In the NFL, it’s not only who you play, but when you play them. Some teams have easy schedules early in the season. Some teams tend to get their easy games late in the year. Here’s a quick look at both.

Starting with the first half of the season (games 1-8 for each team). The Bucs, Texans, Dolphins and Falcons project to play the easiest schedules, while Kansas City, Pittsburgh and San Francisco project to play the hardest.

On this chart below, if a team has one of the 10 easiest schedules in the second half of the season, I put the team name in bold. If the team has one of the 10 hardest schedules in the second half, they’ve got a black dot in front of their name.

So four teams have top-10 schedules (easy) in both the first and second halves of the season – Houston, Atlanta, Indianapolis and Tennessee.

Five teams have bottom-10 schedules in both the first and second halves of the season.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE (games 1-8)
TeamWLTPct
Tampa Bay44831.348
Houston48791.379
• Miami52760.406
Atlanta52760.406
Indianapolis53741.418
• Washington54740.422
• Cleveland57710.445
NY Jets58700.453
Philadelphia58691.457
Tennessee59690.461
Buffalo60671.473
New England62660.484
Jacksonville62651.488
• Arizona65630.508
New Orleans65621.512
Carolina66620.516
NY Giants68600.531
• Oakland68591.535
Green Bay68591.535
Dallas69590.539
• Cincinnati70580.547
• Denver70580.547
Minnesota71570.555
Baltimore71561.559
San Diego71561.559
• Seattle71552.563
• St. Louis72560.563
Detroit72560.563
Chicago74540.578
San Francisco75530.586
• Pittsburgh75521.590
Kansas City77501.605

Turning our attention to the second half of the season, not that two teams that were in the top 10 in September/October have shifted down to the bottom 4 – Cleveland and Miami. Those are the two big movers.

As mentioned previously, we’ve got four teams that are in the top 10 in both halves, and five teams that are in the bottom 10 in both the first and second halves of the season.

The Saints, Panthers and Cowboys project to play the easiest schedules in November and December.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE (games 9-16)
TeamWLTPct
New Orleans44831.348
Carolina45830.352
Dallas50771.395
Tennessee52751.410
Atlanta52742.414
Indianapolis53750.414
NY Giants54731.426
Jacksonville56720.438
Houston58691.457
New England60680.469
• San Diego61670.477
• Chicago62660.484
• Kansas City62660.484
Philadelphia63650.492
• Detroit63650.492
Buffalo64640.500
Tampa Bay64631.504
• Baltimore66611.520
NY Jets67610.523
Green Bay67610.523
• Minnesota67610.523
Washington68591.535
• Denver68591.535
• San Francisco68591.535
• St. Louis69581.543
Oakland71570.555
• Seattle71570.555
• Pittsburgh72551.566
Miami74540.578
Cincinnati74540.578
Arizona77501.605
Cleveland81452.641

—Ian Allan