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2020 NFL strength of schedule: Colts have the easiest ride, while Falcons face tough tests

The 2020 NFL schedule release is just around the corner. We’ll find out later this week exactly when and where each of the regular season’s (hopefully) 256 games will be played, but we actually already know a lot about the schedule for the 2020 season. Because of the way the NFL creates its schedule, we already know each and every matchup that will take place during the season. And because we know the matchups, we can take a look ahead and figure out which of the league’s 32 teams has the easiest schedule, and which has the toughest. 

In case you need a reminder, the schedule since 2002 has worked the same way. Every team plays 16 games as follows:

  • Home and away against its three division opponents (six games).
  • The four teams from another division within its conference on a rotating three-year cycle (four games).
  • The four teams from a division in the other conference on a rotating four-year cycle (four games).
  • Two intra-conference games based on the prior year’s standings (two games). These games match a first-place team against the first-place teams in the two same-conference divisions that the team is not scheduled to play that season. The second-place, third-place, and fourth-place teams in a conference are matched in the same way each year.
  • Beginning in 2010, a change was made to how teams are paired in the schedule rotation to ensure that teams playing the AFC West and NFC West divisions would not be required to make two West Coast trips (e.g., at Los Angeles Chargers and at Raiders), while other teams in their division had none (e.g., at Kansas City and at Denver).

Take the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, for example. They’re in the AFC West, so they have three games each against the Broncos, Chargers, and Raiders. This year, the AFC West plays against the AFC East and NFC South, so the Chiefs will also take on the Bills, Dolphins, Patriots, Jets, Falcons, Panthers, Saints and Buccaneers. And finally, because the Chiefs won their division, they’ll also play the division winners from the AFC North (Ravens) and AFC South (Texans). That’s their full 16-game schedule. 

(Here’s a link to a list of every home and away opponent that each team will play in 2020.)

In order to figure out exactly how tough that schedule is, we turned to our friends at William Hill, who have set each team’s win total over-under for the 2020 season. Using those over-unders gives us a better idea of how those teams are expected to do in 2020 than does using their records from 2019. The Patriots don’t have Tom Brady anymore, so why should we count them as a 12-win team when Vegas expects they’ll come in somewhere around 9.5, right? 

Without further ado, here are the strength of schedule rankings for the 2020 NFL season, according to the combined win total over-unders for each team’s opponents. 

(In the chart below O/U is that team’s win total over-under for the 2020 season and SOS is their strength of schedule based on opponent over-unders. For reference, the Colts have the easiest schedule and the Falcons have the most difficult schedule.)

Rank Team O/U SOS
1 IND 8.5 0.480
2 TEN 8.5 0.488
T-3 BAL 11.5 0.494
T-3 CHI 8.5 0.494
T-3 CLE 8.5 0.494
T-3 LAC 7.5 0.494
7 DET 6.5 0.498
T-8 KC 11.5 0.500
T-8 PIT 9 0.500
10 DAL 9.5 0.502
T-11 MIA 6 0.504
T-11 SEA 9.5 0.504
T-11 TB 9.5 0.504
14 MIN 9 0.506
15 SF 10.5 0.508
T-16 ARI 6.5 0.510
T-16 GB 9 0.510
T-16 HOU 8 0.510
T-16 JAX 4.5 0.510
T-20 NE 9 0.514
T-20 PHI 9.5 0.514
T-22 BUF 9 0.516
T-22 CIN 5 0.516
T-22 NO 10.5 0.516
T-22 WAS 5.5 0.516
26 LAR 8.5 0.518
27 LV 7.5 0.521
T-28 CAR 5.5 0.523
T-28 DEN 7.5 0.523
30 NYJ 6.5 0.527
31 NYG 6.5 0.531
32 ATL 7.5 0.535

The two easiest schedules in the league belong to a pair of teams in the AFC South, by virtue of their playing in the worst division in the NFL (the AFC South has a projected combined winning percentage of just 0.461) and playing against the second-worst NFC division (the NFC North has a projected combined winning percentage of 0.516, ahead of only the NFC East). 

At the other end of the spectrum, the Falcons play in the NFL’s toughest division (the NFC South has a projected combined winning percentage of 0.547) and play against the best AFC division (the AFC West has a projected combined winning percentage of 0.531); and unlike the Panthers, who get to play against Washington and Arizona by virtue of having finished in fourth place last season, the Falcons have to play the Cowboys and Seahawks after coming in second a year ago. 

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