Who Has the Hardest NFL Schedule in 2020?

It’s no secret that the 2020 NFL schedule is going to be a tough one for some teams. Who has the hardest schedule?

Introduction

The NFL schedule for the 2020 season has been released, and there are some interesting storylines to watch. Who has the hardest schedule? Who has the easiest schedule? Let’s take a look at some of the schedules and see what we can find.

The first thing we notice is that there are some teams with significantly harder schedules than others. The New England Patriots, for example, have a very tough schedule. They have to play the Baltimore Ravens, the Houston Texans, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Pittsburgh Steelers – all of whom are playoff teams from last year. The Patriots also have to play the Buffalo Bills, who are a division rival and always tough to beat.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They have a relatively easy schedule, with only two playoff teams from last year on their schedule (the Saints and the 49ers). They also get to play the Lions and Giants – two teams who are not expected to be very good this year.

So, who has the hardest NFL schedule in 2020? It’s hard to say for sure, but it certainly looks like it could be the New England Patriots.

The teams with the hardest schedules in 2020

In 2020, the NFL schedule makers did not do any teams any favors. A lot of teams have very difficult schedules that will test them early and often. Let’s take a look at the teams with the hardest schedules in 2020.

New England Patriots

The New England Patriots have the hardest schedule in 2020, according to an analysis by NFL.com. The Patriots’ opponents have a combined winning percentage of .579, which is the highest of any team in the league.

The Patriots’ schedule includes seven games against teams that made the playoffs last season: the Buffalo Bills (twice), Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Texans, Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams. The Patriots also have four games against teams that finished below .500 last season: the Miami Dolphins (twice), New York Jets and Denver Broncos.

The Patriots’ opponents have a combined winning percentage of .579, which is the highest of any team in the league. The Patriots’ schedule includes seven games against teams that made the playoffs last season: the Buffalo Bills (twice), Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Texans, Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams. The Patriots also have four games against teams that finished below .500 last season: the Miami Dolphins (twice), New York Jets and Denver Broncos.

Green Bay Packers

The Packers have the misfortune of playing in the NFC North, which produced two playoff teams in 2019. They’ll also face the AFC South, which sent three of its four teams to the playoffs. In non-divisional games, they travel to play the 49ers, who were one win away from the Super Bowl last season.

New Orleans Saints

The New Orleans Saints have one of the hardest schedules in 2020, due largely to the fact that they have to play six games against teams that made the playoffs last year.

They’ll start the season with a tough matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who will be looking to prove that their 12-4 record from last year was no fluke. The Saints will then have to face the Green Bay Packers, who are always a tough opponent, followed by the Houston Texans, another team that made the playoffs last year.

After that, the Saints will have a bye week, but they’ll come back to face another playoff team from last year in the Minnesota Vikings. They’ll then have a stretch of three winnable games against the Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions, and Chicago Bears before finishing the season with two more tough games against the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams.

All told, it’s a tough schedule for the Saints, but if they can manage to go .500 or better in their six games against playoff teams from last year, they should be in good shape to make a run at another NFC South title.

Los Angeles Rams

With the release of the NFL’s 2020 schedule, we can now take a look at which teams have the most difficult roads ahead. No team has an easy path to the playoffs, but some clubs will have to overcome more obstacles than others.

Using a few different metrics, we can try to determine which NFL teams have the hardest schedules in 2020. One metric is strength of schedule, which measures the combined win percentage of a team’s opponents. Another is average opponent winning percentage, which measures the average number of wins for each team’s opponents.

Let’s take a look at a few teams that have difficult roads ahead in 2020:
-Los Angeles Rams: The Rams have the second-hardest strength of schedule in 2020 (.539), and their opponents have an average winning percentage of .512. They’ll face tough divisional opponents in the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers, as well as non-divisional foes like the Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Baltimore Ravens.

-Seattle Seahawks: The Seahawks have the fifth-hardest strength of schedule in 2020 (.531), and their opponents have an average winning percentage of .509. In addition to their tough divisional matchups against the Rams and 49ers, they’ll also face non-divisional opponents like the New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles, and Green Bay Packers.

-San Francisco 49ers: The 49ers have the eighth-hardest strength of schedule in 2020 (.526), and their opponents have an average winning percentage of .506. They’ll face tough divisional foes in the Seahawks and Rams, as well as non-divisional foes like the New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Buffalo Bills.

The teams with the easiest schedules in 2020

The 2020 NFL season is set to begin in September, and teams are already preparing for their first games. One important part of the preparations is looking at the opposing teams’ schedules. This can give you an idea of how difficult your road to the playoffs will be. In this article, we’ll take a look at the teams with the easiest schedules in 2020.

Cincinnati Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals have the easiest schedule in 2020, based on the winning percentage of their opponents from last season. Seven of their opponents finished below .500 in 2019, including the New York Jets, Miami Dolphins, and Washington Redskins. They also have a pair of games each against the AFC North’s Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns, who both struggled last season.

Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions have the easiest NFL schedule in 2020, according to an analysis by NFL.com.

The Lions’ opponents have a combined record of just 107-133-2, which is a winning percentage of only .447. That’s the lowest win percentage of any team in the league.

The Lions also have the benefit of playing seven games against teams that finished below .500 last season. That includes four games against teams that had losing records in 2019 (Cardinals, Giants, Panthers, and Redskins).

The Lions’ schedule does get tougher as the season progresses, however. They have five games against teams that made the playoffs last season (Buccaneers, Packers, Saints, Steelers, and Vikings), including four on the road. But if they can get through that stretch unscathed, they should be in good shape to make a run at the playoffs.

Miami Dolphins

The 2020 NFL schedule was released on Thursday night, and there are already a few teams breathing a sigh of relief.

The Miami Dolphins have the easiest schedule in the league, according to ESPN’s Football Power Index. The FPI gives the Dolphins a 73 percent chance of winning each of their games, which is the highest percentage in the NFL.

The dolphins’ opponents have a combined winning percentage of just .438, which is the lowest in the league. The New York Jets (.457), Cincinnati Bengals (.469), and Arizona Cardinals (.473) are also among the teams with the easiest schedules.

On the other side of the spectrum, the San Francisco 49ers have the hardest schedule in 2020. The FPI gives them just a 47 percent chance of winning each of their games, which is the lowest percentage in the NFL.

The 49ers’ opponents have a combined winning percentage of .578, which is the highest in the league. The Seattle Seahawks (.563), Los Angeles Rams (.559), and Dallas Cowboys (.554) are also among the teams with the hardest schedules.

Arizona Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals have the NFL’s easiest schedule in 2020. Based on the collective winning percentage of their opponents from last season, the Cardinals’ slate is only the second-easiest since the NFL expanded to a 16-game schedule in 1978.

The Cardinals’ opponents went a combined 129-127-0 (.504) in 2019. That includes seven games against teams that had winning records and nine against teams that made the playoffs.

Still, it’s not all doom and gloom for the Cardinals. They do have some favorable matchups, particularly on offense. They’ll face five of the bottom 10 defenses in the league in terms of yards allowed per game, and four of the bottom 10 in points allowed per game. They’ll also get to play two games each against the NFC West’s bottom two teams from last season, the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams.

Conclusion

When it’s all said and done, the 2020 NFL schedule seems to be pretty fair. While some teams may have a slightly harder road than others, there doesn’t seem to be any team that has a completely unfair advantage. So, all we can do now is sit back and enjoy the 2020 season!