If you’re a fan of strength of schedule, keep your eyes on the Broncos, Dolphins and Cardinals. They’re the teams that should be seeing the weakest defenses in the next month. For Washington, Cincinnati and Philadelphia, meanwhile, it should be tough sailing ahead.
I check in on scheduling at the start of each week. This time I’m looking at touchdowns allowed by defenses (setting aside those scored on kick and turnover returns – just regular touchdowns). And for this particular chart, I’m looking at the next five games for each team. For some, that’s Weeks 8-12. For those with byes in there, it’s Weeks 8-13.
So, you plug in what defenses have done so far, cross-merge that with the remaining schedules, and what you see is Denver, Miami and Arizona playing their next five against defenses that are currently allowing about 3 TDs per game. That’s a lot (only five offenses last year averaged 3 TDs per game over the season).
Houston, Baltimore and Los Angeles also have favorable upcoming schedules.
At the other end of the scale, you’ve got the offenses facing opponents allowing only about 2 TDs per game. That includes not only Washington, Cincinnati and Philadelphia but also the Falcons, Chargers and Colts.
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE, TOUCHDOWNS (next 5 games) | |
---|---|
Team | TD |
Denver | 2.81 |
Miami | 2.74 |
Arizona | 2.67 |
Houston | 2.61 |
Baltimore | 2.60 |
Los Angeles | 2.55 |
NY Jets | 2.51 |
Carolina | 2.50 |
NY Giants | 2.50 |
Kansas City | 2.50 |
Pittsburgh | 2.46 |
Tennessee | 2.44 |
Dallas | 2.41 |
Tampa Bay | 2.39 |
Minnesota | 2.37 |
New Orleans | 2.35 |
New England | 2.30 |
Buffalo | 2.29 |
Green Bay | 2.24 |
San Francisco | 2.24 |
Chicago | 2.23 |
Oakland | 2.22 |
Seattle | 2.22 |
Cleveland | 2.17 |
Detroit | 2.16 |
Jacksonville | 2.15 |
Indianapolis | 2.12 |
San Diego | 2.08 |
Atlanta | 2.01 |
Philadelphia | 2.00 |
Cincinnati | 1.93 |
Washington | 1.92 |
—Ian Allan