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Strength of schedule

Eagles, Broncos hamstrung by unusually hard schedules

I’ve got the 2016 difficulty of schedule numbers in front of me, and a couple of teams stand out: Eagles and Broncos. Both of those teams, I thought, were adversely affected by really hard schedules. Those could be teams that are flying under the radar entering the upcoming season.

With the Eagles, they have to play six games against Dallas, Washington and the Giants – those are all good teams. And Denver had a similar thing going in the West, with Kansas City, Oakland and the Chargers.

Looking at the numbers for the last 10 years, I see only a handful of teams that have played harder schedules.

On the figures here, they’re adjusted numbers. That is, they don’t include team’s own games. That is, Denver’s opponents went 140-115-1 – 7-9 against the Broncos, and 133-106-1 against the rest of the league. I leave out those in-house games; otherwise it always looks like a 14-2 team like New England has played an easy schedule, while a lesser team like 1-15 Cleveland was done in by bad luck.

HARDEST SCHEDULES, LAST 10 YEARS
YearTeamWLTPct
2010Cincinnati1371030.571
2011St. Louis1371030.571
2007Philadelphia1361040.567
2010Buffalo1361040.567
2007Washington1351050.563
2010Cleveland1351050.563
2013Tampa Bay1351050.563
2016Philadelphia1321034.561
2008Cleveland1331043.560
2009Miami1341060.558
2016Denver1331061.556
2010Carolina1331070.554
2012Detroit1321062.554
2014Oakland1331070.554
2012Arizona1301064.550
2013St. Louis1321080.550
2011Detroit1311090.546
2008Pittsburgh1291083.544
2014Seattle1301091.544
2007Chicago1301100.542
2007Detroit1301100.542
2008Cincinnati1301100.542
2009Carolina1301100.542
2009Tennessee1301100.542
2011Minnesota1301100.542
2013Arizona1301100.542
2015Chicago1301100.542
2015Green Bay1301100.542

—Ian Allan

Fantasy Index