Let me take a quick look at Strength of Schedule. Apologies for not getting this posted on Monday night (or yesterday), but in that Monday-Tuesday window, the priority is to thoroughly scout each of the 16 games for the pay product. Want to make sure we get all of the rankings and projections prepared with the proper due diligence.

For scheduling this time, I took the win-loss record of each team, then plugged them into the 2015. You add up the wins and losses for each club, and invariably a few interesting results appear.

Starting with the remaining four weeks.

Our beloved Kansas City franchise has an remarkably easy closing run, with the Chargers, Browns, Ravens and Raiders. All four opponents have losing records, and they have a combined mark of 14-34, which is way lower than every other team.

The Lions and Colts are the other two teams with really easy schedules.

On the other end, Atlanta has the hardest remaining slate, with half of its games against the 12-0 Panthers. Baltimore is next in line, as the only team that will play all four of its remaining games against teams that currently have winning records.

The NFC East is still up for grabs, with all four teams in it, so I have put a black dot next to those franchises. Note that in that group, Washington has by far the easiest remaining schedule, while the Giants have the hardest.

On the chart below, I have added a column showing the number of teams with winning records. If a team is 6-6, it doesn’t trigger that column – must be above .500.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE (Weeks 14-17)
Combined win/loss record of remaining opponents
TeamWLPct>.500
Kansas City1434.2920
Detroit1731.3540
Indianapolis1830.3750
• Washington2028.4170
Seattle2028.4171
New Orleans2028.4170
San Francisco2028.4171
New England2127.4381
Buffalo2127.4381
St. Louis2127.4381
Jacksonville2226.4580
Carolina2325.4790
NY Jets2325.4791
Houston2325.4791
Chicago2325.4791
Miami2424.5001
Cincinnati2523.5212
Tampa Bay2523.5211
Denver2523.5212
Cleveland2523.5213
Pittsburgh2622.5422
• Philadelphia2622.5421
• Dallas2622.5422
Green Bay2721.5632
San Diego2721.5632
Arizona2820.5833
Minnesota2820.5832
Oakland2820.5833
Tennessee2919.6042
• NY Giants3018.6252
Baltimore3117.6464
Atlanta3216.6672

With schedules, it can also be useful to look not forward but in the rearview mirror. So I have also totaled up the wins and losses for the first 13 weeks of the reason.

For this one, I have removed each team’s own games. That is, Carolina’s opponents show with a record of 62-70. That’s their record in other games. They are 62-82 overall when you add in their 12 losses to the Panthers. But I leave those games out. Otherwise, the teams with double-digit wins will appear to have played easier schedules, while the crappy teams’ results will be appear to be the result of difficult schedules.

On this one, Atlanta jumps out. The Falcons and Titans have played the league’s easiest schedules. Note that each of these teams have played only one game against an opponent that currently has a winning record. Yet these teams have had lousy seasons anyway. No excuses for those guys.

Kansas City (which has the super easy schedule coming up) has thus far played the league’s hardest schedule. Detroit is just one game back, and it’s played a league-high eight games against teams that currently have winning records.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE (Weeks 1-13)
Combined win-loss records of opponents
TeamWLPct>.500
Atlanta5676.4241
Tennessee5775.4321
Arizona5775.4323
Baltimore5874.4394
NY Jets5973.4471
NY Giants5973.4472
Tampa Bay6072.4551
Miami6072.4553
Cincinnati6171.4624
Carolina6270.4702
Oakland6369.4776
Minnesota6369.4774
Jacksonville6369.4773
San Diego6567.4926
Philadelphia6567.4923
Washington6666.5003
Pittsburgh6765.5085
Denver6765.5085
Dallas6765.5083
Cleveland6765.5086
New England6864.5153
Green Bay6963.5235
Houston7062.5304
Chicago7161.5387
St. Louis7260.5457
New Orleans7260.5453
Buffalo7260.5455
San Francisco7359.5537
Seattle7557.5686
Indianapolis7557.5685
Detroit7656.5768
Kansas City7755.5836

—Ian Allan