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Strength of schedule

Updated totals with Week 17 games removed

The schedule came out about a week back. That’s not a gigantic deal, since we’ve all known all along which teams would be playing which opponents and where. It’s really just the order of the games that was revealed. But there was one factor I wanted to circle back and address.

For fantasy purposes, Week 17 is largely a throwaway. Most leagues are done at that time. So one of the most important factors for those leagues is those game. If you’re drafting a player, you want him to have that hardest, least desirable game in Week 17. Similarly, you don’t want to miss that cupcake opponent.

A few teams that come to mind:

Atlanta: Misses out on home game against Saints. That’s a downgrade (Falcons project to have hardest schedule overall).

Oakland/San Antonio/Las Vegas: They play at Denver in Week 17, which is a huge plus. Raiders have an offense on the rise, and their projected worst game is on the road against that tough Broncos defense. They duck that one.

Pittsburgh: Miss a home game against the Browns. That’s bad.

Seattle: On the road at San Francisco. Seahawks usually struggle against the Rams’ talented defensive line, so if you were picking, you would prefer to have them playing the Rams in Week 17 (but Rams are playing Cardinals in other NFC West game).

Chicago: Bears duck a road game at Minnesota, helping them move up into the No. 1 spot, with the league’s easiest schedule.

Here are the revised numbers, showing the Weeks 1-16 totals. The final column “previous” shows the rank using all 17 weeks.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE, Wins (Weeks 1-16)
TeamWLPctPrevious
Chicago107133.4463-4
NY Giants109131.4543-4
Detroit109131.4545-6
Dallas110130.4581-2
Green Bay110130.4581-2
Tennessee112128.4678-10
Baltimore112128.46713-14
Jacksonville113127.4718-10
Cleveland113127.47112
Cincinnati114126.4755-6
Philadelphia116124.4837
Oakland116124.48318
Indianapolis117123.48811
Pittsburgh118122.4928-10
Minnesota119121.49615
San Diego119121.49620
Washington120120.50016
Miami120120.50022
Houston121119.50413-14
Denver122118.50819
Kansas City123117.51317
Buffalo123117.51323
Tampa Bay124116.51727-28
Carolina125115.52121
New England128112.53324
NY Jets128112.53325-26
Los Angeles128112.53330
Arizona129111.53825-26
New Orleans132108.55029
San Francisco132108.55031-32
Seattle134106.55827-28
Atlanta135105.56331-32

If you prefer points allowed rather than wins, it works out this week.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE, Points (Weeks 1-16)
TeamPointsPrevious
Dallas24.71
Chicago24.03
Detroit23.75
Minnesota23.72
Tennessee23.58
Green Bay23.54
San Diego23.511
Baltimore23.514
NY Giants23.36
Oakland23.217
Kansas City23.29
Houston23.010
Washington23.07
Cincinnati23.013
Cleveland22.919
Denver22.915
Philadelphia22.916
Pittsburgh22.912
Jacksonville22.718
Los Angeles22.523
Carolina22.421
Indianapolis22.320
Tampa Bay22.324
Atlanta22.122
New Orleans22.026
Buffalo21.927
Seattle21.825
Arizona21.729
Miami21.530
San Francisco21.531
NY Jets21.428
New England21.032

—Ian Allan

Fantasy Index