in recent memory in Foxborough, as the Patriots and Eagles will meet in a rematch of Super Bowl LII. (For New England, it’ll be a replay of the 2012 preseason finale — New England and New York met in Super Bowl XLVI and then again in the summer of 2012.)

No word yet on whether or not there will be joint practices this summer, but those sessions usually occur the second and/or third week of the preseason. A potential series of joint workouts with two of the defending conference champions in Foxborough would certainly draw some sizable crowds to training camp this summer.

As for the regular-season schedule, that is expected to be released next week.