2020 Washington Redskins Season Schedule & Opponents
The 2019 season was not exactly a banner year for the Washington Redskins. The Hogs went 3-13, finishing last in the NFC East and missing the playoffs for the fourth straight season. Longtime head coach Jay Gruden has been fired five games into the season, a move that didn’t exactly help turn things around. However, there is hope that all of that will change in 2020. With former Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera taking over, there is renewed optimism heading into the Washington Redskins preseason for 2020. For fans interested in Redskins tickets for the 2020 season, here is an early look at the opponents the Reds will be facing as Rivera tries to turn things around.
Division Foes
As usual, the Redskins will play a home and home against their three NFC East rivals: the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, and Philadelphia Eagles. Washington has a long-standing rivalry with all three teams, which means these matchups are always high-intensity games regardless of the location of the game or each team’s place in the standings. The good news for the Redskins is that the NFC East was down in 2019. The 9-7 Eagles were the only team in the division to finish with a winning record, which would seem to indicate that all four teams have a lot of room for improvement. Heading into the 2020 season, the NFC East looks wide open, giving the Redskins the opportunity to compete for the division crown if they can make some improvements.
The bad news is that the Redskins went 0-6 inside the NFC East in 2019. Washington even lost both games to the 4-12 Giants. Dating back to the 2018 season, the Redskins have now lost 10 in a row against their division rivals. If they expect to turnaround their fortunes in 2020, the Redskins will need to start beating their NFC East foes, especially when playing them at home.
NFC West
The 2020 NFL schedule will match up the teams from the NFC East with the four teams from the NFC West. That means the Redskins will play the 49ers, Seahawks, Rams, and Cardinals in 2020. At first glance, this is somewhat unfortunate for Washington. Three of the four teams in the NFC West finished the 2019 season with a winning record, including two teams that made the playoffs and reached at least the Divisional Round.
Despite not making the playoffs in 2019, the Rams figure to be a quality team in 2020 just two years after playing in the Super Bowl. Even the Cardinals, the only losing team in the NFC West last season, could be much-improved next season after a promising rookie season from quarterback Kyler Murray. The Redskins will welcome both the Rams and Seahawks to FedEx Field during the 2020 season. Washington could get a slight edge from playing a pair of West Coast teams on the East Coast. Meanwhile, they will head out to the West coast twice to face both the 49ers and Cardinals on the road.
AFC North
Next year’s schedule will also see Washington and the rest of the NFC East teams paired with the AFC North. On the surface, this could make for a manageable set of games, as there was only one team in the AFC North that finished the 2019 season with a winning record. Of course, that team was the 14-2 Baltimore Ravens, who is Washington’s regional rival along the Beltway. They are likely to be a difficult opponent while the Steelers and Browns could both be better in 2020 than their 2019 record indicates.
Pittsburgh is hoping to get veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger back from injury, which could improve their 2020 outlook. The Browns, meanwhile, are hopeful that a new coach can help get them on track after underachieving in 2019. Finally, Bengals are a wild card in that division, as they will receive the top pick in the 2020 Draft and could rebuild quickly. The Redskins will host the Beltway rivalry game against the Ravens in 2020. They will also get a chance to host the Bengals in a battle of last-place teams from 2019. However, the Redskins will have to travel to both Pittsburgh and Cleveland for road games in raucous environments.
Battle of the Bottom
The silver lining of the Redskins finishing last in the NFC East in 2019 is that their 2020 schedule will include two extra games against teams that also finished last in their division during the 2019 season. Those games will be a home date with the Carolina Panthers and a road game against the Detroit Lions.
Both are teams that the Redskins could potentially beat. The game with the Panthers will reunite Rivera with his old team. Carolina is a team at a crossroads heading into 2020 with Matt Rhule replacing Rivera as head coach and uncertainty surrounding franchise quarterback Cam Newton, who missed most of 2019 due to injury. As for the Lions, they also had a disappointing 2019 season in part because their starting quarterback was injured. They will try to bounce back, although head coach Matt Patricia will surely begin the season on the hot seat.