The Dolphins should play the easiest schedule in the league early in the year. Or they might have the hardest schedule. (You’re welcome – thought that info might be helpful.)

One of the deals you can look at in a fantasy draft is trying to get a fast start. Collect players, that is, on teams with easy schedules early in the year. So I did as much, looking at the first five games for each team. That’s Weeks 1-5 for most teams. For the teams with byes in there, I used their Week 6 game.

If such a chart is put together using wins and losses, the Dolphins project to play the easiest initial schedule in the league. Their first five opponents went a combined 22-58-0 last year.

Using wins and losses, the Colts, Browns and Bucs also project to play easy early schedules. The Lions, Rams and Vikings project to play the hardest schedules early (if teams play like they did last year).

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE, WINS-LOSSES (Games 1-5)
teamWLTPct
Miami22580.275
Indianapolis27530.338
Cleveland28520.350
Tampa Bay28511.356
Carolina33470.413
Philadelphia33470.413
Houston35441.444
Washington36440.450
Arizona37430.463
Tennessee37430.463
Buffalo39410.488
NY Giants39410.488
Denver40400.500
Green Bay40400.500
NY Jets40400.500
Jacksonville40391.506
Atlanta41390.513
Dallas41390.513
New Orleans42371.531
Cincinnati43370.538
Baltimore43361.544
Oakland44351.556
Seattle44351.556
Pittsburgh45350.563
New England46340.575
San Diego46331.581
Chicago47330.588
San Francisco47330.588
Kansas City48311.606
Minnesota49310.613
St. Louis50300.625
Detroit51290.638

But that’s just one way of looking at it. We can also look at how many points were allowed by those same opponents. And, as luck would have it, Miami’s first five games are against teams that allowed an average of only 18.2 points per game last year – a half point lower than the schedules of any other team.

The Cowboys, Seahawks and Kansas City should see the softest defenses early.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE, POINTS (Games 1-5)
teamPoints
Dallas25.5
Kansas City24.7
Seattle24.1
Philadelphia23.8
Arizona23.7
Minnesota23.3
Atlanta23.3
Buffalo22.9
Pittsburgh22.8
Oakland22.8
NY Giants22.5
San Francisco22.0
Jacksonville21.4
Tampa Bay21.4
Detroit21.2
New England21.1
Washington20.9
Carolina20.9
St. Louis20.7
New Orleans20.6
Baltimore20.3
Houston20.3
San Diego20.3
Denver20.2
Chicago20.0
Tennessee19.5
Cleveland19.3
Cincinnati19.2
Indianapolis19.1
Green Bay18.8
NY Jets18.7
Miami18.2

This first-worst thing isn’t as unusual as you might think. Of the 32 teams, there is only one that ranks in the top 25 percent in both strength of schedule systems (one of the eight easiest both ways) – Philadelphia. Similarly, there’s only one team that’s in the bottom 25 percent both ways (Chicago).

But there are five teams that are in top 25 in one system but the bottom 25 in the other (teams that can claim to have both an easy and hard initial schedule). Dolphins, Colts, Browns, Vikings and Kansas City.

Weird.

And further evidence we should probably all pay less attention to strength of schedule.

—Ian Allan