New Orleans and Carolina are both 10-4. Tennessee is 8-6. But the gap between those teams is a lot larger than just two games. Consider the difficulty of these teams schedules.

New Orleans and Carolina have played the league’s hardest schedules. Their opponents have gone a combined 105-77 in their other games. Tennessee, meanwhile, has benefitted from playing the league’s easiest schedule. Their 14 games have been played against teams that have gone a combined 72-110 against the rest of the league.

Other teams that have played hard schedules: Washington and Chicago.

Other teams that have benefited from easy schedules: Jacksonville and Cincinnati.

On these, I have removed each team’s 14 games. Philadelphia, for example, shows at 84-98. They’re opponents are actually 86-110 – 2-12 against the Eagles, and 84-98 against the rest of the league.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE (Weeks 1-15)
TeamWLPct
New Orleans10577.577
Carolina10577.577
Washington10478.571
Chicago10478.571
Miami9983.544
Atlanta9983.544
Minnesota9785.533
Tampa Bay9686.527
New England9686.527
NY Giants9488.516
LA Rams9488.516
Pittsburgh9389.511
Green Bay9389.511
NY Jets9290.505
Kansas City9290.505
Detroit9191.500
Arizona9191.500
Seattle8993.489
Houston8993.489
LA Chargers8894.484
Buffalo8894.484
Oakland8795.478
Indianapolis8696.473
Cleveland8696.473
San Francisco8597.467
Denver8597.467
Baltimore8597.467
Philadelphia8498.462
Dallas8498.462
Cincinnati81101.445
Jacksonville78104.429
Tennessee72110.396

There are only two weeks left, but for that limited time period, Pittsburgh, Washington and Baltimore project to play the easiest schedules.

Five teams tie for the hardest remaining schedules, and three of them are playoff contenders (Atlanta, Dallas, Tennessee).

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE (Weeks 16-17)
TeamWLPct
Pittsburgh424.143
Washington721.250
Baltimore820.286
Arizona1018.357
Minnesota1117.393
LA Chargers1117.393
Kansas City1117.393
Chicago1117.393
NY Giants1216.429
LA Rams1216.429
Jacksonville1216.429
Indianapolis1216.429
Detroit1216.429
New Orleans1315.464
New England1315.464
Carolina1315.464
Seattle1414.500
Philadelphia1414.500
Houston1414.500
Denver1414.500
Cleveland1513.536
Miami1612.571
Cincinnati1612.571
Buffalo1711.607
NY Jets1810.643
Oakland199.679
Green Bay199.679
Tennessee208.714
Tampa Bay208.714
San Francisco208.714
Dallas208.714
Atlanta208.714

—Ian Allan