We're nearing the halfway point of the season, so Strength of Schedule information is now becoming more accurate. Teams have played enough games that it's clear which teams are good and which teams are bad. So we can look at the remaining slate of games and determine which teams should benefit from scheduling.
The Lions, Seahawks and Packers project to play the easiest schedules. Their opponents all have a combined win-loss record under 40 percent. (That's for the 9-10 games in Weeks 8-17).
The Chargers project to play the hardest schedule (with four games against Kansas City and Denver) followed by St. Louis and Denver.
| STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE -- WINS (Weeks 8-17) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | W | L | Pct |
| Detroit | 22 | 37 | .373 |
| Seattle | 23 | 36 | .390 |
| Green Bay | 26 | 40 | .394 |
| San Francisco | 24 | 34 | .414 |
| Tennessee | 26 | 36 | .419 |
| Philadelphia | 25 | 34 | .424 |
| Indianapolis | 28 | 35 | .444 |
| Dallas | 26 | 32 | .448 |
| Jacksonville | 29 | 34 | .460 |
| Cincinnati | 28 | 32 | .467 |
| Arizona | 29 | 33 | .468 |
| Houston | 29 | 33 | .468 |
| New England | 28 | 31 | .475 |
| Buffalo | 28 | 30 | .483 |
| Chicago | 29 | 31 | .483 |
| Carolina | 31 | 32 | .492 |
| New Orleans | 33 | 33 | .500 |
| Washington | 34 | 34 | .500 |
| NY Jets | 30 | 28 | .517 |
| Oakland | 36 | 33 | .522 |
| Miami | 35 | 32 | .522 |
| Pittsburgh | 35 | 32 | .522 |
| Cleveland | 32 | 29 | .525 |
| NY Giants | 31 | 28 | .525 |
| Atlanta | 34 | 30 | .531 |
| Baltimore | 33 | 28 | .541 |
| Tampa Bay | 37 | 28 | .569 |
| Kansas City | 35 | 26 | .574 |
| Minnesota | 39 | 28 | .582 |
| Denver | 36 | 25 | .590 |
| St. Louis | 37 | 24 | .607 |
| San Diego | 39 | 21 | .650 |
We can also look at what teams have seen so far. That can help us determine if teams have been helped or hurt by scheduling. Kansas City, for example, seems to have been helped by a soft schedule. It's seven games have been against teams that are a combined 15-33 (that's 0-7 against Kansas City, and 15-26 against the rest of the league, which is what you see below).
Minnesota and St. Louis also have played easy schedules, but they've had lousy seasons anyway -- so there's some double whammy action. No excuse for how poorly those teams have played.
(Note: there's actually some time still left in the Monday night game, but it looks like the Giants are going to win this one, so I'm going ahead and jumping the gun on this post.)
The four AFC South teams have played the hardest schedules (in large part, I think) because they've all played both Seattle and San Francisco from the NFC West -- two teams that are a combined 11-3.
| STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE -- WINS (Weeks 1-7) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | W | L | Pct |
| Jacksonville | 26 | 15 | .634 |
| Tennessee | 26 | 15 | .634 |
| Houston | 26 | 16 | .619 |
| Indianapolis | 24 | 16 | .600 |
| San Francisco | 24 | 17 | .585 |
| Cincinnati | 23 | 17 | .575 |
| Green Bay | 20 | 15 | .571 |
| Oakland | 20 | 15 | .571 |
| Arizona | 22 | 17 | .564 |
| Dallas | 23 | 18 | .561 |
| Buffalo | 22 | 18 | .550 |
| NY Giants | 22 | 18 | .550 |
| New England | 21 | 18 | .538 |
| Miami | 18 | 16 | .529 |
| Philadelphia | 20 | 20 | .500 |
| Washington | 17 | 17 | .500 |
| Seattle | 20 | 21 | .488 |
| Baltimore | 19 | 20 | .487 |
| Cleveland | 19 | 20 | .487 |
| Detroit | 19 | 20 | .487 |
| Atlanta | 16 | 17 | .485 |
| New Orleans | 16 | 17 | .485 |
| Tampa Bay | 16 | 18 | .471 |
| Pittsburgh | 16 | 19 | .457 |
| Chicago | 17 | 21 | .447 |
| NY Jets | 17 | 22 | .436 |
| Denver | 17 | 24 | .415 |
| Carolina | 14 | 21 | .400 |
| San Diego | 16 | 25 | .390 |
| St. Louis | 15 | 25 | .375 |
| Kansas City | 15 | 26 | .366 |
| Minnesota | 12 | 22 | .353 |
--Ian Allan

